The other major new Bluetooth specification will be a high-speed standard that Foley says will dramatically enhance users' ability to zap data around their devices. For instance, the new specification will let users wirelessly send mp3 files from the computers to their mobile phones or to send bulk downloads of pictures quickly from a digital camera to a computer. Foley says the Bluetooth SIG's eventual goal is to have Bluetooth reach speeds of up to 100Mbps that will allow high-definition video streaming directly from digital camcorders onto a television screen.

Integrated circuit supplier , which has been developing chips that combine 801.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM radio, has been performing live public demonstrations of this faster Bluetooth technology and has reached speeds of up to 24Mbps at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show. Broadcom senior product manager Ron Wang says his company has conducted its tests over the 802.11 channel currently used for Wi-Fi using Broadcom's wireless LAN chips. When sending files from PCs to mobile phones, Wang says Broadcom has consistently achieved data speeds in the 20M to 24Mbps range, while sending data from mobile phones to PCs has topped out at around 10Mbps.

Despite these improvements to Bluetooth's speed and energy efficiency, however, the technology will not be getting an upgrade in its wireless range, which currently tops out at around 100 meters. Foley says the Bluetooth SIG wants the technology to stay true to its roots as a short-range data transfer protocol.

"These new specifications will potentially have more range than the old ones, but that's not what we're targeting," he says. "We look at Bluetooth as being a personal area technology and we want to focus on developing applications that you run in your personal space."