Tech Tips: Are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi the same thing? While most
people these days likely hear the terms "Bluetooth", "Wi-Fi" and
"wireless" all the time - particularly in advertisements - it's
no surprise that many think they're all one and the same. The
truth is, however, that the two wireless technologies are far
from identical and actually serve very different purposes.
Indeed, both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi - short for "wireless fidelity"
- use radio waves to transmit information through the air, but
that's about all they really share in common. The maximum
physical distance in which most Bluetooth devices can transmit
information, for example, is only about 30 feet, whereas the
maximum range of modern Wi-Fi devices can exceed several hundred
feet, given ideal conditions. Transmission speeds between the
two technologies also vary. The most recent Wi-Fi gadgets
outpace traditional Bluetooth devices by nearly tenfold. So
what's the primary difference between the two? Bluetooth was
designed primarily to replace cumb