Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Hi,

Bluetooths original purpose in life was to replace cables between devices. Suchs as between headsets and phones.
Its intended to be short distance and is not very fast. (750kbps ish)

WiFi comes in various flavours, most common is known as 802.11b and works at around 11Mbps, purpose to replace wired networks. Increasingly you will meet 802.11g which works ar around 54Mbps (in reality nearer 22Mbps).

Bluetooth and WiFi do operate around the same part of the frequency spectrum so can interfere, in practice Ive not had any problems myself but its worth knowing.

We mustnt forget good old reliable InfraRed, (aka IrDA), which uses light instead of radio frequency. Speeds up to around 16Mbps possible, but most commonly PDAs are 4mbps or most common 115Kbps. For a definitive explanation of flavours of infra red
see http://www.irda.org

IrDA and Bluetooth are somewhat similar in the use but each has advantages in different situtations
Theres a good article comparing Bluetooth and IrDA at
http://www.dpi.net.ir/pc/MobileComputing/articles/IrDA%20versus%20Bluetooth%20A%20Complementary%20Comparison.htm

Any of the above can be used to get internet access. I frequently use infra-red and bluetooth to connect to the internet using my phone and also via my desktop pc. Your internet enabled applications, mail/browsers/ftp etc dont care how the physical connection is made, so what works over one method eg WiFi should willl work over irDa/Bluetooth/Serial or whatever. (though some phones can be a bit weird and some networks restrict some services)

Out and about you are more likley to find WiFi access points in train stations, coffee shops etc.

For a more coherent and articulate comparison and explanation than mine take a look at
http://www.thetravelinsider.info/roadwarriorcontent/bluetooth.htm

I hope some of this helps....

best wishes

Jon.T

ps is there anyone else here?

I'm interested in the infra-red part of this conversation. We have some Alphasmarts in our school, which print directly to old HP BW laser printers with built in IrDA, but we can't find a similar product on the market now.  Has anyone had experience with the add-on IrDA "eyes" for printers?  Any experience printing from Palms straight to the printer with these "eyes"?

Dear Simon,

Not necessarily. You should think about ease of use and the network. For instance, what PDAs are the students going to use? I'd suggest that you use one which has inbuilt wireless or bluetooth. For instance, the new Palm OS wi-fi cards are great, you simply insert them into the top of the PDA. However, I'm in my thirties, but school children are more likely to break them or loose them. Therefore, inbuilt to the device is much simpler.

Secondly, what network have you at school? You need to check with the IT people to make sure what you get is compatible. Not all wi-fi PDAs can access all wireless networks.

I think the third question would be ... what are you planning on using them for? The web surfing experience is quite poor (small screens, sites/images don't display well, and access can be an issue). When I discuss web surfing with people I'm very careful to identify how they envisage it will be used, then see if the PDA approach is applicable.

A case of having your cake and eating it methinks! 

There are several Bluetooth to Ethernet bridge products coming onto the market which means those with bluetooth enabled handhelds can get on the Wi-Fi tip without splashing out on new hardware (except the bridge!). This could be interesting for schools equiped with as set of Zire 72's for example or the various Windows Mobile devices that come already loaded with Bluetooth.

There's an article on msmobiles.com