Database Users

Hands-free headphones

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.

will bluespoon works with xdaII?

anyone heard about bluespoon headset? its the smallest bluetooth in the market now i think... really small believe me... but im not sure it will works with xda II or not.. if someone tried it.. pls inform me.. thanks.

I have the Bluespoon chameleon (analog version) and YES it works great.

Bluespoon and XDA II
I am using the NextLink Chameleon Bluespoon headset with the XDA II with no problems. Lightest and a long talk time of 4 to 5 hrs.

because i plan the buy Chameleon as well.. can u pls tell me how u feel about it? thanks. hope to hear from u soon.

do the bluespoon HS have the same disconnection issues that the jabra suffers from every time it goes out of range of the XDA-II?

Generally, I like it, but there are a few points to be aware of.
It will only fit in your right ear. Not the left. I am not kidding.
It takes a little practice to fit it in, but ones you get the hang of it, it feels natural.
There is a necklace kind of thing included that you can (optional) attach to the unit if you are afraid of dropping it out of your ear.
I tried briefly to use it with Skype on my laptop, and I got sound, but the other person did not hear me. But I spend less time on that than writing this comment
The blinking on the unit was a bit confusing to me. Is it on? discoverable? Low on power? Etc.
I've stepped away about 10 meters from the XDA II (Actually called SPV M1000 in Denmark) without significant loss of sound. When walking downstairs I lost sound, but not the connection.
Over all the "could be" down sides mentioned are not of any matter to me, but they might be for you.
I'm satisfied.
Hope this is the kind of info you are looking for. If there is anything specific you would like to know, just write back.
/Torben

Its a really great heatset. Putting it on needs getting used to. Its like putting on earphones the whole day. But its really comfortable. Though you would get the occasional stares at "what's that bug on your ear" look :lol: Also, sad to say that the earpiece does not fit all ears. i have read that some people with small ear holes are unable to fit the blusespoon in properly. Talk time and standby times are great. Mine can last me almost 5 days without charging it at all with above average usage. Though is still suffers from the other party not being able to hear you well in a noisy envoironment. All in all, its a worth investment!

I have a Bluespoon Digital. My friend and I ordered one each. He has an XDAII, I have an i-mate. We ordered both from the States (not available here in Australia). Here is a mini-review.
Purchase price: USD$289 + shipping. It took 12 days (8 working days) for the unit to arrive from USA.
Box contents: Bluespoon Digital, Charging cradle, Charger, Adapters for US, UK, and Japanese power, foam earpieces, CD, manual. USB charging cradle was missing in one of the boxes. One of the boxes had an extra foam earpiece. Does this say something about Nextlink's quality control?
Build quality: Average. The Bluespoon digital consists of two halves which are glued together. The bottom half is made of a hard black plastic which feels quite sturdy. The top half is clear plastic which has been painted with membrane switches over the buttons. On my copy, the paint was applied unevenly. One of the membrane switches was not completely painted. Also, when the blue light illuminates, the silhouette of a wire is visible under the cover. My friend's unit does not suffer this flaw.
Usage: Average. The volume up/down buttons do not work (yes, I know you can only use these buttons in the middle of a call). You are supposed to hear a beep when max/min volume is reached. Pressing the volume button does not change the volume, nor do you hear a beep. You are stuck at the same rather soft volume all the time. As a result of this, incoming calls are not clear when compared to a Jabra BT200.
Outgoing calls are OUTSTANDING. My friend placed a call to my landline and I compared the sound quality with the bluespoon, with a fan blowing on the bluespoon, with the XDAII, and with the XDAII speaker phone. Sound quality was much better than the standard XDAII. The Bluespoon digital (which has a noise cancelling feature) did an acceptable job of reducing wind noise. In comparison, the Jabra BT200 drowns out in white noise.
The Bluespoon Digital supports voice dialling but for some reason it does not work with the XDAII (I have tried it with Fonix and Neuvoice - which I have registered). You have to make calls the "normal" way.
The Bluespoon feels comfortable in my ear when the correct ear spring is selected. I have worn it all day with no problems. Inserting it is tricky at first but you get used to it. The buttons are poorly placed - when you press them you mash the bluespoon into your ear and it's not a comfortable feeling.
Some of the interface choices are rather bizarre (e.g. to do a hard reset you have to use your cradle) but you get used to it.
I have not yet run the battery flat because I charge my unit every night.
Customer support: Good. We contacted them about the missing USB cable and they said they would send one over immediately. I have not asked them yet about why the volume control does not work. I might even ask for a new unit.
Conclusion: Would I buy it again? Definitely not. This is the most expensive BT headset around and I expected better than the awful build quality and the below-average sound quality.

I have been using bluespoon for 2 months with MDA II ROM 1.06.00 WWE with no problem
and connection from bluespoon to my notebook Compaq presario 2500 used Bluetooth Class1 is OK
News from O2 over the ROM upgrade: Handsfree bluetooth profile is scheduled for the next wm2003 service pack - tentatively may/june before it appears in the Xda II rom (tekguru)

Bluespoon volume control
This is for Amfibius:
I thought my volume control was defect, but on my unit I have to press the volume button a bit longer than any other button on electrical things.
It's a little hard to explain, but it's less than a second, but longer than just press and release.
This may not be the problem in your case, but it's worth a try, and you may not have to wait for a new unit
Please let me know if it helped...
/Torben

Although the Bluespoon is very small and works perfectly with older phones I had, with the xdaII it sometimes did not work as it was supposed to. Sometimes I was unable to answer the call from the headset, and sometimes when making a call the sound did not transfer to the headset as it was supposed to do and stayed with the phone, embarassing me while people were saying "hello" over and over again and I was not speaking since I hadn't realized that I had established connection My bluespoon is the original one they had released sometime ago.

Bluetooth headset
I have trouble hearing well with my Ericsson HBH 60 bluetooth headset. Does anyone know of a bluetooth headset that works with the O2 and has good hearing volume.
Michael Jacobson

Jabra BT8010 Headset

Does anyone on here have it? How well does it work with WM6 and the Kaiser in general?
Sorry if this has been addressed in the past. I tried searching the Accessories forum with both basic and advanced searches and came back with no results. Which is odd considering I could have SWORN I saw it talked about here at some point int he past.

I have a Jabra BT620s, which is also A2DP. It is total crap. I would look at a different brand. Motorola headsets are supposed to work well.

Jabra BT8010 and Tilt
joshuah82 said:
Does anyone on here have it? How well does it work with WM6 and the Kaiser in general?
Sorry if this has been addressed in the past. I tried searching the Accessories forum with both basic and advanced searches and came back with no results. Which is odd considering I could have SWORN I saw it talked about here at some point int he past.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 8010 and it with all due respect to the previous poster, it works great. I have used it with the original shipped ROM and several cooked ROMS (Currently on Sleuth's 6.1 ver 3) and it worked well with all of them. I will say it seems to work the best (longer distance from the PPC) with the radio included in Sleuth's 6.1

Can either of you provide more specific information about the issues you had with it? I've never had a bluetooth headset before so I might not even notice.

My BT620s sounded like a bad record. The pitch kept shifting very subtly, but it is INSANELY annoying and makes it completely un-listenable. Also, it would drop audio for about 5 seconds of every minute, which is very annoying. It had trouble with pairing, when you turned it off, it would sometimes refuse to re-connect to the phone. The call quality with it was OK though. I sold mine and bought a pair of Motorolas.

i have the bt8010 (only for a week) and the head set is pretty good
i have had the headset cut out on me i think there is interference from the cell or wifi. but it doesn't happen all the time. the battery life is good i have played at least 9 hours of music (stereo) straight before it need a charge. the sound quality is ok, there is some distortion on the extreme high and low notes.
but it is wireless
the headset need to be angled in a upward angle in order to be conformable (at least for me) i was able to were it for 3 hours with out a problem
the cord between the ears some times get pulled by twisting my neck, it's about 1 inch too long
i have used it in a noisy production floor and the person on the other side head me fine, a little downed out but they didn't hear the hum of the loud machine in the background and because i had the stereo on i head him better then on my phone, and yes you do hear the person on both right and left sides.
i was going to get a Motorola (mono) one but i got this one because the talk time and standby life is longer (according to specs) and this one has stereo option.
this is the only headset that you could switch from work to play
i am happy with it, and other around me like it.
btw i got mine refurbished.

I have the BT8010. I've had it for about 7 to 8 months now, maybe longer.
I really do not like the headset at all. It has great sound so don't get me wrong. If sound is all you are interested in then go for it. But if you are looking for fit or the ear loops to stay on then they aren't the ones.
For me, the fit for me is horrible and the headset hurts because I have small ears.
SECOND and this is the BIGGEST LET DOWN, the ear loops keep falling out.
So if you get it go ahead and call and order some extras right away. You can contact them via phone I think and they will send you a few. Just keep one in your wallet and one in the car and some @ home, and some in your briefcase.
The ear loops fall out way too easy for my tastes. I'm currently looking for another set of A2DB enabled headsets.

I use it for some 4 month. Mostly monoaural. It's ok, but...
Pros: VERY good sound quality (noise reduction, environment supression), good battery lifetime (up to 3 days), clear display, handy controls.
Cons: the ear hanger (? sorry for my english) slips out from the unit causing unit to fall, fast dial numbers are too short (cannot add cell codes e.g. enabling my phone number identification before dial number), does not fit perfectly into the ear - the sound is good when I puch it with my finger toward my ear, but listening to the music is a bit painful (not full spectrum due to distance between speaker and ear-hole that cannot be, at least in my case, adjusted).
Overall: good design/performance. Better quality then BT800 (my previous earphone). Cannot be securely and properly adjusted toward ear.

has anyone got more insight on this headset... i am looking in purhcasing it.

I use the 8010. The only complaint I had was the ear hook kept falling out, like the poster above. What I did was to superglue the hook in. Now, it doesn't fall, and it fit tighter to the ear, making it better to hear conversations and music. I lost one of the hooks before, and when I called jabra to order another set of hooks, they sent me out a Free pair, no ? asked, so support is great. Now, you can find the headset at a very good price. I paid $100 for mines, you can find them for $40-60.

Jabra BT8010 connection
I also have problems with the ear loop falling out. But it's not that often.
What I find annoying is that it doesn't automatically connect to my HTC prophet as stereo headphones when I switch the Jabra to music mode. I have to manually go into bluetooth settings and click on Jabra BT8010 to set as stereo headphones. Does anyone have a fix for this? If I don't do the above steps, AVRCP is able to work, but music will still come out of the phone. It would be nice if I can just listen to music with a push of the mode button without having to fumble for my phone.

i have em .. and to be honest i cant really complain
the only problem ive actually had is like everyone else has mentioned...the ear loop comming off..but thats so small in comparison to what they have to offer.
imo :
the sync from my car to my home bt system is awesome!
the clarity is superb
volume, settings, caller id and the phonebook work flawlessly..and to top it off i got em off of ebay for 25 bucks brand new with a reciept..
cant beat it!

i ahve jabra bt620s and sound is too low, how can i increase the sound on bt headset

the best bluetooth I know so far is Itech. They don't sell here but you can find it on ebay. A2DP, bluetooth stereo, cliping on you cloth, looks like a ipod shuttle on you collar.

Blue Ant or Jawbone?

I would like some advice specific to these to bluetooth devices. I'm going out to get one this week and would like to purchase the best of the two. Basically I'm looking for good audio quality on both ends. Stable compatibility with the tilt. Good looks, of course. The Jawbone seems to be pretty popular, how does the Blue Ant compare? Pros and cons please.

Like most of these questions, you're going to get both opinions. Bought them both - ended up keeping the Blue Ant. Better price (got mine for $60 delivered). Upgradeable firmware. Great call quality/voice command quality. Liked the noise suppression better. Smaller (more comfortable for me and I always thought I had bigger ears). Again, you'll probably find others that will disagree with me.

Thank You... I'll do a little more research

OK. So I got the Jawbone ($129.99) last night and I am very happy, so far. I thought it would look too Star Trekish, but actually, its not too bad. Certainly, considering you have some atrificial device hanging from your ear anyway. How I arrived to this state of happiness: Last week I bought the Jabra BT8040 ($79.99) and after about 6 hours I took it back because it did not sit firmly in my ear (didn't try the extra ear buds), the sound quality was poor, and people complained about noise in my background (noise that I hardly considered). The Jawbone fit perfectly, right out the package and sound quality was perfect on both ends.
I would still like feedback on the Blueant Z9, please.

I have lots of Jawbone experience and I like it the best so far. I've just checked out the BlueAnt site and have now ordered one to test side by side. I do like the idea of downloadable firmware, we'll see.

Did you guys order from the BlueAnt site or from another retailer?

lopezpm said:
Did you guys order from the BlueAnt site or from another retailer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a pricegrabber search, I used Tiger cause I know them but there were lower prices, $60-70 range

Best Buy. i'm impatient.

Jawbone sound is spectacular, function is pretty good, but for me the fit was terrible. Spent so much time fiddling with the wire ear loops they both broke -- my fault, not a quality issue.
Let me know how the BlueAnt works out. So far, I pretty much *hate* the fit of every headset ever made.
gt

I have Jawbone. They are fantastic. A little bulky on the ear but the technology is wonderful. I have no complain from people telling they hear static or winds noises.
my only complain is, the earbud keeping falling off here and there (interchangable depending on your ear). The earloop sometimes doesn't fit properly due to my status.

RemE said:
I have lots of Jawbone experience and I like it the best so far. I've just checked out the BlueAnt site and have now ordered one to test side by side. I do like the idea of downloadable firmware, we'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking forward to your test results.....

So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?

Keeper of the Grail said:
So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://teksoftco.com/index.php?section=bluemusic
or
http://teksoftco.com/index.php?section=freeware
Does this answer your question?

I've been reading reviews on the Z9 and the Jawbone, and every review contradicts the other. I couldn't make up my mind from reading reviews so I bought both and tried them out myself. Here is a comparison as I saw it.
1. Loudness - The Z9 has separate volume buttons for up and down and is plenty loud to hear in a noisy place. It’s loud enough that when I was in a quiet place or in my car with out the radio on I had to turn the volume down a bit.
The Jawbone doesn’t have an up and down volume button. It has a button that every time you press it, it raises the volume one level. Once you reach level 5 it goes back down to the lowest level and you have to start raising it again. It relies on it’s audio enhancement technology that will automatically adjust the volume depending on the surrounding noise. Overall, I felt that the Jawbone just wasn't loud enough for me.
2. Fit - They both fit really well but the Z9 hurts my ear after I take it off if I've had in for more than 30 minutes. The Z9 goes on fast when you get a call if it isn’t in your ear.
The Jawbone fits nice also, but it takes a little longer to put it on if it’s not in when you get a call. The good thing is that I can leave it on longer than the Z9 because it doesn’t hurt my ear at all. It just takes time to find the right combination for your ear, between the 4 ear pads and the 4 ear loops. But once you do it fits great. There is a shake test on YouTube showing that if you shake your head rapidly the Jawbone falls off while the Z9 stays on. I tried it and it's true. But who the hell goes around shaking their head like that.
3. Noise cancellation - This one was too close to call, I tested with the radio turned up in my truck and called my voicemail at work. They both did a great job. You could barely hear the music playing in the background and the music would cut in and out, while I was talking. It sounded like you had music in the background at a very low volume. As for the voice, it came across loud and it never cut out.
4. Size – Now this is a huge difference, the Z9 is about third the size of the Jawbone. This doesn’t mean that the Jawbone is overbearing or anything it just means that the Z9 is really small.
After testing them both for a couple of days, I am keeping the Z9. The deciding factor was that the Jawbone just wasn’t loud enough for me. Both are great noise cancelling headsets. If the Jawbone were louder I would be keeping that one because of the comfort level.
If you guys and gals have any questions let me know and I will try to answer them.

Keeper of the Grail said:
So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this free app, BTaudio toggle, it directs all sounds out thru the BT headset. It works great on the Kaiser. I map a a key to make it easy to direct all sounds when needed. Search for it to get the thread about it.
I tried Bluemusic and found that it did NOT work well with my Kaiser in that it seems to kill the voice dialer function. When pressing the headset button voice dialer does not work, bluemusic seems to use it to toggle the sound between the headset and phone, showstopper for me.

I haven't had much luck with a headset that fits my ear properly, and is loud enough. I've had a bunch ... have/had a Jawbone. I just can't get it to stay in my ear regardless of which hook or bud I use.
On a whim i bought a Moto H375 at Costco with wall and car charger (std mini USB) for $40.
I can charge it from any standard mini USB cable
It fits and stays in my ear
It is so loud I often have to turn the phone volume down
Battery life is good
It has some kind of auto pairing, so all you have to do is turn it on and tell your device to search. I didn't have to fumble with some odd button press to put the headset into a pairing mode. Both my Tilt and BB 8310 found it immediately ... laptop too.
When my phone rings I actually hear my ringtone in my ear ... not some generic bleep bleep sound.
It worked fine with MS Voice Command, without any hacks, with the current STOCK AT&T ROM, does name announcement just fine.
My only complaint is that the ear hook isn't super comfortable if you wear it for longer than an hour ... but then I don't walk around like a drone all day wearing one anyway.
for $40 it certainly is worth checking out.

Thanks lopezpm for your review.... if RemE comes to the same conclusion..(soon)... I'll go for the Z9

Jawbone
I got the Jawbone for the last 4 months with it's amazing audio. The only thing that "burn" it is the charging cable, They use their own type of connector which require me to take the only cable they supplied with me when I travel for something longer then 3 days.
I tried contacting throught the web site in order to get another cable but after 2 months of waiting I understood they won't reply.
I got my'n at the MobilityToday.com shop for 80$ (the red version)

Got my Z9 and so far I have to say that I'm impressed. I downloaded and updated it's firmware from their web site. It was a bit of a project but the instructions were good. The Z9 is truely tiny compared to the Jawbone and the Z9 has many more call control features, controlled with button combination presses.
Fit for me is good, the clear plastic hooks are slightly less comfortable than the Jawbone but with careful adjusting while looking in a mirror can help you get a fit that works well. The Z9 weighs next to nothing and can be adjusted to be almost invisible to your senses. They give you two spare ear hooks.
Sound incoming is loud and clear and I do appreciate the dedicated up and down controls. I wear my headsets on my left ear so that puts the buttons on the bottom in my case which is not as good from an operational standpoint, especially when using button combinations.
Charging is done with a dedicated charger with micro usb type connector (looks identical to Jabra's). The Z9's charger is rated at 5v, the Jabra is 6v. The Z9 also comes with a micro USB to standard USB charge/data cable. The cable's have labels stating to ONLY use them with the Z9.
Noise Cancellation, so far so good. One difference from the Jawbone is that the Z9's noise cancelling is default at "standard" at call connect where the Jawbone's NC is "On" at startup and can be turned Off while in a call by pressing it's rear button (where you get a multi-tone indication that it's Off) The Z9's NC can be turned from "standard" to "Max" with a tap on the call button and it actually says "noise cancelling max" in your ear with a male Austrailian accented voice tag. A 3 sec press on the call button is needed to "end call". I called a friend with a Jawbone and did quality tests and was told that the quality was very good. I did walk around outside and the Z9 did fairly well in wind compared to Jawbone, maybe slightly better. I have not had a chance to torture test in the car at high speeds yet but so far I'm pretty happy.
Annoying Bits, should you walk out of range of your phone (eg. left phone on desk and walked out of room), the Jawbone gives a single "lost connection" tone while the Z9 gives it's lost signal tone, every 2 seconds, over and over for about a minute or two, then it powers down. When you are back in range it won't auto-pair like the Jawbone, you need to tap the call button to wake it, then it re-pairs quickly. Also I'm finding that the single tap of the button during a call (disconnects call with Jawbone, changes Noise Reduction Level with Z9) with the Z9 I often change NC level by accident because I'm so used to tapping the button to hang-up, they really should reverse the two features and tap-hold for 3 sec to change noise cnx level since it's not used as much as hanging up! At least we could rally for a firmware change
All in all for the price ($70 USD in my case) the Z9 is a contender!
Edit, after a few days use I will say that the Jawbone is the most comfortable. The Z9's clear plastic ear clip does hurt after a while, more than the Jawbone.
Edit, after driving with it a few hours today, well, it was better than my Jawbones! (and I love my Jawbones) It was way louder, in fact I had to turn it down! I called a fellow nit-picking, Jawbone using friend and did many in-car tourture tests, speed, wind, etc. The Jawbone might have a slight edge in noise cancelling but overall I was loud and clear to them and they were loud and clear to me.
So in my book both are great headsets, I'll keep and use both.

I have owned headsets by Jabra, Plantronics, Sony and Cardo (god-awful, threw it at my window and broke it after only two days) and I must say that my Jawbone blows everything else I've previously owned out of the water, the fit is great for me, sound quality is excellent, no one complains when talking to me except when I'm in heavy wind. You can't really go wrong with the Jawbone!

My review of the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

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:
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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.
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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.
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By chance do you still have the Radio Shack part number for these gels?