With the new impending crackdown on making calls on the move, I dug out the headphones that came with the XDA II and found that they just wont stay in my ear and keep dropping out.
Can any one suggest a single earpiece replacement with a answer/end button that will work on the XDA II ??
I have looked around for a single earphone and found the one that came with the sharp GX 1 works but does not have answer button,my other suggestion would be to buy a pack of earphone foamy things which will make the standard unit much better. Hope this helps.
The earphones that come with the XDA I/II are really pretty good - EXCEPT that they don't stay in your ear. I tried a few others, but couldn't find any that had volume control and answer and were stereo. One of them I tried along the way was from Jabra - which comes with different sized "ear gels" to put on the earpiece.
I took these ear gels, and put them on the XDA headphones and voila! Full featured earphones that are comfortable and stay in my ear!
You can find these gels pretty easily... Here is what they look like:
http://www.cellular4sale.com/jabjeweargel.html
http://www.cellularconceptsonline.com/hf.htm
Regards,
xnappo
I thought the xdaII came with earphones designed for human beings? Perhaps only some of us then...... they stay in my ears..... they seem to have rubber sides which helps.
Plantronics has one of their new headfree headsets that work with the PocketPC. I forgot which model exactly, but saw it at the T-Mobile store recently. It had a litte "rubber" part that fit around your ear to help hold it in place. Try to check that out.
Why dont you try buying any pair of headphones you like, remove the in-ear headphones and attatching the ones you baught them to the mic part. I got an audio specialist to do this for me and he only charged me £5. Now I have all the features and comfortable loud headphones with bass.
Anyone who can hold a soldering iron can modify your existing headset.
You just have to unsolder the wires from the earpieces on the pcb with the mic and have the one you like soldered in place.
Or you could use a 3,5 mm female plug with a short piece of wire instead, so you can connect whatever you want as heaset.
I just got my Nextlink Bluespoon Digital which I bought from Alphanet (an ebay seller). Paid USD$289.85 (AUD$420 landed). Not such a bad price considering that expansys is selling them for AUD$650.
Initial impressions? Rather disappointing. The build quality is rather poor. I ordered two, and both of them showed mold and glue marks. My example has a hair trapped under the LED. You can see the shadow when the LED illuminates.
Outgoing sound quality is outstanding. I tested it on the way home by sticking my head out the window and into the wind. The other party could still hear me speaking. The Jabra BT200 which I borrowed for a while would drown out in white noise.
Incoming sound quality is rather average. This is because the headset is just not loud enough! Conversations are audible when there is little ambient noise but one you are sitting in a car it becomes very difficult to hear anything.
The headset is very comfortable. I have been wearing it for the past 2 hours now and it still feels OK.
yeah like jos say right over the pickup button and mic
and then a female 3.5mm minijack and then plug in ones better
headset would work just fine
it's just solvdering those wires may not be too easy for newbies
as they are somewhat thin
and if people mess up they dont have anything to fall back on
Being a cheapskate I took the spongey bits of a spare set of in ear heaphones and put them over the XDA ones - they stay in a treat now.
Does anyone know about this Blue Tooth headset - it's a dog tag with ear buds. Looks great, but can't seem to find it in the USA. Does anyone have one and if so how do you like it and where can I get it?
Fry's has them
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/54...prKSJ8pDg**.node1?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Thanks!
Does anyone have one? Pros? Cons?
BT3030 - my feedback
I just got a Jabra BT3030 a few days ago and I have used it a few times now. Here is a quick feedback.
First impression right out of the box is that the build quality is pretty good. The controls have a silicone / rubber 3D texture over a stainless steel backing that makes them easy to find and operate. The controls are also big enough to be used with gloves (important to me since I use it while doing outdoors activity). The most frequently used buttons are the largest (full width of the device) and at opposite ends, good design.
The BT3030 comes both with a neck strap (nice metal one, can be replaced with anything you like) and a plastic clip to clip it to a shirt pocket, etc... The clip looks and feels pretty flimsy and I wouldn’t trust it for anything more than just preventing the BT3030 from flapping around when on the neck strap.
Finally in the box there is a set of headphones (in the ear style), two pairs (small and large) ear bud shell, an AC charger, a “getting started” guide and the usual legal notices.
My BT3030 powered up right out of the box, but I still charged it for a couple of hours before using it. One of the great thing is that it uses a mini USB port for charging. This is a critical selection factor for me as I am trying to standardize on mini USB for as many devices as I can to make my like easier - and not have to carry one charger per device.
Pairing with my ATT Tilt was a breeze and I got it going within a couple of minutes.
As mentioned earlier, the BT3030 comes with a set of headphones (look nice enough), but since there is a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack connector, you can use you favorite headphones (I use a pair of Sony MDR-EX71 - not top of the line, but still pretty good one). The headset connector is on the side of the unit, which isn’t the greatest for cable management: I would have preferred it on top, where the neck strap attaches, but that’s a minor detail.
For music testing I used both the windows media player as well as PocketMusic 5.0. and there the results are mixed.
On the plus side, the BT3030 works as advertised.
I was able to record voice tag for contacts and use the voice calling feature with no problem.
I made a few phone calls with it and the sound quality was very good at both ends (or so was the persons I called claim).
Listening to music, I am able to start / stop / skip to next / previous track with both applications.
When a calls comes in while listening to music, there is a beep in the headphones and your can decided to take (click on the call button) or ignore (click and hold the call button) the call. You can terminate the call by pressing the call button. Music playing will resume automatically within a few seconds of the call been terminated (by either party). On the music application side, I found that Pocket Music would take longer (10+ seconds) to resume playing and it would reset at the beginning of the song that was played while interrupted while Window Player would resume within 5 seconds where it left off.
Finally, there are no independent volume settings for call / music, which could be a problem depending on what you listen / etc…
On the minus side, a few issues:
Volume management: when you press the volume up / down on the BT3030, it is not clear which volume it is controlling: the BT3030, the Tilt system volume or the music application volume. After some testing, I came to the conclusion that they all operate independently and that the volume buttons on the BT3030 control the internal amplification volume of the Jabra BT3030 itself.
Max volume: which bring the next complain. The max volume on the BT3030 is just shy of what I need (I am getting older, but I am not deaf yet ) . For regular listening (loud music, both ear buds plugged it), it is adequate. My major use is for listening to podcasts when I ride my mountain bike (got keep you brain occupied during these longs grinds uphill) and between the usually lower volume level of the podcasts and the wind noise generated around the ear buds, the max volume generated by the BT3030 is just a few click short of what I need.
Fast forward / reverse: This last issue has to do with the inability to fast forward / reverse through music. I was expecting that keeping either the << or >> buttons pressed on the BT3030 would fast reverse / forward through the current song. Well, it doesn’t work, it just skips to the previous / next song in the playlist. At this point I am not sure whether it is a limitation of the BT3030 itself or a issue with the Bluetooth profile.
Summary:
Plus:
- Works as advertised
- Mini USB interface for charging
- Small, rugged, splashproof
Minuses
- Flimsy clip
- Max volume not enough
- Fast forward / Reverse not working
Denis
Got mine today..
So far so good - it is wasy to set up and exactly what I needed. Not one for those big earclip type of devices.
As mentioned by Denis the volume on the BT3030 could be higher and I would like to see more detail in the instructions. Still figuring out what the light paterns mean.
Do you think it is good for sports? I sweat a lot, and I'm afraid it might damage the headset/dogtag... I live in South America, but there's a friend abroad who might bring me one of those, and I was thinking about one of these or the LCD ones.
Sports
It seems tough enough for that kind of thing to me - it's metal and rubber. THe ear buds seems to been suitable as well plus comforatble
How's the sound quality with this thing for both calls and music? I have the Tritton AX Bluestream:
http://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRIBH102.html
AKA Sonorix C3:
http://www.sonorix.com/eng/index.php
and it's essentially the same thing. Mini review:
Pros:
-looks sleek
-OLED screen is very nice
-all features work well with Tilt (Kaiser), including music, calling, music controls, pairing
-Mic seems to work fairly well, but you have to clip it somewhere where your voice easily reaches it and don't expect any background noise cancellation.
Cons:
-maybe I'm picky, but the music sound quality sounds slightly worse than a 128kbps MP3 file, especially during complicated rock songs. In other words, if you're the type who always used the headphones that came with your audio players, it will probably be fine. Metallica sounds okay, but you lose some of the quality in the drums, guitar solos, and symbals. Bass is pretty okay. It seems it's mostly the higher frequencies that are lost.
-controls are very minimal and often confusing. There's like 20 different button combinations to do different things.
-Received sound quality during calls is fairly bad. You can understand what the other person is saying, no doubt, but its VERY "tinny" sounding. Like listening to headphones from a foot away.
-Doesn't automatically pair on power up.
Sound
The sound is good not great - It would be nice if it was just a touch louder. But here is what I really like - you get 3 different size ear buds - in noisy situations putting both in works wonders for calls. I just took it on flight and the ear buds are great for keeping out ambient noise.
Does anyone know if the fast forward / rewind is supposed to work?
As I mentioned in my previous post, I cannot do a fast FW or fast RW with te BT3030. Is that an issue with thie Jabra or with all BT headset (profile issue?)?
Thanks
epauldc29 said:
The sound is good not great - It would be nice if it was just a touch louder. But here is what I really like - you get 3 different size ear buds - in noisy situations putting both in works wonders for calls. I just took it on flight and the ear buds are great for keeping out ambient noise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the other post ledrocnoc said that the volume controlled it's own internal sound. Were the Kaiser system volume and the music player sound at max and it's still slow?
Tilt and player volumes were at maximum...
jym04 said:
In the other post ledrocnoc said that the volume controlled it's own internal sound. Were the Kaiser system volume and the music player sound at max and it's still slow?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my case both the phone (ATT Tilt) and the player (Pocket Music and Windows Media Player) were maxed out. The volume controls on the BT3030 did not seem to affect either of these.
ledrocnoc said:
In my case both the phone (ATT Tilt) and the player (Pocket Music and Windows Media Player) were maxed out. The volume controls on the BT3030 did not seem to affect either of these.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I see, but what I meant to ask was if you thought the volume was still low with all volumes (kaiser, player and dogtag) at max. I ended up writing "slow" instead of "low"
jym04 said:
Oh, I see, but what I meant to ask was if you thought the volume was still low with all volumes (kaiser, player and dogtag) at max. I ended up writing "slow" instead of "low"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I thought you meant ("low" instead of "slow") and what I thought I answered . I just wasn't clear, but yes, with the volumes on the phone and player application and the BT3030 maxed out, it still is fairly "tame" (not ear splitting as one would expect it). Maybe we can thank the lawyers for that (you know, if you physically can't make the volume very loud, you can't hurt your hearing), or maybe the engineers (trying to preserve battery life by limiting the volume)...
Bottom line, with all the volumes maxed out, even with a decent pair of headphones (Sony MD-EX71), it's just OK, not loud by any means (and not, I do not have any hearing problems).
Ow.. that's a shame. I was really looking into this, but there are situations where I need some volume. Guess I'll have to look for another Bt headset.
Thanks a lot.
jym04 said:
Ow.. that's a shame. I was really looking into this, but there are situations where I need some volume. Guess I'll have to look for another Bt headset.
Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, I might end up returning this unit and give a try to the Motorola S705. Same price, not as "rugged", but includes a radio and hopefully a little more "ooomf" in the power department!
You may wanna wait for the motorola s605, seen 'em at CES, similar in size to the Jabra bt3030's but also include fm tuner, but unlike the s705's theres no dislay. They were quoting them at 59 bucks when they come out Q2 2008. I was impressed with 'em, if they hadn't been wired down they would have probably fallen in my pocket as I was leaving (kidding of course.....or am I?)
I've just also had a BT3030 for myself. About £40 including UK postage is not too high a price. I'd rate this headset 4 stars over 5 and recommend it to those who have a good phone that supports Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP.
* Agreed with ledrocnoc that the miniUSB charging port is a unique and cool thing about this headset. I just wonder if I could simply use a USB-miniUSB cable to connect the headset to my laptop then I could throw away hasles of the charging adapter. (@ledrocnoc: do you think I could do this? would there be any problem with voltage or stuffs? Thanks.)
* I'm using the BT3030 with a PDA (HTC Universal / O2 Xda Exec) with built-in Bluetooth 1.2 and with a laptop with built-in Bluetooth 2.0 (both devices come with A2DP and AVRCP). To be honest, I'm so disappointed at the (music) sound quality when using with the PDA. There're much background noise and crack-sound; and even worse, sound distortion is quite noticable. On the contrary, when using with the laptop, the (music) sound is very very good and those disappointments disappear. I guess the main cause is the low transfer rate of Bluetooth 1.2 on my PDA, not the headset itself.
* Until now, I couldn't pair the headset with the BOTH devices (PDA & laptop) simultaneously as advertised. Anybody struggling the same problem? One more thing, pairing process isn't as easy and fast as I expected. Sometimes the laptop couldn't detect and connect the BT3030, but thing's going fine with the PDA.
* I especially love the idea of exchangable earphones. Now I can use my preferred SONY's earphones with this headset (bluetooth adapter, to be exact), although the accompanied Jabra earphones are also very good.
I got a Motorola S705 and I am pretty happy with it...
ngtrannam said:
(@ledrocnoc: do you think I could do this? would there be any problem with voltage or stuffs? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should work. My understanding is that miniUSB is a standard and all devices are interchangeable electrically.
My experience is that if some "chargers" (or USB ports) aren't compatible with some devices it just won't charge them, I have never burned any devices by plugging them with other chargers, etc...
Now, as the title of my reply says, I've returned my BT3030 and I got a Motorola S705, for less $ and it provides more functionality! Here is a quick review:
The pluses so far:
- Mini-usb connection for charging (again, important to me, as I like to minimize the number of chargers I take on the road)
- LCD interface. It's just basic menus, but at least you know exactly what the device is doing instead of trying to decode a combination of LED colors and blinking rate (like on the BT3030)
- Radio... I didn't think I needed it, but it's actually pretty handy. A couple of times I was listening to a radio show in the car when I had to get out... I just tuned the S705 to the same radio station and off I was, show uninterrupted
- Joystick control: I was concerned early on that this would be a pain, but for my use it actually gives me a better control / feel (I use it mostly riding my mountain bike, so I have to be able to operate it with gloves). On the BT3030 I always pusked the wrong button, with the S705, the buttons for answering the phone is on the side and the joystick controls the audio functionality.
- Volume: the S705 can definitively crank out more volume out of the same headset than the BT3030. Not by much, but enough to make worth it (volume issue was a deal killer for me on the BT3030). Note on the volume issue: it will probably not be a problem for most people. What I found out is that the podcast that I listen to most frequently are actually recorded pretty low compared to other podcasts and regular music. Since I have yet to find an automated way of doing volume leveling on podcast (iTunes can, but it ain't compatible with my phone), this has been a key issue for me.
- Headphone jack positioning: on the S705 the headset plugs in at the top of the devices, just in front of the lanyard. This is great if you have a headset with a straight jack, as you can wrap the headset cord around the lanyard, up to your neck and keep the wires from dangling all over the place. On the BT3030, the jack in on the side, which I think would be goodif you had a headset with a right angle jack.
Neutrals:
- Battery life: seems pretty good, but honestly I haven't pushed it. I am sure I'll run out of battery on my phone (ATT Tilt / HTC Kaiser) before the S705 runs out.
- Durability: the BT3030 was "splash proof" and had a nice solid feel with the rubber thingy around it. The S705 feels more fragile, but I've had it during a couple of wet rides and it hasn't been a problem so far. Time will tell.
- Sound quality: good enough for my application (listening to podcasts and music will I ride my mountain bike. These long grinds uphills get really boring really fast without it!).
- Range: not critical for me as my phone is in my backpack or in my breast pocket, but I've been able to get 20 feet a couple of time where I had to walk away from the phone. Good enough for my application!
Cons:
- Bluetooth connection? I've had some instance of Bluetooth connection dropping on the phone side. This is weird because the symptoms are a dropped connection and when I look at the phone, bluetooth is turned off. I just need to turn bluetooth on again and everything works again. I've never had that happen with other bluetooth devices before on that phone, so it would point to the S705, but it doesn't make sense to me...
- Fast FW/ Rev: not sure if this is an issue with the device, the BlueTooth remote control profile or the music player on the phone, but there is no fast forward / reverse functionality. Hitting the >> or << function either with a stab of a continuous push only skips the the next / previous song. I had the same problem with the BT3030 and it's a pain when listening to podcast (where you might want to listed again to a section of particular interest or just skip over something boring).
- Lock switch: it would be nice if there was a switch to lock out the buttons to prevent unintended operation.
Overall 4.5 stars out of 5, so far so good! We'll see about the durability!
Loud A2DP, a chimera, an uncatchable dream still, even if we are walking towards the end of the first 2K decade.
I've tried a lot of them, wasted a lot of money, all of them were dull, low volumed craps of silicon got me everytime going back to wires.
But now I discovered something really worth mentioning. It's not 100% perfect but yes it's 96% perfect (I had Motorola S705 and i'd give it 20%), loud, clear and screaming.
Gentlemen it's Nokia's BH-500. 3.5mm audiojack for your fave earphones and loud loud LOUD.. Espec on my kaiser this thing rocks. It's almost like listening to Pocket Music wired something like a volumeclick down no more..
After everything been through I HAVE to spread the good news guys. No more wasted money on A2DP. (They should allow testing before you buy but they don't. If they did I'be rich )
I'm looking for non-wired now. I'll give BH-503 a try (princess Leia kindastyle). It's new to the market and I trust Nokia in the sound dept. (N91 is the best and loud MP3 player ever ever) so I'll keep you informed..
Dear all,
I've made a review of the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset here: http://blog.evolvedsoftwarestudios....se-introducing-the-jawbone-bluetooth-headset/
The basis of the review was a bluetooth headset purchase with noise cancellation for use with my HTC Kaiser.
I hope that you find the review useful. Feel free to comment here or on my blog, critisism (please do not be rude) or thoughts are welcome.
Many thanks!
Good review, I like all the points you covered. I agree that the Jawbone is probably the best I've heard (pun intended) for noise cancellation. I've tested it under several conditions (extremely loud music; car at highway speeds with windows down; NYC streets) and it cancels noise well.
My only two problems are
a) I can never seem to get the device loud enough. The automatic volume works well enough, but it doesn't seem to go up high enough to cover very loud scenarios, like the NYC streets scenario.
b) I can't get the thing to fit my ear. I've tried every combination of ear buds and ear hooks, but it never fits my ear well. I always have to readjust it every few minutes so it doesn't fall off. I might try that link in your review for the custom ear bud company.
Nice review, the only additional issues I see are;
1 - The Jawbone on Kaiser has a lower inbound audio level that many other phones (an HTC problem really, but other headsets do work OK with kaiser). I use it but it's barely acceptable to me. It would be better with a custom ear bud to direct the sound better.
2 - The Jawbone's noise cancelling is awesome in a speeding car, in a room with lots of background noise, BUT, it fails miserably when exposed to direct wind of almost any velocity. In wind many callers have said that they can barely hear me until I turn and hide the Jawbone from the wind.
3 - The US price is List $129 USD but $80 Street, not bad at all.
4 - The custom charge dongle is a negative, however after you become completely attached to this headset, you'll eventually loose one, or two, and soon have spares! I now have two
Hello,
dis39tif: My Jawbone is pretty loud. The startup beep is uncomfortably loud and leaves my ears ringing if I turn the Jawbone on whilst wearing it.
Initially I had fitting problems as well (falling off), so I chose one of the hooked/lipped earpieces and hook the Jawbone earhook over my ear like putting on a pair of sunglasses. Then I hold the Jawbone with one hand and twist the front part upwards. This puts the sensor on my cheekbone and not my jawbone, but still it works well and the fit is more snug.
RemE: I've read that the Jawbone on Kaiser has been reported ot be quieter. I can't say I've really noticed when trying with the Hermes. Seems the same to me. A custom earbud should help (based on info from other users). I've also read that wind noise isn't blocked while the user is talking, but it isn't blocked on any earpiece and Jawbone still does better than the other sets on the market at keeping unwanted noise out. Re: US pricing, I live in "rip off Britain". Prices for everything is higher here. I wonder if I can get a VISA to live in Delaware Re: charging cable, I'd like to have seen a micro usb port.
liddlefeesh -
I agree, the startup beep is quite loud. I wish the volume during calls was louder. I've tried pressing the button which turns off the automatic volume and lets you manually change the volume, as well as messing with the volume on the kaiser. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite usable. I just wish it went a bit louder.
Thanks for the fitment idea. I'll try it out.
Better ear bud fitment and sound for Jawbone
dis39tif said:
. . .
b) I can't get the thing to fit my ear. I've tried every combination of ear buds and ear hooks, but it never fits my ear well. I always have to readjust it every few minutes so it doesn't fall off. I might try that link in your review for the custom ear bud company.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get a pair of Jabra ear gels from RadioShack, attach them to the Jawbone - better fit, better sound. The combo works great for me.
cushcalc said:
Get a pair of Jabra ear gels from RadioShack, attach them to the Jawbone - better fit, better sound. The combo works great for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By chance do you still have the Radio Shack part number for these gels?
This has been covered before in the dell streak forum (which I've been reading for days now) but the thread died a death!
I've tried wiggling the phone around when its on my ear, wire head set, sennheiser headphones. I haven't tried a BT headset because I don't have one and I don't intend to either! It always sounds like the other end has a towel wrapped round their face while their talking to me...
They (O2) have sent me another one and that does it too... A few days back I was talking to a guy on orange and I have a few moments of perfect clarity so Occam's Razor would say "Loose wire "!!!
My query is this:
Is there a setting I missing, maybe in engineering mode or something. Does anyone know if the phone has some kind of audio muting/limitation software on it???
To be honest, I'm using my old Moto V3 at the moment because the dell sounds so very bad!
Edit: Just tried a BT headset, sounded clearer but so quiet I could hardly hear it
I have a US streak...currently in UK on buisness. I have been jumping between O2, Orange, and 3-Uk networks. I can honestly say that the streak in terms of call quality has been one of the best mobile phones Ive owned. I have not tried earpiece or bt Headset, but volume 0utput at least with the earphone jack is very low.
Running Eclair 2.1 build6941....Call quality State side is crystal clear as well on ATT
I get crystal clear call quality on the receive end, but have had to adapt to holding the mic away from my mouth a bit. It was breaking up quite badly according to my mate who was on the other end of the call (happened a few times). I accidentally moved the mic a few inches further from my mouth and it all went clear apparently! So is the gain set too high on the built in mic?
On bluetooth in my car its clear on Rx AND Tx but that's using a separate mic. The main issue there is that the Rx volume is much too low
Best call quality i've had in a phone so far tho
I've had no issues with call quality, always been crystal clear stateside on ATT.
Only issue i have is that you have to find a sweet spot for the earpiece to direct the sound into your ear, move it a little off and sound is too low. wierd but gotten used to it and know how to hold it up to my ear better then when i first got it
also i only tried one nokia BT headset and the sound was very low! I have 3 or 4 headsets laying around but haven't tested them out yet.
Hi, can someone test the left and right speaker of your phone and tell me if the volume of both speakers are the same, in my phone the right speaker Is louder than the left speaker Is this normal?
deadman_owl said:
Hi, can someone test the left and right speaker of your phone and tell me if the volume of both speakers are the same, in my phone the right speaker Is louder than the left speaker Is this normal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same on my Nokia 6. Left speaker is more as supportive one, making the sound depth.
So I think this is normal.
Speakers
Both speakers of device are dead only the speaker at the receiver is working
The bottom (or right as you may say) speaker is the one that makes bass sounds and is primarily the louder one. The top (or left) one is only to produce Stereo effects. It's also a little lesser loud than the bottom one.
In my case, after close to a use of 2 months, my bottom speaker is giving me problems. It's making static sounds, the speaker starts working only after half a second later to the top one. It's like it shuts down itself after every silence amd so needs some time to wake up to work.
Nokia Mobile Care called me and asked me to reset my phone first, and then if the issue stays take it to service centre. I don't think a phone reset will help though.
Nokia 6 TA-1021 India Variant.
No October Update+7.1.2 also.