At first glance, the Zivio Boom seems like a novel approach to the Bluetooth headset problem, but as we experienced, it's actually a little less pleasure and a touch more pain. The design and packaging of the product are highly stylized and sufficiently handsome to be sure, but once you get down to the meat, this peripheral leaves quite a bit to be desired. In our tests, not only was the sound quality of the earpiece far below the standards you'd expect from a product in this price range ($129.95), but the general design of the Boom is lacking in many regards. Firstly, the ear-clip is held onto the device by a magnet -- and not a very powerful one at that -- which renders the component largely useless. The headset does an okay job of staying on with the varying size bud attachments, but it still felt a bit heavy without hanging it off of something. All of that might be surmountable were it not for the abysmal sound quality we experienced. The thin, telescoping microphone seemed like it would do a better job at picking up audio than a standard Bluetooth headset, but it didn't hold up next to Jawbone's offerings, and the fragility of the metal makes it seem like we're only a day or two away from cashing in the warranty. The reception quality wasn't any better -- we literally had to ask a friend of ours if they were speaking through a towel. Both on the receiving and transmitting ends, we found the Boom to be a disappointment. There's no question that this is a good looking device -- just not one that we can really recommend.

Announced at the turn of the year, Joby's 13-gram Zivio Boom Bluetooth 2.1+EDR headset with 10-hours of talk time (300 hours standby) is now shipping. The obvious feature here is that extending boom, which grows from a base of 53.5-mm to a delicate 137-mm. That little trick puts the mic directly in front of your hot, steaming chat box which supposedly results in better audio pickup (no yelling!) to the benefit of those on the receiving side of the call (and around you). $130, that's how much.

Generally speaking, boom microphones run counter to the logic that a Bluetooth headset should be as small and discreet as possible, but Joby may have stumbled upon a solution that brings the audio benefits without making the sides of our faces look too ridiculous. The Zivio Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR headset features a small, stylish body just 53.5mm in length and a retractable metal stalk for the boom; when it's fully extended, you're looking at a 137mm long wonder with the mic conveniently placed directly in front of your pie hole. The idea is to maximize the voice to background noise ratio while maintaining some semblance of fashion, and if the actual product holds true to the press shots, it looks like they may have succeeded. Look for an official unveiling at CES next week.