Bluetooth Dongles - It's not the size that counts...

It's fitting that such an ugly word as "dongle" is used to describe little plastic eyesores protruding from USB ports like tumors. Especially on laptops, the usual long-and-skinny form factor practically begs to be knocked around, probably breaking the dongle or the USB port, or both. The design at right is a recently announced impressively small design - but it's still that same form factor that asks for trouble. This is what happens when design focuses on a criterion (size) which doesn't exactly match usability (not getting knocked off).

The design on the left, the MoGo Dapter, touts a form that won't snag or get banged - not by making it smaller (though it does happen to be quite small), but by shaping its volume cleverly. Just looking at it, you can imagine sliding a laptop into a case with this thing still attached, and not even worrying about it. Not worrying: now that's convenience!

To be honest, though, a USB Bluetooth dongle is an undesirable solution anyway! A built-in totally-internal transceiver is the way to go - or failing that (since too many computer makers deemphasize the usefulness of Bluetooth, or don't even offer it), a transceiver in a standard slot, like ExpressCard, that can be used with no protrusion. Or to get really crazy, how about laptop designers including a "recessed" USB port on a laptop, allowing dongles, flash drives, and other USB sticks to work without protruding? Another design bandaid, yes - but when there's a real design problem, a bandaid is better than nothing...