There will be a lot of Bluetooth devices  in Christmas stockings this year, if vendors have anything to do with it. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group assembled in London today to show off a variety of headsets, earsets, car-handsfree kits and speakers.

The technology allowing phone headsets to double as music headphones has been around for at least a couple of years but it has finally gone mainstream. All the headphones on show would switch between phone and stero music  mode, though earpieces still seem to be mono.

Jabra showed a gold-plated Bluetooth headset for the man (or more likely, judging from the style, woman) who has everything. It is also offering a headet that opens out to become a travelling speaker.

There were several neat-looking car handsfree kits, including a couple designed to clip over the sunshade. Oticon, which makes ear insets for people with poor hearing, showed a device that allowed them to link a hearing aid to a mobile phone to make and take calls. Apparently you can sometimes get screaming feedback if you hold a mobile-phone close to a hearing aid.

Most intersting for the future was a demonstration of Bluetooth version 2.1 with Near Field Communication (NFC), as used in smart cards. Anders Edlund, marketing director of the Bluetooth SIG, showed how an image could be transferred from a Nokia phone to an electronic picture frame after simply  swiping the one device close to the other close to the other. Watch out for a round up of these devices in the magazine next month.