Integrated support for Bluetooth will be available in an interim release of Windows XP pre-loaded on PCs by the end of the year. Corporate customers will be able to patch in the Bluetooth support via XP's Automatic Update feature this month, but will need to install Service Pack 1 first. Having support built into Windows should let PCs with Bluetooth ports connect without modification to Bluetooth peripheral devices such as phones, cameras and headsets.

Bluetooth's progress into the mainstream seems assured thanks to the backing of industry giants. Apple has added Blue-tooth support to Mac OS X and last week posted a public beta of its iSync software that connects handhelds, music players and Macs via the technology. IBM recently extended Bluetooth support to the ThinkPad X30; HP said it would incorporate Bluetooth in its DeskJet 450 printer; and Palm will this month release its first handheld with Bluetooth. Later this year, Nokia plans to release the Mediamaster 230 S, a set-top box with Bluetooth support that lets users of its camera phones perform wireless downloads of images to be viewed on TV sets.

More short-range wireless devices are awaited at December's Bluetooth Developers Conference in California. Among the expected highlights are Microsoft's first Bluetooth peripherals - mice and keyboards that dispense with the need for wired connections to PCs. Firms including Volkswagen, UPS and Palm are scheduled to address the Bluetooth conference, which begins on 10 December in San Jose.

Bluetooth is also likely to provide car dashboard links to mobile phones, as legislation is passed to stop the use of handheld devices while driving.

"Car manufacturers want a Bluetooth profile that supports voice and data and is interoperable with the many different Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone handsets available today," said Nick Hunn, managing director of Bluetooth peripheral developer TDK Systems.

More than 500 Bluetooth applications are available but some vendors still offer only limited support. Nokia with its recent 7650 camera phone, for example, did not build in wireless links to basic peripherals such as headsets and hands-free in-car kits. "Nokia was slow on Bluetooth and now it's doing it in a very strange way," observed Vince Holton of Click Communications, a publisher of Bluetooth newsletters.

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