Signature - Q1, 2008 - (Page 28) Bluetooth Technology 101 | By Jackie Zack | Illustration by Nik Shulz | Q1 ’08 In keeping with its goal of complete personal connectivity, the Bluetooth SIG offers an innovative way to merge Bluetooth wireless technology with the Internet. TransSend makes it possible to wirelessly transfer Web content from a Bluetooth enabled computer to a Bluetooth enabled mobile device, such as a cell phone or PDA, with just a few mouse clicks. You can use TransSend to transfer a host of useful information. “What’s great about TransSend is you can highlight information off almost any Web page that you want and have it sent directly to your phone,” says Kevin Keating, senior marketing manager for the Bluetooth SIG. “It’s a great application for hotels and restaurants, tourism sites and sports teams, if they want to make it easy for visitors to send directions, phone numbers, schedules and photos from Web sites directly to visitors’ mobile phones.” TransSend can be downloaded, free of charge, from Bluetooth.com. Using the application is also free of charge; unlike text messaging, this application doesn’t use network minutes or incur per-message fees. The application supports OBEX standard formats – vCal (calendar entries), vCard (contact and address information) and vNote (text) – as well as plain text (.txt) and standard Internet image formats (.jpg, .bmp, .gif and .png). Using TransSend The Web Your Way You can send a new restaurant’s map from a Web site to your cell phone, or transfer information about an upcoming event to your PDA’s appointment calendar. Need to sync? Update your address book from an online directory. All this and more is possible with TransSend from the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. It’s easy, fast – and free. Experience More All you need is a Bluetooth enabled PC running Windows XP and one of the following Bluetooth technology software stacks: Broadcom/Widcomm (4.0 or higher), Microsoft or Toshiba (3.20 or higher). If your computer isn’t Bluetooth enabled, you can use a Bluetooth enabled USB dongle instead. Several manufacturers offer dongles that can be plugged into any desktop or notebook computer to synchronize it with other Bluetooth enabled devices. Transferring information from a Web page to a mobile device is seamless. Some Web pages feature a TransSend button: One click and the information is automatically sent to your phone or PDA. (Bluetooth SIG member companies can easily integrate TransSend with their Web sites free of charge by installing the Developer Edition. For information, log in to Bluetooth.org, click on “The SIG Community” and then click on “TransSend.”) For Web sites that don’t feature a TransSend logo, simply highlight the information you want, right-click on it, select the “TransSend to device via Bluetooth” option and then select the correct data format to transfer the information to your device. With either method, your computer will open a “TransSend to Bluetooth Device” window and display all devices that have been discovered or recently paired with the PC. You can also click on the “Additional Devices” button to search for other devices within range. Select the device you want to use and TransSend will quickly deliver the content. Need help locating the information once you’ve completed the TransSend operation? Visit Bluetooth.com, click “Apply,” select “TransSend” and click “Where’s My Stuff?” Select the make and model of the device you are using to find out where TransSend data is located. “The beauty of the technology is that it’s very simple,” says Keating. “If you are one of those people who now prints out directions or has phone numbers sent to you by text message, this is an application you will want to try.” Jackie Zack is a Michigan-based business and technical writer. 28 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://Bluetooth.com http://Bluetooth.org http://Bluetooth.com http://Bluetooth.org
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