Gadget Savvy: Bluetooth Quiz

The Bluetooth networking standard is basically a set of rules for radio frequencies and communication. When you buy a Bluetooth earpiece for a phone, you're simply buying a device that knows how to use the standard.

Harald Bluetooth Gormson ruled Denmark in the late 1900s. The Bluetooth standard was named for him to honor Nordic contributions to communications technology.

Bluetooth shares its part of the radio spectrum with industrial, scientific and medical devices, also known as ISM devices.

Just like WiFi, cell phones and car radios, Bluetooth uses radio waves to communicate. Bluetooth speakers don't make your cell phone ring because these devices use different radio frequencies.

The short range of Bluetooth signals make them perfect for handling communications between a phone and an earpiece or a computer and a set of speakers. This also cuts down on the amount of required power.

Each device in a Bluetooth network switches back and forth among 79 random frequencies. This makes it unlikely that your baby monitor, which uses the same part of the radio spectrum, will horn in on your GPS receiver.

Communicating Bluetooth devices establish a network known as a piconet. A piconet might be as small as the distance from your earpiece to the belt clip for your phone. Or, it may stretch from the base station in your kitchen to the cordless phone handset in your living room. If your GPS chimes in, the other devices will ignore it -- it's not part of the network.

One of the big benefits of Bluetooth is its ability to make connections automatically, but this can also present a security risk. By putting a Bluetooth device in non-discoverable mode, you're keeping it off the radar of strange devices.

Bluetooth transmissions are always on the move. Their constant jumping from frequency to frequency is what keeps them from disrupting each other and with non-Bluetooth devices.

Bluebugging lets someone take over another phone remotely. Once a bluebugger has gained access to a phone, he or she can use it to place calls or send text messages.