Bluetooth Special Interest Group

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, or SIG, is the governing body that controls the official specifications of the Bluetooth wireless technology. This not-for-profit entity is comprised of over 7000 member companies. The SIG itself does not manufacture any Bluetooth devices, it is merely the entity that defines the specification. Also known as: "Bluetooth SIG"

BenQ

BenQ is a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that creates products ranging from DVD burners to monitors and digital cameras. The company also manufactures mobile phones for the Asian market, and had plans for expansion into the world market with its acquisition of Siemens Mobile, allowing it to form BenQ Siemens. The Munich based BenQ Siemens Mobile venture failed to become successful, filing for bankruptcy in 2006. BenQ has once again pulled back into serving primarily its home Asian market.

Bandwidth

The amount of data that can be sent over a given network connection. Used to describe the "speed" of a connection between two devices.

Bluetooth profile

In order for two (or more) Bluetooth devices to be able to work together to accomplish a given task, such as file sharing, they need to both support the appropriate profiles. The Bluetooth SIG has defined countless profiles, such as Headset, A2DP Stereo, OBEX File Exchange, to name just a few. This is why devices such as Bluetooth keyboards are generally not usable with mobile phones - most mobile phones do not support the necessary HID Bluetooth profile.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless technology developed by Ericsson that is designed to be a cable replacement. It operates on the 2.4GHz frequency band, like WiFi, and is officially known as IEEE standard 802.15.1. It is most commonly used with wireless headsets and car kits, but can also be used for network access, moving files from one device to another, or with wireless input devices such as a mouse and keyboard - among many other uses. These other uses are dependent on the Bluetooth profiles that are supported by the devices in question. There are multiple versions of the Bluetooth specification in use, and in order for full functionality to be possible, the devices on both sides of a connection must be of the same version. This is not to say that a Bluetooth 1.1 headset, for example, will not work with a Bluetooth 2.0 phone - it will. It is only to say that in order to enjoy the benefits of Bluetooth 2.0's features, such as faster connection times, a Bluetooth 2.0 (or later) headset would have to be used.