# Bluetooth -- what's it good for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971 "2004-09-25T00:08:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/1 "2004-09-25T00:08:59Z")
Like the title says… I was thinking about the worthiness/uselessness of Bluetooth, but aside from wireless keyboards, wireless mice, and cell phone synchronization, I can’t think of anything else it’d be good fore. Can you convince me that Bluetooth is worth a damn? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/2 "2004-09-25T00:10:21Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Like the title says… I was thinking about the worthiness/uselessness of Bluetooth, but aside from wireless keyboards, wireless mice, and cell phone synchronization, I can’t think of anything else it’d be good fore. > > Can you convince me that Bluetooth is worth a damn? Nope. Hehe that’s why I got the wi-fi Palm. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/3 "2004-09-25T00:23:38Z")
You forgot “toothing” the oh-so-wonderful way of picking up strangers for sex by randomly texting people within bluetooth range. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/4 "2004-09-25T00:25:04Z")
Edwin Starr reference in 3… 2… 1… ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/5 "2004-09-25T00:31:49Z")
How sad that it took me as long as it did to figure out who Edwin Starr is. No _wonder_ I just caught myself humming that tune. ---
**Author:** ![zoltar7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b38774/32.png) [@zoltar7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoltar7)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/6 "2004-09-25T02:14:26Z")
Say, hypothetically, that your local phone service, and thus your DSL, has been disconnected because last month you paid your long distance twice instead of paying your local phone bill. You could connect to the internet and read the SMDB by connecting your laptop to your GPRS cellphone over bluetooth. Not that I’d ever do anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bluetooth-whats-it-good-for/265971/7 "2004-09-25T03:44:32Z")
Bluetooth _was_ one of those “promised so much but not really thought out” ideas. It’s dying. [Slashdot](http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/31/189219&tid=215&tid=100&tid=193) had a blurb a couple of weeks ago about one of the major Bluetooth consortium companies (Ericsson) giving up on it. WiFi and related low(er)-tech networking have won out. Bluetooth required far more complex hardware (i.e., more $) and promised Really Stupid Stuff. “Hey, don’t you want your phone to display ads from the store you just walked by?” Umm, not really. Not that GSM based phones work much better _now_ as multi-purpose network devices, for example, reading the SDMB over a roving wireless connection. But that’s only until the next generation of WiFi networks get rolled out. The cell phone companies are in deep trouble, and they’ll fight back. Just not with Bluetooth.