The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced this week a plan to let the Bluetooth run over high-bandwidth Wi-Fi radios, in addition to the short-range, 1M to 3Mbps Bluetooth radios in use today.

What does that mean in English?

Primarily, that your Bluetooth devices will get a lot faster next year by taking advantage of the Wi-Fi technology already built into many gadgets.

MSNBC puts it pretty clearly;

Linking Bluetooth and Wi-Fi may make it easier and faster to transfer large amounts of music between computers and cell phones, or send pictures from a camera phone to a printer, or video from a camcorder to a TV.

Michael Foley, director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, said the first devices with the technology could be on the market in the middle of next year. The industry group behind Bluetooth, which has more than 10,000 member companies, plans to announce Monday that it is pursuing the technology and will make it available next year.

(…)

The combination devices will use the regular low-power Bluetooth radios to recognize each other and establish connections. If they need to transfer a large file, they will be able to turn on their Wi-Fi radios, then turn them off to save power after finishing the transfer, Foley said.

A whole new world’s a-coming, folks.

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Last weekend, Yahoo picked up on the decline of free WiFi as we posted here.

The largest current roadblock is the financial problems facing Earthlink. It is Earthlink that originally sponsored many urban plans for WiFi infrastructure that would be free to citizens. Confirming this, Yahoo reported;

“Earthlink, a partner for a number of cities, has begun a reorganization that will limit new projects.”

But Earthlink wouldn’t be pulling out if these projects made sense on the bottom line. The problem is? They don’t.

Like clean running water and garbage pickups, WiFi is becoming a true ‘utility’ for most Americans. Internet connectivity is rapidly becoming a key necessity. So critical, in fact, that UNICEF uses it as one of the indicators of how healthy and equipped a child is in their development.

Even so, the piper that must be paid.

“The problem is finding a business model that really works,” said Stan Schatt, analyst with ABI Research.

“Originally the municipalities came into this by saying they would offer Wi-Fi and get a free ride for their internal networks, and it turns out it doesn’t work that way.”

In San Francisco, Google was preparing to back a citywide Wi-Fi program with Earthlink that would be free for users who agree to view online ads, with paying customers getting an ad-free version. But the city was unable to come to terms with Earthlink before the firm pulled out and announced a massive reorganization on August 28.

Chicago officials announced August 31 they would “re-evaluate” their plan after two potential partners failed to come up with a suitable plan because a network required “extraordinary financial support” from the city.

“In Chicago and in many other cities, a municipal Wi-Fi network was initially envisioned as a way to provide cheaper, high-speed access to consumers,” said Hardik Bhatt, the city’s chief information officer.

“But given the rapid pace of changing technology, in just two short years, the marketplace has altered significantly.”

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What one does, all will do.  Right?  Maybe not, but after the iPhone launched touch-screen goodness onto the world, it really makes you wonder just how many cell phone companies are going to follow suit in the weeks and months to come.  One of those companies that’s already tossing the idea around, is Motorola.

Not only are they pondering the ol’ touch screen introduction, they are also playing with the idea of throwing wi-fi capability into their mobile phones.  What one does, all will eventually do, I guess is a little more appropriate.  Good thing Motorola has some brains behind their operations because instead of focusing all their time, money and energy on “one stand-out” product, their new global strategy will be to spread out the love, and develop a wide variety of products that will appeal to almost everyone, almost everywhere.

Not a bad idea, if you ask me.   The question I am starting to conjure up in my brain, is how long from now will every phone look, feel, and act just like an iPhone?  Not that it’d be a necessarily bad thing, but still, will all things eventually merge into one?  I hope not.

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Attention everyone sitting inside a Starbucks/Library/Gas Station/Motel Lobby/Airport…If you’re on Wi-Fi, you’re taking a much bigger risk than before, and your data might not be as safe as you once believed.

You heard me right, but before you get all up in a panic, chill out and let me explain a few things first.   According to the article I just read, this new security risk was highlighted quite effectively at the Black Hat hacker conference.  Basically, the attacks use cookies, which are generally less protected, and that, in turn,  “gives attackers access to mail messages or the page someone maintains on sites such as MySpace or Facebook.  While this sounds terrible, which it is, there IS some good news.

The good news is, webmail clients like GMail let you, if you so desire, encrypt your data that is sent back and forth, thereby rendering a cookie theft (man that feels funny saying that) useless.   More good news is that really great hackers are onto this, and have now alerted makers of various computer software programs of the vulnerability.  Hopefully, with enough warning some major attack, or new style of data-theft can be successfully thwarted.

Cross your fingers, and keep those passwords fresh friends!

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We all know that even though it’s been out for quite some time now, Blogging is still a hip way to get, give, share and create new information. Every day a ton of new blogs are launched, and every day we get busier. How do we combine these two phenomenon? Simple, mobile blogging.

If you’re reading this site, chances are good you’re a pretty mobile kind of person. Mobile Warriors, travel guru’s, masters of the hotel wi-fi, airport dwellers. You know the type, probably because you are one. Also, if you’re reading this site, you’re in a sweet spot because you know that MoGo just so happens to make the coolest, highest quality product for you, the Mobile Warrior. From our amazing MoGo Mouse line-up to the soon to be released MoGo Headset, when it comes to quality mobile products, look no further. Unless of course, you’re going to look to the phone in an article I just read about how much easier Mobile Blogging can get.

Samsung just released a new phone, the SGH-L760 that is tailored to the mobile blogger in all of us. According to the article, “The L760 allows users to update content and photos to their blogs anywhere with just one-click, by uploading contents as in the form of title + description + tag.” Snazzy. Head over and check it out, then head back to MoGo and get all the tools you need to make your mobile blogging even easier!

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