USB Bluetooth Dongle
One of the most under-rated computer accessory you will ever own is a USB Bluetooth dongle. That’s because Bluetooth is more like an unnecessary accessory than anything else. If you have it, fine, and if not, it’s also fine. Most people would not think of a Bluetooth connectivity as a solution, if they don’t have Bluetooth already included in the computer hardware.
To begin with, as a USB device the Bluetooth dongle is relatively cheap and unobtrusive in its size. And if you have a need for its services, Bluetooth would most probably be at the bottom of options. For instance, in transferring images from a cell phone camera to a computer, the first option would be a data cable and the bundled software. Second option would be to connect the camera’s flash disk to the computer. Infrared transfer might come to mind next, assuming the phone has infrared transfer capability.
The same is true for data transfer between computers. First thing to come to mind would be a USB flash drive. After which would be peer-to-peer networking by cross-cable, and then connecting via LAN with the use of a switch or a repeater, and then connecting via ethernet through Firewire. A peer-to-peer file transfer between computers and using Bluetooth would be last on the list.
The reason for all this, is because not all computers have Bluetooth built-in. This is specially true for desktop PCs. And not all laptops have a built-in Bluetooth device.
As for me, when using Windows (and the Mac OS X). connecting between computers is relatively easy using LAN, or networking via Firewire. A LAN would be the best solution if you have a fixed network, or with desktops and if there’s a need for regular access between machines. However if the files are small, a flash drive does come in handy. But if the needs for file transfer are not on a regular basis, then Bluetooth does seem like a good alternative.
And to have a Bluetooth device for a computer, this can be provided by a USB Bluetooth dongle. After installing the software, the camera should be able to communicate almost immediately, and able to access the computer for file transfer. Other Bluetooth accessories which can take advantage of a dongle include a wireless mouse, wireless headsets, and for internet sharing on a LAN.
The only problem with such connectivity is security. The system is not secure by design. If you open a device, it signals to all the devices within range, and this is open to unauthorized copying.