IT’S used by everyone with a smartphone and has been a household name for 28 years.
But although almost everyone has heard of Bluetooth, few people know the curious story behind its name and logo.
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It turns out the term takes its name from a Nordic ruler who reigned centuries ago.
King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson united Denmark and Norway in the 10th century and apparently got his nickname after his dead tooth, which was a dark blue/grey colour.
His alternative moniker was deemed appropriate for the new piece of technology back when it was created in the 90s.
It was selected due to King Harald having brought two nations together – as the technology was designed to do with electronic devices.
Bluetooth enables information and data to be passed from one gadget to another at short range without a physical connection.
Today, it’s what connects your smartphone to earphones and other wireless devices.
Initially, Bluetooth was intended to be an internal code name while the technology was being fully developed.
However, when other options pitched by the marketing team were either too unoriginal or couldn’t be patented in time for release, engineers settled with what they had.
The Bluetooth logo is a combination of King Harald’s initials in “rune”: ᚼ (Hagall) and ᛒ (Bjarkan).
King Harald lived in the 10th century and is famous for introducing Christianity to Scandanavia.
He at one point ruled over what is now Denmark, northern Germany, southern Sweden and parts of Norway.
While some accounts suggest that his blueish gnasher earned him his nickname, it may have actually come from his skin tone.
Apparently, “Blaa” is the modern Danish word for “blue”, but back in the day meant “dark-skinned”.
“Tan”, on the other hand, once meant “great man”, but has been confused with the modern Danish word for “tooth”.
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In other news, the iPhone’s virtual assistant, Siri, is getting a new, “gender-neutral” voice.
A British woman has told of her horror after scammers used photos of a “silver fox” politician to trick her out of £80,000.
Norfolk County Council is suing Apple over what it says was misleading information about iPhone sales.
And, the creators of a chilling new horror game say that the title is so disturbing they’ve been forced to censor it on PlayStation.
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