Blue5 to Debut Soon

Posted By: Ed on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 11:07:11 AM

TDK Systems is going to release the Blue5 by the end of this month. This is a snap-on Bluetooth attachment that will work with the Palm V and Vx. When a Bluetooth link is established to a GPRS mobile phone, the Palm will be connected to the Internet at a maximum speed of 44 kBit (fixed connection). TDK Systems is expected to offer the Blue5 at about $200.

The Blue5 has a range of up to 30 feet, free sight. It weighs .91 ounces (tdb) and is 1.94 by 3.48 by 0.46 inches.

TDK Systems, part of TDK, is also going to demo it at next week's PCExpo in New York. The Blue5 was developed by Tactel AB in Sweden, who demonstrated it at the recent Bluetooth Congress.

In addition to mobile phones, it can also be used to connect to network access points or laptops. However, there are few of these on the market. No Bluetooth capable phones are available yet in the U.S. and the list of other Bluetooth-capable products is still quite short.

Still, more product announcements are expected over the coming months. Palm itself has announced that they will be offering a Bluetooth SD card for $150 by the end of this year. Sony also plans to release a $125 MemoryStick with Bluetooth capabilities soon.

Bluetooth is still in a chicken-and-egg situation. There seems little point in releasing Bluetooth-capable peripherals until there are handhelds and laptops that can use them. But there seems little point in adding Bluetooth to the laptops or handhelds until there are peripherals for them to use it with.

Also, the price for Bluetooth hardware hasn't dropped as quickly as the Bluetooth SIG hoped it would. They have a price target of $5 for the actual Bluetooth equipment. The high prices for the first Bluetooth-capable devices demonstrates that this is still well in the future.

About Bluetooth
Bluetooth is the name of a short-range radio frequency (RF) technology that replaces cables. Bluetooth allows computers, peripherals, and other devices to communicate with each other without having a physical connection, or direct line-of-sight with each other, and without needing extra communication protocols. Bluetooth technology operates at 2.4 GHz and is capable of transmitting voice and data. The effective range of Bluetooth devices is 32 feet (10 meters). Bluetooth transfers data at the rate of 1 Mbps, which is from three to eight times the average speed of parallel and serial ports, respectively. Bluetooth technology allows users to create a PAN (Personal Area Network) in which they can synchronize data with handhelds and PCs, and access data and E-mail on handhelds remotely with the use of a Bluetooth enabled cellular phone.

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Article Comments
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Price for Blue5

Ed @ 6/20/2001 11:09:27 AM #

Let me say this before anyone else gets a chance: $200!! Prices for Bluetooth products are really going to have to drop before they can start to catch on.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

RE: Price for Blue5

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/20/2001 11:16:08 AM #

Japan is soon undergoing a *major* Bluetooth trial. See this link for the key hardware that is being used:

http://www.techreview.com/web/brown/brown061901.asp

And see this link for details of the Bluetooth trial (Japanese only; English link still inactive):

http://www.b-l-t.org/

-- Babelfish can translate, however, even with click-throughs.

RE: Price for Blue5

mikecane @ 6/20/2001 11:19:21 AM #

&^%$@! Forgot to login. I posted the above.

RE: Price for Blue5

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/20/2001 12:22:24 PM #

I agree with Ed. $200 for a $20 core BT device plus the cost of a seperate cell phone. I think you can do the same with IR cell phone or smartphone now with less cost and less bulk. BT is smart but this application is dumb!

RE: Price for Blue5

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/20/2001 3:52:17 PM #

The price will come down. They just need to charge that much for the "early adopters" to recover some of their developement costs, and to make sure that there is a market.

Just think of all those people that shelled out $300 for an Omnisky modem about a year ago, and now they are giving them away for free!

RE: Price for Blue5

Nate @ 6/20/2001 9:01:56 PM #

Thanks for the preemptive rant, Ed, but I don't think you used quite enough exclamation points or question marks. :)

The real problem laying out that kind of cash (even if you are flush) for early adopters is that even once you've bought it, how are you going to use it? For web access when you're 10 feet away from your own BT enabled PC (outfitted with a $100 card)? Not only does the price need to be around $50, but I would need enough other people out there who already have it to bother. Once that happens, I'll be happy to download the BT-compatible version of pic-chat...

_________
Syncplicity. Redefining Simple. www.cognitiveroot.com

Clie Bluetooth?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/20/2001 3:09:57 PM #

Here: http://clie.idv.tw

Phone with bluetooth

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/20/2001 4:06:14 PM #

Check out this URL
http://commerce.motorola.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=213472&prmenbr=126

This is the new Motorola timeport with bluetooth technology.

RE: Phone with bluetooth

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/21/2001 7:20:31 AM #

Not to mention the Ericson R520, GPRS and Tri Band as well !

Bluetooth Rocks

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/21/2001 4:51:16 PM #

Now I hope this will work with my HBH-10 and DBA-10 :o)

help

marcos avellan @ 6/21/2001 5:44:52 PM #

Ok, I'll admit I don't know exactly what Bluetooth is. I assume its some wireless protocol or standard. Can anyone explain?
Thanks!

RE: help

Ed @ 6/21/2001 6:02:53 PM #

Bluetooth is the name of a short-range radio frequency (RF) technology that replaces cables. Bluetooth allows computers, peripherals, and other devices to communicate with each other without having a physical connection, or direct line-of-sight with each other, and without needing extra communication protocols. Bluetooth technology operates at 2.4 GHz and is capable of transmitting voice and data. The effective range of Bluetooth devices is 32 feet (10 meters). Bluetooth transfers data at the rate of 1 Mbps, which is from three to eight times the average speed of parallel and serial ports, respectively. Bluetooth technology allows users to create a PAN (Personal Area Network) in which they can synchronize data with handhelds and PCs, and access data and e-mail on handhelds remotely with the use of a Bluetooth enabled cellular phone.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

picture of Blue5 and Ericsson R520

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/23/2001 1:25:41 PM #

There is a picture of Palm Blue5 adaptor working with Ericsson R520 at http://www.nexgear.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=3&page=8

Palm Software on sale