Review: Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset

The Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset has unique (and uniquely effective) noise cancellation noise cancellation technology congenital-in. Read on for a WMExperts video demo (warning! We're testing noise-cancellation so information technology's, ah, loud) and a full review of this crawly headset.

Update: Breaking the rules of blogging hither past moving this review back up to the top so I can let yous know the WMExperts Store now has the Aliph Jawbone in stock (in grey).

Video

Download the full video in Windows-Mobile friendly WMV.

"Dissonance is Nothing"

Aliph's slogan for the Jawbone ($149.95 at the WMExperts Store) is "Noise is Nothing," and I accept to say information technology'southward pretty darn close to the truth. As yous can see in the above video, the Jawbone tin can handle very loud situations with aplomb -- it didn't sound perfect, but keep in heed I was standing less than iii feet from a speaker set at maximum volume. In less noisy situations, the groundwork racket is indeed "nothing" (during my voiceover for the last section of the video my true cat was actually meowing incessantly in the groundwork).

The Jawbone works by using a physical "nub" that stays in constant contact with your face. The nub detects the vibrations associated with your voice and filters out all other racket - pregnant the caller on the other end should pretty much just hear you lot. You tin plow the "dissonance shield" on and off, though it defaults to "on" for every call and in practise I can't meet a skilful reason to plough it off.

Design

front-tm.jpg (Image 251)

The headset itself is a affair of beauty. It's all plastic (except the ear hook), though information technology has a sort of coating on it that really makes it seem very metallic. The buttons on the headset are actually somewhat "subconscious" underneath the faceplate. They number simply two, each of which has multiple functions.

The "Talkd/Terminate" button is hidden nether the carmine side (there's a little bump on the headset to indicate where it is). This button will, as y'all'd wait, start and end calls. It also turns the headset on and off. Pressing it once speedily with a compatible phone volition initiate a vocalisation command (more on that below).

The other button is the "Noise Shield" button, it's the black slice of the headset. With the headset powered off, you hold this button down to initiate pairing more (no mulipoint, though, sadly). As usual, the pairing code is 0000. During a call, the black button has multiple uses - property it downward toggles the noise shielf and pressing it quickly cycles the volume up through 6 levels of volume and and so back down once again to the minimum.

The idea here is a noble one - Aliph calls this blackness button the "noise shield" push instead of the "volume button" because the thought is that you can allow the ambient racket sensor automatically adjust the volume for your given situation. In exercise, this never works as well as intended. So while replacing the standard "upward and downwardly" book buttons with a single button makes for a pretty look, I personally detect information technology to exist a bad design choice.

The Jawbone uses a propriatery connector, and though it seats cleanly into that connector, I exercise wish they had just gone with mini-usb. Once again, I think the balance betwixt looks and functionality is off hither.

On the other mitt, the cable itself is a unproblematic usb cablevision, pregnant yous can charge it off your laptop while on the go. Fifty-fifty better, the Air-conditioning adapter is just a AC->usb adapter, meaning yous can use it to charge your other usb devices - overnice touch, there.

Back to the headset, the only other blueprint choice to note is that the status light, betwixt the 2 "push button zones" is nice: a white led that is orange when charging. Afterwards the long period of OMG I'M A BLUE LED on bluetooth headsets, it'south a relief to meet some subtlety again.

Sound Quality and Compatibility

Sound quality for your caller we've covered pretty well in the video, merely it'southward worth repeating: it'south darn good. For you, the sound quality (and range) is equally good. The volume thing is a hassle, aye, just possibly I'yard beingness a bit overly-harsh. For nigh usage and for somebody who isn't (notwithstanding) hard of hearing, it should be simply fine. The inclusion of multiple ear-pads means you'll be able to find one that not only is comfortable but also should channel volume directly into your ear.

As far as compatibility goes, I don't have annihilation spectacular to written report. It tested just fine with a T-Mobile Dash, Treo 750v, T-Mobile MDA, and heck, even with a MacBook Pro. Additionally, for those of y'all with HTC's "voice tag" application (ex. T-Mobile Dash, MDA, SDA, Cingular 3125, etc.), the Talk/End button activates that simply fine.

I found range to be on the upper-end of the standard bluetooth range. Not the ridiculous 33 feet that is supposed to be the standard for all bluetooth devices, but xx feet was no trouble.

Bombardment Life, Condolement, etc.

Aliph specs the Jawbone at about six hours of talk fourth dimension with the racket shield technology turned on. I had no bug with that sort of battery life myself, though you can (manually, every time you become a call) turn the noise shield off to get more life out of it. For me, 6 hours is more plenty. Standby time is 120 hours. Both of those specs appear to exist pretty authentic given only less than a week of testing. The Jawbone goes from dead-empty to a full charge in virtually ii-3 hours.

The headset is also very comfortable, which is slightly surprising given its blueprint constraints. One of the side-effects of the noise shield technology is that if the headset is non in abiding contact with your face, you caller will literally not hear yous at all, every bit the headset volition interpret annihilation that isn't sync'ed to its detected vibrations as background noise. The assistance with this, there is a weak spring attached to the ear hook which keeps the headset pressed to your face. Thankfully, the spring isn't and so stiff that it's uncomfortable.

There are 5 different earhooks included in the box so y'all can find one that fits all-time. The earhooks have a piddling rubber "sleeve" over them which actually comes away from the metal portion of the hook a bit - the consequence of which is that the headset is more than firmly fastened to you lot ear with some gentle "springyness". All the the higher up, even so, wasn't enough to make the Jawbone pass the "horizontal head shake" examination - if only because holding my head sideways and shaking information technology made the white nub lose contact with my face. So: not a headset for the "Night at the Roxbury" guys.

Determination

When we starting time got the Aliph Jawbone in, my buddy called me upwardly with information technology.

Chris: "Can you guess where I am?"
Me: "Uh, no."
Chris: "I'g at the Daytona 500, five rows back."
Me: "You lie. I don't hear anything."
Chris: "Wait, here come the cars around the rails."

...At which point Chris kept talking. I could hear him somewhat over the roar of the cars equally they passed by him, afterwards he may also take been calling me from a library. He was continuing in the middle of a gigantic crowd of Nascar fans and the merely time I knew information technology was when the cars were directly in from of him, as the moving-picture show shows.

So yes, I'thou sugariness on the Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset. If you're looking for the best noise canceling headset out there, this is the ane.

This huge Xbox 'Quick Resume' update will give gamers more control

Xbox Insiders Update

This huge Xbox 'Quick Resume' update volition give gamers more command

Microsoft is adding a new feature to Xbox consoles, allowing yous to permanently store up to ii games in a Quick Resume state at all times. The feature is heading out first to Xbox Insiders in the Alpha testing band before striking the full general public.