Slashdot Mirror
Bluetooth Headset Roundup
Faeton writes "
HowardChui.com has 5 nifty Bluetooth cellphone headsets reviewed. Looks like we're moving towards the StarTrek Comm unit (check out the size of the Nextlink Bluespoon Digital headset!)"
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
I liked the round-up but what matters to me most is price, and I could not find price info anywhere. How much do these things cost?
I don't remember Kirk having his Phaser set to 'Outdoors' or 'Silent'
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
What's with the Bluetooth folks? I've been hearing about this stuff for ages, yet there's so little in the way of actual products out there. What gives?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Price of new mobile phone: $400
Price of bluetooth headset: $60
The look on that chick's face as she sees you talking to yourself with what looks like a cybernetic implant in your ear: Priceless
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
I have been doing some modifications to 802.11b notebook cards, namely to increase the potential range of receiving connections... for purely legitimate purposes, of course *cough*
Anywho- I was wondering what sorts of antennae mods could be used to increase the range of bluetooth signals...
A lot of the new cell phones have bluetooth connectivity, I was wondering what sort of fun could be had with a bluetooth sniffing program, or a jammer, for that manner...
Yeah, but which one works well when driving down the freeway in a topless jeep with the (mud) tires howling at 75mph?
Looks like we're moving towards the StarTrek Comm unit
I hope people don't start talking in klingon in public while using one of these...
Hi.
Can anyone point me to links that will tell me when i will be able to use bluetooth headsets such as my jabra earphone that he reviewed with REGULAR phones. Either thru and adapter or a new phone.
Thank you...
A closer example of a Start Trek Comm unit would be this unit from Vocera. Of course, there is also the Nextel system which both behaves and looks surprisingly similar to the communicators from the original Star Trek series.
I had mixed results with the Jabra and a non-Bluetooth phone.
It worked reasonable well with my Timeport, but not as well with my wife's Samsung. However, even with the Timeport, it was a pain to Accept a call, or Terminate one. I constantly had to go back to using the phone's button, rather than the headset buttons.
Another problem was determining whether or not it was still in Active mode or on Standby. There is a sound tone which goes up in pitch or down in pitch when you turn it on/off. Most of the time, I wound up leaving it on, having the battery drain, and then not having it charged when I wanted to use it.
The other thing was having to have carry around both the phone and the adapter. It'll will stay in the drawer until I find a Bluetooth phone (although Verizon seems determined to prevent me from finding one), and then we'll see if it was worth buying.
If you want to talk hands free when you're out and about on you mobile and you don't have the cash to spend on Bluetooth headsets, these things are ideal
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
These devices will not do much to lessen the distraction drivers have when talking on their mobiles.
f ic -evidence.html
The issue is the immediacy of the mobile phone conversation. It diverts the attention that a driver needs to be placing elsewhere.
http://cartalk.cars.com/About/Drive-Now/scienti
Studies have shown that there is negligible difference in the increased accident probability for users of these devices as opposed to hand-helds.
If you need to take a call on your commute, do us all a favor and pull over!
sorry...i'm a phrase nazi.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
As an aside, I find that HowardChui.com is a very informative resource for all sorts of cell-phone tech. Definately worth adding to your bookmark list!
(PS. If someone wants to buy me the Bluespoon, I'd be much obliged...)
Bluetooth is kinda like the first time you ever used a remote control for the TV instead of getting up to change the channel. (For those of you who have ever had to actually do that.)
You make one device discoverable and tell the other to search. And if the profiles are set so that the devices can make sense of each other, they start working.
I believe with Macs you can control iTunes with the phone (sounds cool) and others are working on getting Winzip to function.
My experience:
I have a Sony T68i phone w/ Bluetooth. My grey market USB adapter from Mitsumi was a dud, but the second US model worked pretty well thanks to some Widcomm software. There isn't much I've done that couldn't be achieved with a cable, so maybe it is just pure, uncut geek factor.
A major problem Bluetooth is currently facing is interoperability. During the test it seems that some of the headsets were paired with different phones, but they were mostly Nokia phones (which supposedly do not differ too much when it comes to the BT implementation).
Buying one of those earpieces and trying to pair it with your [fill in brand here unless Nokia] phone could be difficult. Not to mention the BT dongle for the PC. If you were hoping for a hands-free headset that gives you more Counterstrike kills, you'll probably find that your dongle does not support the necessary profiles.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
Bluetooth: erasing the descernable difference between people with really nice cellphones and those with advanced delusional schizophrenia.
Is that person mubling behind you on the train really an important businessman, or does he just think he is? Worse, is that CIA agent who just dialled your number real, or is he just one of the voices? With bluetooth(tm) there's essentially no way to know!
Next thing you'll be thinking you're living in some kind of futuristic hi-tech paradise where people communicate with lightning-powered machines. Yeah right - you're really still back at the pigfarm on Jutland and it's still 1282. Get used to it.
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
I saw this article today and found it very interesting. For all the screaming about the dangers of driving while using cell phones (obviously there are dangers), the AAA study found cell phones to be much lower on the list of problems than one might expect. Far more problems were cause by some very mundane things that I am sure we are all guilty of at some time or another. Notice the statistics at the bottom of the article.
No figures for this anywhere. Do you need a tin foil hat to use one?
The author notes that the Nokia comes with a removable NiHM battery. He then complains that NiMH's suck, because they have memory effects. This is not the case. NiCd batteries have a memory effect, not NiMH's.
... is a bluetooth headset that doesn't make me look silly.
this is not possible with current technology. the way bluetooth works is by creating a localized field of ionized nerd particles, that is then used as the carrier medium for bluetooth signaling. nerd particles are generated by things such as pda's, usb data sticks, certain ringtones, linux, and watches with calculators in them, and they naturally dissipate into the atmosphere and decay into harmless forms such as boba pearls. however, bluetooth acts as a concentrator, keeping the nerd particles from collapsing and creating a short range distortion field, making thing within it seem extremely nerdy. engineers are still working on resolving this issue, although an interim solution is to have a really hot girlfriend.
I liked and understood his review. He clearly stated his benchmarking process, and included tests of things real people do. He made mention of things that normal people find annoying. The bit about 'my father has a large ear canal' made me laugh.
If only more video card reviews were like this.
Yay me!
Am I the only one that would love a Bluetooth headset for my computer? I use Mac OS X and have a number of speakable items, and it would be a great boon if I could I use a headset as the exclusive input/output for spoken commands. Why do I never see a single one of these things even make an effort at breaking into the desktop market?
yeah, i look like like a 6' 3" shaved head borg with the sony/ericsson ear piece (which is priceless) but... man what a pain in the butt.
you have to recharge the thing... and i don't know about you -- but i barely get the time to charge my phone as needed. it's also unfortunate you can't chain together charging devices like this -- but that is a whole different gripe.
you have to work with a new interface on the damn ear piece to answer the phone (or send the call back to phone) which is a hurdle. yeah laugh away smart boy... try three of these devices and for a few months and drop one important call and you will never use it again.
because of artifacts of digital transmission (jitter buffers and individual buffer sample size) the use of blue tooth headsets increases the end to end delay over a sometimes already intollerable cellphone network delay.
the price is insane.
reception with the phone is not perfect. I don't understand everything about interference but there is a lot of it... and, again, if you are on an important call you and can't hear the other person you are likely to just drop this thing in the trash.
blueTooth's transmission wave length is in the range of microwaves (i.e. water heating range). why would anyone want that radiation near their brain.
to sum up: save your money...
well actually...
Power Pad Offers Easy Recharge
Let's see... the lowest cost unit in the roundup is $70, and it's replacing:
:-)
- 3 feet of wire,
- an earphone, and
- a microphone,
which is available at my local dollar store. Yes, for one dollar (cash American) I can get the same wired earbud/microphone that came with my Motorola phone (free), except without the logo.
WiFi at least keeps people from having to ruin a perfectly good weekend or two, drilling holes in walls and fishing cables. But Bluetooth???
I've never understood why someone would want to replace a high security, exquisitely simple, low cost device with a complex, battery consuming, expensive, insecure device. It's not like you have the option of running SSH or IPSEC over Bluetooth, even if you wanted to.
Besides, earphones are cool! You wear them with sunglasses and you look like a narc.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
The software you're referring to is called "Clicker," by Salling Software. It can be used not just to control iTunes, but also basically anything else which responds to AppleScript commands.
Note - there is a non-zero chance that this is completely useless. But it's hella cool. Make sure to watch their video (QuickTime required).
If so, why does documentation from the manufacturers themselves often warn of this? Did they fall for the UL too?