Bluetooth is set to get easier to use with PCs this year as Microsoft and Apple Computer both integrate the short-range wireless technology into their client operating systems and vendors unveil a variety of new devices.
The arrival of native Bluetooth implementations for the Windows XP and Macintosh OS X 10.2 operating systems, if they work well, probably will help pull Bluetooth adoption out of a slow start, according to some analysts.
Because different vendors have worked with the Bluetooth specification in different ways, users have faced interoperability problems. Device makers are likely to rally around the new implementations for PC-oriented products, making users more confident their products will work with others, analysts and industry participants say.
Bluetooth is designed as a small, low-power, low-cost technology for transmitting data among devices within a person's work area or carried on the body. It has a maximum carrying capacity of 768Kbps over a distance of 10 meters.
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