You're among the savviest members of the high-tech elite. You use a cell phone to stay in touch with co-workers, clients, family, and friends. You keep your address book and your schedule on a personal digital assistant (PDA). You manage your personal e-mail on a desktop PC at home and access your business e-mail through your company laptop. These tools make it possible for you to stay always connected, to stay always informed. Yet still, as you work to keep all that information coordinated and organized, you dream of finding an even better way. Right? Well, a new wireless networking standard called Bluetooth is about to improve your life. Using a short-range radio link, devices enabled by Bluetooth technology will be able to talk to each other and exchange information automatically. You will have your own Personal Area Network (PAN)—in other words, smart devices and products will be automatically connected to your personal devices whenever you walk into range. Most electronic products today already have a "computer" of sorts inside. As all of these little computers exchange information wirelessly, using Bluetooth technology, all of the information each device possesses could be synchronized with the information on other devices. For example, the numbers on your mobile phone would be updated when you make changes to the address book on your PDA. What does that mean for you? Ideally, you would have instant access to all of your personal and business data. You would be able to network on the fly with airlines, hotels, theaters, restaurants, and retail stores for automatic check-in, meal selection, purchases, and electronic payment. Wireless gateways at locations all over the world would allow devices enabled by Bluetooth technology access to the Internet. Well, we still have some time before that vision becomes reality, but in the meantime, here are some ways in which Bluetooth wireless technology might make you smarter, safer, and more productive. Mobile Mom "I just bought a new mobile phone." My new phone is helping me improve my day care service. Now when I take the class out to the park or the zoo, parents can still reach me for emergencies. But even though the phone is a necessity, I worry about using it in the car. Especially while I'm toting seven or eight excited kids, including my own. So I looked at the options and decided I needed a hands-free attachment in the minivan, in case I get a phone call while I'm driving. The technician who installed the wireless kit explained that every time I climb in the car, the kit and the phone automatically talk to each other. I don't even have to take the phone out of my bag—I just wear the wireless headset. I don't need to take my eyes off the road or my hands off the steering wheel to answer one of those parental panic calls. I feel a lot better now about using my mobile phone in the car. Road Warrior "I think the term 'virtual office' was invented to describe my life." I take my laptop wherever I go. I work whenever there's time, whether it's from my office, on the road, or at a client site. For me, the key to success is being able to communicate and share information with my clients instantly. When I'm on-site for meetings and evaluations, I don't have to lay several miles of wire to run a simulation anymore. Everyone in the room can watch it happen live on their laptops through the on-site wireless network, using PC Card Adapters with built-in Bluetooth technology. My laptop is equipped with a USB Adapter from Motorola, which allows me to send my presentation slides straight to a digital projector for large group meetings, thanks to Bluetooth technology. Hard-copying a specification for the engineers is as easy as firing up the nearest printer. Working from a virtual office is a big enough challenge, without having to lug around an extra case of hardware just to connect all the equipment I use. Wireless connectivity is making life on the road a whole lot easier. Family Man "Sharing computers and information is getting a lot easier." Today when I come home from the office, I don't have to wait for my turn at the computer. Recently, my teenage son—our home-networking expert—installed a Bluetooth wireless PC Card Adapter from Motorola in our central home PC and all four of our laptops. Now, while my wife uses her laptop in the study to answer personal e-mail, I can update the register in our financial-management software while I eat a sandwich at the kitchen table. My son can chat with classmates about a homework assignment on the Internet at the same time—from anywhere in the house. Our MIS Director just installed Bluetooth technology at the office. He said he did it to make managing the network easier: Wireless USB links will make peripheral sharing in our manufacturing facility easy to set up and manage. It's certainly made tracking my office and personal e-mail much simpler. Every morning when I walk into my office, while I'm still taking off my jacket, my laptop automatically pulls all of my unanswered e-mail from the company server. In fact, the new data-sharing features have made things so much more efficient that I'm spending less time working late compiling data for my monthly department reports. So I can get home a little earlier. Generation Z "Technology has come a long way since I was a kid back in the nineties." I grew up with computers. Dad was an engineer and an entrepreneur. I think I first read about the idea of a Personal Area Network (PAN) in a science fiction novel when I was about ten. My world looks a lot like that novel these days, since technology went completely wireless a few years ago. When I take off I've always got an entire PAN in tow. My transparently linked laptop, PDA, and system-hopping global phone follow me wherever I go, whether it's for business or pleasure. It's the little timesavers that make the biggest difference in my hectic schedule. As I head out the door, my PDA disarms the car alarm system, starts the engine, and tunes in my favorite station. It talks to the home-security system too, which opens and closes the garage door, locks all the other doors, turns down the heat, and forwards all my calls and e-mail. At airports I walk right past the queue at the front counter, flashing my ticket at the airline's local server with my PDA. The system queries my PDA, spots my validated ID tag, checks me through to the gate, and credits the miles to my frequent-flier account. Isn't technology grand?