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Users unimpressed by Bluetooth printing for the home

The idea of using a Bluetooth link for printing in the office may please corporate users; but home users have reacted with extreme scepticism to 3Com's latest device - the Bluetooth printer dongle.

It looks costly, and it looks out of date, say users, responding to our story about 3Com's printer kit. Typical response from NewsWireless Net readers came from Simon Barnes, who wrote:

Dear Guy,

"You mean, $250 to replace a £2 wire ? And what stops my next-door-neighbour using my printer?"

Barnes continued: "I was surprised you didn't make any comment about the cost, and also the mention of the parallel port - what about USB? I think this thing would be over-priced at $25, and as for having to pay for the connectivity software - I can't see how that's going to fly ... "

3Com does produce a USB Bluetooth device, but it's designed to plug into a host PC, not into a printer, which would be the slave port. Devices which will work as USB slaves are being produced but they face the problem of how you provide power for them.

One solution was demonstrated at last week's Bluetooth Congress in Amsterdam, by Brightcom, a fabless chip maker which showed a reference design USB bluetooth slave.

The company showed two new chips; one is the 2102, bluetooth application processor which includes USB host functionality in embedded software.

The reference design should appear in a finished product before the end of the year, said Brightcom's president, Yuval Ben-Ze'ev: "When you connect a cable, you attach a USB host on the PC to a USB device - camera, card scanner or whatever. When you detach the cable, and replace with unit on both sides; the printer should see a USB host, and the PC should just see the printer. Our solution does all that, and we expect it to be shipping late this year."

This device picks up its power from the printer power supply unit, said ben Ze-ev.