Avast Matey!

Cambridge Silicon Radio plc (CSR) is taking Bluetooth out on the high seas.

Yep, in one of the more surreal marketing stunts of our times, the chip designers announced today that they intend to sail across the Atlantic in a beautiful, Bluetooth-enabled boat. CSR's 41-foot yacht, the "Honey Wild" will set sail from Florida on May 6, stopping in Bermuda and the Azores along the way, before finally arriving in Portugual in June.

Readers of a historical bent will know that what at first sign looks like a blatant exercise in marketing masturbation is actually part of a proud nautical tradition, since the short-range wireless technology (1 Mbit/s, 30 feet over 2.4GHz) was named after a tenth century Viking king of questionable dental hygiene, Harald Bluetooth. Sadly, CSR doesn't say which hapless villages they plan to pillage and raze to the ground on their epic voyage.

In fact, the firm's press release is distinctly short on the details of what broadswords and axes the crack team of techies will be bringing with them. Instead, they say that they will have a "Bluetooth-enabled Global Positioning System" (although given Bluetooth's 30-foot range its unclear how well it will work).

Steering via Bluetooth, eh? By Odin's beard, watch out for that iceberg!

— Dan Jones, Senior Editor, Unstrung