More and more network devices are becoming "Bluetooth" enabled, you have to give a casting glance for a blue flashing led on almost every gadget even your fridge, this may be a good ice breaker with the boys down the local but what use is it if you cant connect a central control point to these devices. One obvious starting point is to connect a your laptop to allow for browsing of contents and control from a PC interface. Many applications exist but sadly not many laptops come with built in Bluetooth capabilities yet.

So on to our gadget to solve the problem, TDK have a range of Bluetooth enabling products from a USB dongle to the top of the range TDK PLUS PCMCIA card, while the dongle serves its purpose its not exactly neat and uses up a valuable USB port so our choice is the TDK PCMCIA range, the plus card comes with class 1 connectivity giving it a 100 meter range and allowing it "industrial" spec classification.

The specified 1mbit connection is in reality about 720k, like most Bluetooth devices the TDK card can work with 7 Personal Area Networks (PAN) or 'piconets' these are stored within "my Bluetooth places" in a windows XP style through explorer. This is one of the benefits of the TDK card as it is as easy to install and manage as any other wifi card / network, weighing only 30 grams it has also been designed to minimise the drain on your laptop battery.

So its clearly a winner in pure techie terms but what use can you put this little card to?  The obvious use is interfacing with a Bluetooth enabled phone, this also you to send sms, make calls, browse the web in fact network via your mobile, plus the supplied TDK mobile application will let you manage your phonebook entries. On more advanced phones like the P800 , T68i you can drive your phone from your PC and synchronise your outlook address book with you phone, plus more photos, calendar appointments and even documents.

Beyond mobile the ready made applications seem to wither but with a bit of knowledge you can control any Bluetooth enabled gadget, a quick browse on the web reveals people managing home security systems, home entertainment and even a Bluetooth lighting control system.

And remember that idea of sending business cards via infa-red technology and then actually trying it for real, errr....left a bit...right, well Bluetooth makes this simple but we'll have to wait and see if it catches on this time.

With all this data flying around your home TDK uses 3 levels of security providing for encryption and authentication to ensure that private data stays that way.

At sub £100 this card solved a number of problems for Bluetooth users who want to make the most of their devices capabilities, the bundled applications help with mobile phone control but the power of this product lies in what you can do with a little research and time.

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