A very familiar logo, something that we use every day to make our life easier, but do we know how it works, and more to the point, aren’t you curious as to why is it called Bluetooth?
Let’s start with the boring staff. This is the technical description of Bluetooth:
‘Bluetooth technology allows devices to communicate with each other without cables or wires. Bluetooth relies on short-range radio frequency, and any device that incorporates the technology can communicate as long as it is within the required distance.’
What an idea!
Some of us are old enough to remember the bundles of wires that were needed to connect devices. Sometimes the wires were too short to reach, and a lot of times they had the “end didn’t fit” only to increase frustration! And then, suddenly, a new technology appears and, for short distances, we can simply ‘’pair’’ two devices to each other, no wires, no engineer’s technical knowledge required!
But have you ever asked yourself why ‘’Bluetooth’’? Sophisticated technical jargon? The mysterious “missing” link that makes the whole thing work? No!
When the idea was conceived in 1996, three industry leaders, Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia, met to standardise the technology to support connectivity between different products and industries.
What a name!
During this meeting, Jim Kardach from Intel suggested Bluetooth as a temporary code name. Kardach was later quoted as saying, “King Harald Bluetooth…was famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link.”
Bluetooth was only intended as a placeholder until marketing could come up with something really cool. But, as sometimes happens in these cases, no better name could be found and the Bluetooth brand spread quickly within the industry and the public.
Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson (died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. Apparently the nickname of ‘’Bluetooth’’ was because Harald had a conspicuous bad tooth that appeared “blue” (i.e. “black”, as blár “blue” meant “blue-black”, or “dark-coloured”).
A further fascinating fact is that the Bluetooth logo is a bind rune merging the Younger Futhark runes (Hagall) (ᚼ) and (Bjarkan) (ᛒ), Harald’s initials.
There you are! A perfect, and impressive, chat opener for your next cocktail party! Why not join Il Circolo and attend our own Bookclub, Mondo Nuovo?