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and more from Wikipedia at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/Wi-Fi

Now, "Bluetooth" is also a wireless technology but is very different than Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is a way of providing what's known as a Personal-Area Network (PAN), which dictates a very short range distance and is used for personal devices, the most ubiquitous and common being hands-free, wireless headphones that people use with their mobiles/cell phones. Other uses that are becoming common are for printers, video game consoles, digital cameras, and other equipment that tends to be close to devices they need to communicate with, but without the use of wires/cables.

The Bluetooth standard is defined by IEEE 802.15 standards (the current version being 802.15.1 for possible expansion in the future.) Manufacturers have quickly developed the standard far beyond the original specs, known as "Bluetooth 1.0", going through versions "1.1", "1.1B", "1.2" "2.0", and "2.1". Version 1.2 boosted speeds to 721 kbps in practice vs. theory, v2.0 upped the speed to up to 2.1 Mbps (million bits per second) with much lower error rates, and v2.1 simply lowers power consumption for the same functionality. Suffice to say, it's best to try to buy a Bluetooth 2.0 or later device.

There are three different standards for the distance that a Bluetooth device wil work:

Class 1 (consumes 100 micro Watts) up to about 100 meters distance
Class 2 (consumes 2.5 micro Watts) to cover up to a 10 meter area
Class 3 (consumes 1 micro Watt) to cover only about 1 meter

Obviously, the higher the power consumption, the greater the area covered, but also the quicker that batteries lose power, so most mobiles/cell phone are Class 3 to save battery power since great distance is not required, but devices that are plugged in, such as a printer, tends to be Class 1, so they can be accessed throughout an office area.

You can get all the specs and too many details in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Bluetooth

So what is the main difference between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth? Wi-Fi is meant to create a large-area wireless network, as much as covering major parts of a city, if not at least a house, cafe, restaurant, etc. Bluetooth, on the other hand, is dedicated more to personal devices such a mobiles/cell phones that don't require great distances, and devices such as printers and video game consoles which tend to be close to the main device they need to communicate with. Both are useful in their own ways and will most likely to continue to develop and improve over the coming years. Calling Wi-Fi a "WLAN" and Bluetooth a "PAN" is really the best description: Wi-Fi is a wide-area network, and Bluetooth is "personal", or for small, closely located devices. That's really the only major difference, but as such, they serve *extremely* different purposes.

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