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Plantronics offers affordable wireless audio for your workouts
Plantronics' latest BackBeat wireless headphones have tended to focus on value for your hard-earned cash, and that's definitely the focus today. It's launching a range of BackBeat Fit headphones that promise sweat-resistant designs without a huge outlay. The BackBeat Fit 300 in-ears are billed as some of the lightest Bluetooth headphones on the planet, with stable earpieces and low-friction cloth cables, but the cost is relatively easy to swallow at $80/£90 -- the only big catch is the so-so 6-hour battery life. And if you tend to work out more at the gym, the Fit 500 on-ears (shown up top) give you 18 hours of comfier playback for $100/£90.
The word is on the street about Altec Lansing's BackBeat Bluetooth headphones
We all yearn for a life lived sans wires, yet many of us still find our media players dangling from the things. Mono Bluetooth headsets are already everywhere, but this could be the year that those of the stereo variety take off, and Altec Lansing's hoping its new BackBeat series will be a contender. They're made in partnership with earpiece-guru Plantronics, so callers will find integrated voice dialing, omnidirectional microphones, 7 hours of talk time, and AudioIQ to boost volume when you're in a noisy situation. For the music listener the sets include tune-channeling, canal-sealing buds, a behind-the-head band, and support for A2DP, AVRCP, HSP v1.1 and HFPv1.5. For those devices that list doesn't cover (we're looking at you, iPhone), the $130 BackBeat 906 includes a small transmitter. Everyone else can opt for the otherwise identical but transmitter-less BackBeat 903, which is $30 cheaper. We look forward to getting our ears on these at CES -- hopefully after they've had a thorough cleaning. [Via iPodNN]
