Wombat Mobile I should be coding or sleeping instead of this...

I saw a mention of Toothing over on mobile-weblog.com that intrigued me. (Toothing is an activity involving using bluetooth mobile phones to find sex partners, popular in Europe) This is a pretty impressive application of mobile technology. Now I'm not looking for any action, but I am looking for interesting uses for my phone. [that didn't come out right, but the jokes are too obvious]

I realize that the U.S. is way behind Europe and Asia in the mobile space, so I was curious to see whether there was enough bluetooth penetration around here so that I could test out apps like Meeting Point or MobiLuck

So I thought I would try some primitive Bluetooth wardriving and see what I could come up with. I figure the Bay Area is pretty tech-savvy and I can see 6 Wifi networks just from my house, so why not try Bluetooth?

I was looking to find out two things:

1. What kind of bluetooth penetration is out there around here, and what kind of devices?
2. There is so much noise about mobile viruses these days, how many bluetooth devices do I come into contact with each day?

**DISCLAIMER** I'm not planning anything malicious, I'm just reading information that is publicly broadcast by these devices. I used to work at an anti-virus company, so I take that stuff seriously. Plus, isn't there some sort of Programmer's Hippocratic Oath?

So my initial test was really disappointing! I only detected 4 bluetooth devices walking around my 3-car commuter train/subway this morning. One identified itself as some sort of Nokia phone, another said it was a Pocket PC, and two were not obviously identifiable.

Granted, this is an East Bay BART train, and not a techier mode of transport like CalTrain on the peninsula. Also, this was a 9:30-10:30 train, so I missed most of the commuter rush. I'll be surrounded by more commuters this evening, so we'll see if that makes a difference.

But most of the people on the train this morning did have cellphones. (I've been tossing around the idea of uploading pictures of loudtalkers or annoying ringtoners to a Flickr Hall of Shame group) So either they all had bluetooth disabled or their phones weren't bluetooth capable (more likely).

Anyway, it was just the first test of several. Now I'd better look over the code and make sure it's not missing anything.