Laptops and Bluetooth?

[Ribol]

In the process of buying a laptop and the option of Bluetooth has come up.
Can someone please tell me what practical advantages there are to having it? The version available on the laptops I am after is 1.1 if that makes any difference and it is about £100 more. Thanks.

Ivan

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

It works with phones nicely for data on the move. Errm that's about it. Oh and maybe GPS's. I've got a Bluetooth gateway in my desk that I never use because Bluetooth is sssoooo slllloooowwww, even compared with 802.11B.

[tycho]

What ^^^^^ said. I use it to sync my mobile or use my laptop for email access when out and about. Handy to do it without having to take my phone out of my pocket. Think of it as an alternative to infra-red and not network access and you won't go far wrong.

HTH

[vex]

Asa a one man band the blue tooth link to my mobile on this lappy is perfect.

Can site anywhere, sending and receiving email, surfing the web, faxing Purchase Orders all without the faff of having to find a neat surface so i can point the IR at my phone.

To make real use of it you need to be using GPRS data which with my orange service offers 100+ kbps

[john_p]

I use it quite a lot of I'm travelling and can't get on the 'net through conventional methods - connection via GPRS is slow but it will work throughout Europe. I've used it to get football scores whilst on a TGV, and to reboot two servers whilst stood waiting for a hire car in Cologne airport .

Can get pricey though - check roaming rates for GPRS.

Also being able to move the laptop around without a cable/IR is a bonus. But if 802.11b was available, I'd be using that of course.