KIRKLAND, USA – The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, also known as Bluetooth SIG, has unveiled the specifications for Bluetooth 4.0.

The promise this time is to reduce the power requirements of Bluetooth devices drastically. The Bluetooth 4.0 specification has been designed in such a way that it will consume less than 10% of the power that is required by present Bluetooth chipsets.

The specification has been designed to allow miniature devices to run for several years continuously using just tiny batteries. In ultra-low power mode, Bluetooth 4.0 devices will be able to transfer at 1mbps while the transfer rates will be much higher on full-power mode.

Like Bluetooth 3.0, present on smartphones such as the Samsung Wave, the new specification allows the device to latch onto existing Wi-Fi networks to provide a welcome speed boost.

Bluetooth 4.0 takes this up a notch as it will allow speeds upto 25mbps when connected to 802.11 networks, and extends the maximum theoretical connection distance to almost a 100 metres. Devices based on this technology are currently being tested and will make it to the market in the second half of 2011.

Here is the original:
Bluetooth 4.0 Gets The Go-Ahead