We got a glimpse at Spracht's new Aura EQ Bluetooth headset
back at CES this year, but in reality, we sort of didn't -- what was being shown back then didn't constitute final ID, turns out. The company's back at it here at CTIA showing something closer to what you'll be seeing on store shelves later this half -- though they only had one, and it wasn't in final retail packaging -- so we took a minute to check it out. It's using the same tricky earbud that we saw before, but the front of the unit has changed significantly -- gone are the matte ridges, replaced with a glossy black surface broken up by a few bumps that represent the range of the capacitive volume slider. If "understated" is the look you're going for, the Aura EQ is generally going to do the trick -- and even if you like something a little more edgy, it's got those funky points on the front and rear. Quite the crowd pleaser, eh?
posted March 25th 2010 7:21PM
The Tholians called... they want their spaceship back.
@Samurai Jack
or did they? wait until 500+ of these have been deployed in one city . . . you might be in for a surprise. a netted surprise.
I think they really took an interesting design and made it incredibly boring. It was pretty high concept and different looking with the matte ridges. With the glossy finish, it just seems like every other small, black, dull bluetooth headset.
Also, why do we need yet another headset like this? Just for the capacitive volume control? That's cool, but a pretty minimal thing to differentiate the Spracht headset from all the other high end headsets.
I'm still waiting for noise cancelling that doesn't suck. I've tried all the high end headsets out right now (Jawbone Prime, BlueAnt Q1, Motorola HX1, Plantronics 975 and Voyager Pro, SoundID 400, Jabra Extreme). They all have pretty crappy unnatural voice quality (except the Voyager Pro and to a lesser extent the 975). And the noise cancelling is okay for a car, but not any kind of interior space that has a lot of people and other noise sources in the background. You're better off just talking on your handset, if you can. Don't believe people who say their callers can't tell the difference between the good noise cancelling headsets and a regular cell phone.
The future of Bluetooth headsets lie in one universal feature: SMS to speech. With the ability to receive instantaneous messages from Weather.com, Facebook, Twitter, CNN, and other relevant sources, the power of having any information that concerns you spoken into your ear as soon as it happens will change human life. Jane anyone?
ADD nightmare anyone?
That just sounds incredibly annoying. Unless you have a very specific need for that kind of constant information update/interruption, I can't see being desirable at all. Still, I won't be surprised to see it happen.
No ETA on the release? Just curious. Although they've kind of lost me by changing the look.... might just get a Jawbone Icon now.