I remember a day not that long ago where I would have to line up my Treo's perfectly to beam information back and forth. It was a pain and while it was cool that I could do it, it still took a little work.

Earlier tonight I was speaking with some colleagues and we were taking some candid pictures, like we normally do (I'm a total ham in front of the camera.) Rather than IR beaming of the pictures, we were using Bluetooth to send the files between everyones phone. It didn't matter who made the phone, it seemed to work for all the devices without line of site. How cool!

I know this isn't new technology, but it was the first time I really saw a group of people all able to use Bluetooth without huge hassles. Typically I end up helping users with a device code or something of the sort, but this time it all worked flawlessly. I think Bluetooth has finally been realized, and aside from those annoying wireless headsets, is a very powerful wireless PAN.

Now what I would like to see is Bluetooth remote controls. Why use RF or IR when we can just pair our remotes to the device we want to control. Get a universal BT remote, pair it and have the commands automatically sent to the master remote. How cool would that be? It's not part of the Bluetooth spec, but maybe it should be.