Bluetooth Headsets

There are Bluetooth headsets, and then there’s Jabra, the patriarch of making the art of conversation, portable.

Jabrareleased the Jabra SUPREME. This is said to be the first AND only non-stereo headset to combine Noise Blackout™ 3.0 and Wind-Noise Reduction technology with Active Noise Cancellation.

Separately, these qualities will make a very good headset, but combine them, and your product will reign “Supreme”.

I have reviewed many products from Jabra over the last couple of years, from headsets, to speakers and more.

With each new product, come new features that seem to outdo their previous releases and products. Well this newest release, gives Jabra the quintessential WOW factor in the form of the Jabra Sport. It is (as far as my research shows) the ONLY Bluetooth enabled, stereo headset that spans platforms and devices (see tested on) all while incorporating a built in FM radio. And one more thing, it takes calls too.

This was paired with and tested on;

Jabra has recently released a trifecta of Bluetooth products that may very well be the 3 best products they have produced;

• The Jabra Wave
• The Jabra Cruiser 2
• The Jabra Easy Call

I have reviewed pretty much all that Jabra has to offer over the last two years, and recently crossing two columns.

Once unboxed, all three Bluetooth devices were charged for a recommended first time charge. Each device was paired with three different phones/players; The iPhone 4, Blackberry Curve and the iPod Touch 2g.

Unfortunately, Apple's official support for Bluetooth devices is pretty weak. Keyboard support is limited (not all otherwise, with third-party "hacks", usable models are supported) and there's no true game controller / mouse / external GPS support at all.

Fortunately, there are a lot of utilities in Cydia (accessible from any jailbroken iDevice) that provide help in using these devices.

UPDATE (20:15 CET, the same day): a reader at MacRumors, Night Spring, has mentioned I've forgotten to point out the other and, in this case, Phone Disk-less and even Windows-friendly way of quickly transferring a complete directory structure to GoodReader running on the iDevice: zip all the files up into one big ZIP file and drop it into the File Sharing frame of GoodReader in iTunes. I've even prepared a video showing this:

Atomic 9 gives you that secret agent feel with the Bluetooth Wristband Speaker. I saw this in a press release recently and had to see it.

Once unboxed, I charged it for a couple of hours and it was ready to go. It was tested with two different Bluetooth devices; an iPod Touch 2G (with Skype) and the Blackberry Curve 8330.

As you may well know, in the past, I've published several articles (last one, testing 3.1.2 on the 3G and 3G S, HERE; one of pre-4.1 full AVRCP emulation HERE) on Bluetooth headphones and A2DP, the standard for music transfer between a mobile device and a pair of stereo headphones.

 

I made a visit to my local Apple Store today and purchased both the Plantronics Discovery 975 and the Jawbone Icon (The Thinker). My goal was to find an earpiece that would help me not only take phone calls while I work and listen to my music, but also increase the sound volume for me. (I have some hearing loss.)