If you're having a hard time keeping track of all your current wireless widgets, much less keeping up with all the hype about the wireless wonderland of the future, you're not alone. Your average traveling gadget freak already has a bag full of Wi-Fi laptop, Bluetooth PDA, digital cell phone, and GPS navigation system. Some of these devices may talk to each other, but require relatively complex setup and separate monthly subscription plans.

But before you complain too much, it's worth a look back. A little more than 10 years ago, none of these technologies existed, and we lived in a world of analog cell phones and dialup networking. Amazon.com was just starting out as an online bookstore. So we are really still in the Wild West stage of wireless. What the landscape will look like once the dust settles is still up in the air -- literally.

In a Nokia concept video, the wireless female of the future has a high-power job, knows when the latest designer clothes hit the shelves and lives in a truly high-tech apartment. She also wears a bulky yet mysteriously hip band around her wrist and carries a slick PDA.

In her office conference room, she uses a razor-thin PDA to zap a presentation to a projector and present it to colleagues. Later, she receives a message on the PDA alerting her that a new line of her favorite clothes is available in a shop nearby. She pops in the store on her way home and when she approaches the rack, consults her wristband to find out if the size and color she wants are available. Then she uses the PDA to make a live video connection with her boyfriend, showing him the dress and asking his opinion. Once she gets home, she uses the wrist band to turn on her stereo and orally tells it what music to play.

Casually strolling through life against the backdrop of a mellow, jazzy soundtrack, she represents the future consumer in a world of broadband wireless.

The video doesn't explicitly point out which wireless technologies enable each of the services, and that's the point. "The technologies will be used to hide the complexity from the user," said Jyri Huopaniemi, head of mobile applications research at Nokia. In the future, a slew of wireless standards will be shoehorned into devices so that users don't need to know or care which wireless technology delivers them information. Chipmakers have already delivered silicon that combines multiple wireless radios, such as Wi-Fi and cellular, or Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and even more powerful combinations are on the way.

Unfortunately, while we wait for this wireless fantasy to become reality, consumers will need to figure out for themselves what each technology offers, and whether they should adopt it.

The Wireless Present

Some of the wireless networks that will enable future services are available today. Bluetooth is a cable replacement technology that allows transfer of files between devices like PDAs and projectors and connects peripherals like headsets, printers and keyboards to cell phones and computers. Oakley's hot new RAZRWire sunglasses come with a built-in Bluetooth headset that wirelessly connects to the wearer's cell phone.

Similarly, a wide array of personal digital assistants, smartphones and PC cards allow messaging, Internet and email access services practically anywhere using digital cell data networks. What is lacking is standardized services to take advantage of them, although we are beginning to see things like mobile TV and location-based technology.

In the future home, your stereo and other electronics might be connected to each other via Wi-Fi. The latest high-speed Wi-Fi access points can already network a whole host of electronics, so that music files and other information can be shared among them.

The connection from your house to the Internet can also be done wirelessly. Upstart "WISPs" (wireless ISPs) are offering high-speed access similar to DSL or cable modem, but over wireless links instead of copper. They use specially engineered Wi-Fi networks designed for long-range access, as well as early versions of WiMAX equipment.

Bluetooth, high-speed cellular data, Wi-Fi, and wireless Internet connections are all available today, but all promise to get even better in the near future. It's now up to the network operators and application developers to design hip devices like that futuristic wristband, along with compelling location-based services.