Cellphones: Getting 'bluejacked'

I can see US teen cellphone users jumping on this one. The New York Times calls it "bluejacking," and I've seen it called "toothing" in the UK media, but The Register reports all the coverage grew out of a little hoax. It seems not to be in the US, however, though still at the early-adopter stage. And you can bet that the adopters are young. What I'm talking about is a new way of flirting (or pulling pranks) with text on cellphones - "the act of sending random strangers unsolicited messages using Bluetooth, the radio-based technology standard in many cellphones and palmtops that enables people to swap digital business cards and photographs," according to the Times. The message is composed as a digital business card file and sent as such (a message like "SittingNearU" or "Hello stranger" goes in the name field and so on). But market size limits the fad in the US so far: The Times cites Gartner Group figures showing that, whereas 39% of phones sold in Europe last year were Bluetooth-equipped, only 4% in the US are. There are Web sites already, though: e.g., bluejackq.com and bluejackaddicts.com. It's mostly fun, but it's also certain that kids with bluetooth-enabled phones will be bluejacked by strangers.