Bluetooth devices are very popular these days. Bluetooth itself isn't exactly the most widely used wireless technology, but it's not far from it, either. This technology allows us to share multimedia files at the push of a button. Imagine a group of friends having fun. One of them captures a funny photo with his camera phone and the others want it too. Now, instead of having to find a computer, connecting the mobile phone using the data cable you don't have on you and having to go through tens of steps just to share a photo, you could just activate your Bluetooth module and and in a few seconds the photo will be sent to all your friends' (Bluetooth enabled) phones.

The last improvement to this technology was implemented in July 2007 and was tagged as Bluetooth 2.1. A period of one years with no upgrades/updates for a certain technology is not exactly very normal in the world of IT. But it looks like we'll have to wait for another 6 months until the next iteration of Bluetooth is going to see the light of day.

On paper, the technology will be called Bluetooth 2.2 (no kidding?), but consumers will most likely know it as Bluetooth 10X and 100X. The technology will work in conjunction with Wi-Fi and UWB (Wireless USB) in order to provide the aforementioned speeds. First generation Bluetooth 2.2 phones will use 10X speed by aid of WLAN, since there are already a lot of models with WLAN specifications. It's weird that I haven't yet heard about a UWB-equipped device.

Users have high hopes that lag and low transfer speeds will become something of the past with the new specifications and that video streaming will be done via Bluetooth too. I doubt this, especially seeing how far behind Bluetooth 2.1 is compared to Wi-Fi, but again, 2 years is a long time in the I world of IT, who knows? Maybe we'll see some surprises.


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