bluetoothheadset
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Jawbone founder Hosain Rahman interviewed: "The market was crap"
Those design nuts over at PSFK recently talked with Hosain Rahman of Jawbone fame. The new headset is turning heads with its design chops and technical noise-canceling merit, so it's interesting to hear the impetus behind the upcoming product: "The market was crap and the offering sub-standard." Hosain's Jawbone headset, designed by Yves Behar, was built to be an alternative to the cheap Asian imports. The Jawbone includes frills like medical grade plastic, since a headset touches the skin for so many hours a day, and of course that vibration sensor (to activate the noise cancellation) and dual microphones are a nice step up from the average headset. Hosain views himself in the "audio gateway" biz, which sounds like a good place to be, with consumers increasingly tethered to iPods, cellphones and VoIP sessions, and Bluetooth convergence of all three imminent. Peep a Jawbone shakycam unboxing vid after the break, or hit up the read link for the full interview.
Sony Ericsson announces HBV-100 Bluetooth VoIP kit
Sony Ericsson has ventured into VoIP territory before with its Bluetooth headsets, but in that case the headset had the slight drawback of only being compatible with Sony's own VAIO BX laptops. Now the company's finally seen fit to give other PC users a break with its latest Bluetooth VoIP kit, although Mac users are, unfortunately, still out of luck. The headset in the kit is Sony Ericsson's existing HBH-PV705 model, available in blue only, and promising the same 12 hours of talk time and 300 hours standby time as before. It gets paired with a USB Bluetooth adapter, which means that you don't have to worry about having a PC or laptop with built-in Bluetooth, although its not clear if you can take advantage of that if you do -- probably not, since there's apparently no software or drivers involved here. Sony Ericsson hasn't announced how much it'll cost just yet, though it should be available before the end of the year.[Thanks, Alex A.]
iLuv's i202 and i903 Bluetooth headsets
The first thing you may have noticed about the iLuv i202 headphones up there is the lack of wires. Oh sure, they're Bluetooth 1.2 so there's no need to jack into your DAP. However, unlike all the other stereo-capable Bluetooth headphones we've seen, these lack any type of connectivity between the cans -- No little wire, no strap, nothing. So either they're being a bit devious with the product shots or we've got a first here. Nevertheless, they bring a nice looking design along with support for A2DP (stereo) and AVRCP (remote control) profiles on top of the handsfree and headset profiles to make 'em equally at home with your Bluetooth cellphone in and out of the car or for listening to your MP3 player. Yes, iPod too just as long as you don't mind lugging around the included iLuv Bluetooth transmitter. The i202 features a 200 hour standy time and will seamlessly switch between music and incoming calls with up to 13-hours of talk time or 14-hours of stereo audio before needing to pull a charge over the included USB power adapter. Each can weighs 51-grams with one sporting play/pause/skip/volume controls for AVRCP-equipped devices. $90 and shipping now. iLuv also has a set of i903 noise-canceling Bluetooth Headphones available with all the same features but 300 hours standby / 8 hours audio / 9 hours talk time. Yours for $100 -- picture after the break. Update: We just received word from Wise Han, Director of R&D for jWIN (the OEM apparently), that the iLuv i202 cans are indeed wired. Sigh. They have also replaced the picture (now above) to avoid further confusion, and presumably, litigation.[Via iLounge]
Mvox Duo Bluetooth headset and speakerphone
It's hard to believe this is a first (you listening China, Korea?) but Mvox is calling their Mvox Duo the "world's first all-in-one wearable smart communicator." Surely, it's not the fact that this Bluetooth headset can be used with your cellphone, hands-free car kit, or favorite VoIP application (yes, it works with Skype), so it has to be the fact that it does all that and contains a speakerphone. The speakerphone with "patent-pending small array microphone technology" is said to allow the device to offer near 100% voice recognition. In other words, it's designed to "grab the speaker's voice" while blocking-out the background noise. It can also be attached to the PC via USB cable which hopefully doubles-up as a charger. Available Q4 which could mean next week, for $199, list.
Datel's Bluetooth headset unhooks your 360
Ok, so it requires a dongle, big deal? We just think it's funny that Datel, the hacky console accessory manufacturer extraordinaire has an Xbox 360 Bluetooth headset long before Microsoft's own wireless headset is due to hit shelves. Assuming, of course, that Datel fulfills their June 30th pre-order launch date; apparently the first release listed for this thing was March 17th, and Datel doesn't even officially acknowledge the product on their site. And on top of all that, then you're gonna have to deal with the £59.99 ($110 US) price, and the fact that it's on Amazon UK, bucko. But we figure if you're willing to pay $110 for a wireless headset, none of this business should be all that daunting for you in the first place, right?[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Bluetooth headset finally on the way
Xboxic points X360F to this Amazon UK listing for the much vaunted Datel Bluetooth headset. Amazon currently has the item available for pre-order, with a release date of June 30th. I'd take this release with a grain of salt though: the original date from Datel was March 17th. Datel's awful website still makes no mention of the product at all. Of course, let's not forget that it's still awfully pricey at about $105 US for the adapter/headset package. Hopefully, Datel will get a clue and realize that some people already have a headset and just need the Bluetooth adapter. I mean, it's not like people have been making adapters themselves... [Via Xboxic]
