Before Bluetooth, mobile phones were just that – phones you could carry from place to place. Then in 2001 along came the Nokia 6310, the first Nokia handset with Bluetooth (v1.1) built in. Suddenly, mobiles became more than just a corporate status symbol. With Bluetooth, users could swap data: contact and calendar info at first but then grainy cameraphone snaps, ringtones, music, high res photos and eventually videos. Bluetooth also gave users the freedom to go completely hands-free, enabling them to navigate seamlessly through their life (and, crucially, drive a car) without interrupting their conversations. The business-friendly 6310 also boasted the latest digital features, such as voice-dialling, predictive text messaging, downloadable ringtones, a GPRS-powered WAP browser and a Filofax-busting 500-entry phonebook. A voice recorder enabled executives to record brief memos, and its slim lithium-ion battery offered a standby time of over two weeks.
What we say
What they say
“We’d like to say that Nokia 6310 is a rich and interesting phone.”
Eldar Murtazin, Mobile Review
Miscellany
You probably know that Bluetooth is named after the Danish king Harald Bluetooth, with its logo forming a ‘bind rune’ for the letters H and B. But did you know:
- Harald briefly united Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and was killed during a rebellion organised by his own son, Sweyn.
- Harald built the longest bridge in (southern) Scandinavia. The ground-level Ravninge Bridge spanned the Vejle river valley and measured a mighty 760 metres in length.
- Harald may have converted the Danes to Christianity. Or he may not. Some tales have Harald himself converted at sword point by either Otto the first or Otto the second Holy Roman Emperors.
- Unlike the mutinous Sweyn, Harald was a good son, erecting the famous Jelling Stones covered with runes to commemorate his father, Gorm, and his mother, Thyra.