Jawbone whips CES into a nerd frenzy with free headsets

Jawbone's giving away free headsets to anyone willing to trade in their old one here at CES -- which means they've accumulated an impressive collection of busted old headgear from nerds around the world. Check a few more pics of dudes waiting around for free stuff at the read link.

[Bob @ Jan 10th 2008 2:25PM]

i'll send them mine for a free jawbone...

[riggs @ Jan 10th 2008 2:36PM]

that sounds so dirty for some reason lol

[Speddy @ Jan 10th 2008 2:36PM]

Nice...um..shirt!

(I want a Red Jawbone...can I send my BT in?? can I?)

[brent @ Jan 10th 2008 2:37PM]

Can I trade in my old girlfriend for her?

[Frank V. Roesler III @ Jan 10th 2008 2:48PM]

Darnit! If I was there I'd be making the exchange RIGHT NOW!

[Loban @ Jan 10th 2008 2:52PM]

Just bought my wife a red Jawbone for x-mas. They're really nice. She really likes it.

[Todd @ Jan 10th 2008 3:00PM]

"...collection of busted old headgear from nerds around the world"

Ummmmmm EW!

[nathan @ Jan 10th 2008 3:00PM]

The Jawbone is the best bluetooth set I've owned. People can actually hear me on the street and get this, they're able to hear me at a pro basketball arena with people cheering all around. There was no way in the world anyone could hear me on the street previously, let alone a stadium. Truly amazing technology.

[Alan Strangis @ Jan 10th 2008 3:00PM]

Get jawboned? I've got a new verb for my vocabulary now.

[Anthony @ Jan 10th 2008 3:02PM]

I agree with other comments, the Jawbone is the best headset I've owned. My only complaint is I can't get it paired to my computer, looking at their FAQs it would appear this is by design. Oh well...

[nxtiak @ Jan 10th 2008 3:06PM]

Lucky friggin' bastards. I bought my Jawbone when it first came out for $120, kept checking a Cingular store a week and a half.

[Loban @ Jan 10th 2008 3:13PM]

Yeah, I paid $120 for my wife's jawbone, but she really wanted the red one. I could not find the red one for less than full price. You can find the black and silver ones all over the place for $80 now, but the red one is still full price. Oh well, it was her x-mas present, I'd rather she gets what she wants.

[Tony C @ Jan 10th 2008 5:23PM]

Yeah... I bought mine at full price way back when too. But I got full price back when I returned the horrid thing.

[DraconianSoul @ Jan 10th 2008 3:10PM]

Anybody know what they plan on doing with the old headsets? I'd hate to think they're justing going to toss them into the dumpster on the way out...

[MichaelLC @ Jan 10th 2008 3:15PM]

They're going to donate them to the Las Vegas chapter of Deaf America.


Oh wait....

[Sarah Stabile @ Jan 10th 2008 4:35PM]

The headsets are going to the Nevada Center for the Blind where the parts will be recycled.

[OneLove @ Jan 10th 2008 3:13PM]

looks like a bucket of scorpions.

[bobartig @ Jan 10th 2008 3:21PM]

I'd do it in a heartbeat! I hear nothing but good things about jawbones.

[Electromodo @ Jan 10th 2008 3:25PM]

Man! This is what I call A GREAT PROMOTION!

Someone teleport me LV now, please!!!!

[chad @ Jan 10th 2008 3:26PM]

i wounder what jawboned is going to do with all those bt headsets ( eBay or at least they will recycle the battery before it goes to the land fill or sit on a shelf in the hq of jb please send me a jawbone for my iphone !!!

[Joseph @ Jan 10th 2008 3:32PM]

For a second I thought those were snakes.

[Riley Freeman @ Jan 10th 2008 3:33PM]

this can only mean they are going to release a new jawbone. and they are trying to get more people onto what was the best bluetooth headset EVER. its pretty smart. because once people get a taste and fall in love with it. they will want whatever fancy upgrades they have made. go jawbone. i bought mine the day it came out on their website.

[Bob C. @ Jan 10th 2008 3:37PM]

Good point Riley. Maybe the girl in the photo is wearing the new model. Hers is gold.

[tiuk @ Jan 10th 2008 3:50PM]

I think they need to slap a biohazard logo on that bucket o' headsets.

[The_Steven @ Jan 10th 2008 3:54PM]

Heck, I'll pay the S&H and send them my jabra ear slug.

[LordJohnWhorfin @ Jan 10th 2008 4:09PM]

Count me as one who is completely unhappy with the Jawbone. I used it for a week and found it irritating, unreliable, uncomfortable and cumbersome. I can't stand the two-button interface, the volume options are too limited and it's not loud enough. I went back to my trusty old Plantronics which is way better in my opinion. People I talked to never noticed an improvement with the Jawbone, either. I think people who swear by it never used decent quality bluetooth headsets before.

[Reid @ Jan 10th 2008 6:34PM]

Jawbone does not have the best earpiece. Kinda tinny.

Fit is not perfect; I readjust it occasionally while wearing it.

I also take issue when them saying you can blast music on the freeway with the windows down and people can still hear you.

However, under many circumstances, the noise cancellation is nothing short of amazing. I can use it in a datacenter where I can't even hear MYSELF talk without shouting. If I talk at a normal volume, the person on the other end of the phone can hear me and ZERO background noise, and I can't even hear myself over the din of HVAC units.

It's especially useful because datacenters tend to get crappy cell reception, so its nice to place your phone somewhere with a half decent signal, work handsfree, and actually hear and be heard.

I would have paid the full $130 for it myself, but fortunately I was able to expense it...

[gotsmart @ Jan 10th 2008 4:15PM]

I wonder how many nerds made feeble attempts at "jawboner" remarks when they saw the cute girl at the booth.

Probably not many. After all, they ARE nerds.

[JB @ Jan 10th 2008 5:47PM]

Looks like she just got off her shift at the Apple store and changed shirts.

[Mike @ Jan 10th 2008 6:09PM]

Man I've got a ton of old bluetooth headsets layin around, too. They'd look good in that bucket...
http://www.wapswap.com

[Wilson @ Jan 10th 2008 6:28PM]

MY first thought when seeing that pic was, "Crawfish anyone?"

[Derek @ Jan 10th 2008 6:41PM]

This sucks, my ear piece broke last month and I'm stuck here in Chicago!

[Derek @ Jan 10th 2008 6:49PM]

Great, meanwhile my ear piece broke last month and I'm stuck in Chicago...

[ChasCam580 @ Jan 10th 2008 7:39PM]

I got Mine. LOL :)

[IsLNdbOi @ Jan 10th 2008 8:16PM]

Nice. Had both my Plantronics Discovery 650 and Voyager 510 w/ me today when I passed Jawbone's "booth" in one of the tents in the concierge area. Gave them both of my headsets for two of theirs.

[Brian @ Jan 11th 2008 3:28AM]

Oh hell yes! Can I mail mine in? :p

[Owen @ Jan 11th 2008 5:13AM]

Mine fell to pieces in its first week. As did my bosses. Wish I hadn't specified them. Crap mechanism for taking the top off to recharge.

Happier with my Jabra Stereo bt8010. Hooks up to my phone and linux box simultaneously. Neat.

[Darwin @ Jan 12th 2008 9:36PM]

4 main points of failure with the Jawbone, not that most other BT's can tackle them, either:
-it does not cancel rustling paper sounds
-it does not cancel wind noise
-it clips the first millisecond or so of spoken word in a quiet environment
-it takes skill to put it on, requires the ear support, which sucks if you have glasses, and the microphone-nub irritates if worn too long.

I would think they could do better bone-conduction and smaller units by simply using more secure inserts (a-la Shure) that hold the unit, isolate sound, AND pick up noises via the resonant passageway that is the ear canal. How hard is that?

[twilightx @ Jan 18th 2008 10:52AM]

Darwin, just a few points...

- The Jawbone does not use bone conducting technology - the rubber nub is what identifies when you are talking or not. It's confusing considering the name.

- Even competitive headsets cannot stand up to wind. Some may argue Plantronics and other companies make a headset that works a little better, but in a stiff wind there's no hope. Case in point: Professional microphone booms for tv/movies have huge rubber/fur-ish coverings to shield from wind, and even they have a hard time blocking it. It's really lesser of two evils.

- Many people have had complaints about the earpiece and I agree. Luckily, there's an easy mod to it: Purchase a set of Jabra earjel replacements, and put that instead of the standard earjel provided with the Jawbone. Not only does it direct the sound better into your ear, but it's also effective enough to hold it in place without the ear loop (at least for me). Hopefully, they'll update the design to include something similar.

As for me, I've been using the Jawbone for nearly a year, and no real complaints...the charger though is having issues connecting to it, but AT&T says I can take it in for an exchange. I still believe in this product because I love the fact that I can have my car stereo turned all the way up, be in moving traffic AND have the window down, but when I ask someone if they can hear anything but me the usual reply is 'I hear something in the background, but I hear you better.' Priceless!