iLounge

1

Has anyone gotten one of these and tried it yet?  I’m looking around for a BT headset that works well with the iPhone and haven’t been impressed with anything so far.  Specifically for the Apple model, I’m wondering if it:

1) Has the same shape/feel for the earpiece as the standard iPod/iPhone headphones.  The standard headphones are extremely uncomfortable in my ears, so I’m hoping not.

2) Has any kind of noise-cancelling.  For the price, it should, but I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, so I’m assuming that it doesn’t.

Posted by Rod Dunn on July 23, 2007 at 3:26 PM (PST)

2

So Charles,

You bought it.  You unpacked it.  You photographed it.  Did you use it??  Is it only for phone and voicemail?  Can you stream music or podcasts to it?  That speaker part looks awfully big and round?  It really feels comfortable in your ear???

Jim

Posted by JIm Pollock on July 23, 2007 at 4:41 PM (PST)

3

That looks really cool! I never thought I would say that about a bluetooth headset. In fact, this is the first bluetooth headset that I would not be embarrassed to wear.

Posted by K. Pilkington on July 23, 2007 at 6:31 PM (PST)

4

Jim:  I don’t think Charles did buy this yet.  These photos are on Flickr and are being linked to by many a tech site right now.

Posted by Matt Mitchell on July 23, 2007 at 7:29 PM (PST)

5

It’s a waste of money. Now I love Apple as much as the next person here, but honestly, why spend $130 on a headset when you could get the equivalent of it for 60, or, for 10 dollars LESS than the Apple headset, get a jawbone which is a dozen times higher quality?

I like Apple. They make quality products. But that shouldn’t give them a right to overprice EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT they make at three times what it should be.

Posted by anonymous on July 23, 2007 at 11:19 PM (PST)

6

@ Anonymous,

The headset is actually $51.  The $129 comes bundled with the “dual dock” ($49) and the “travel cable” ($29).  So, assuming you need something to charge, they didn’t need to bundle the $49 dock.  The retail cost could be $80 ($51 + $29); which is less then the retail cost of the Jawbone ($119).

I will try both, but am hearing good things about the Jawbone noise cancellation and sound quality.

They should have had the dual dock bundled with the phone.  It would have probably led to more people getting the Apple headset for convenience.

Posted by PeteV on July 24, 2007 at 7:48 AM (PST)

7

I picked up one today at the Apple Store. I’ve only used it for a few hours, but it seems good to me. On the calls that I made, the people said they couldn’t tell that I was using an earpiece, which is a good sign.

As far as look/feel: I forgot that it was in my ear. Very light and comfortable(for me). I’ve had several different BT ear pieces and they all hurt my ear after a while (And looked awful to boot).

Don’t know about noise canceling since I haven’t tried it in the car yet.

In my opinion well worth the cost at this point.

Posted by Steven on July 24, 2007 at 5:11 PM (PST)

8

I purchased mine today and it is working out nicely so far. I agree with what Steven has said above. As with all in-ear devices, it will be more comfortable for some than for others. As for the high cost, Apple products generally cost more and are consistently better made, better designed and especially better integrated. This implementation of a blue tooth device is streamlined, sleek, stealthy, and attractive and very intuitive in its operation.

Posted by E.A. Waters on July 24, 2007 at 7:40 PM (PST)

9

I had to a buy a new bluetooth headset because my Jabra 250 wouldn’t link up to my iPhone. Probably a good thing anyway as I couldn’t even walk inside without the windnoise from walking drowning out my voice. Very very lame, people rave about the Jabra but I can’t figure out why. Anyway, I bought a Jawbone and love it. People can’t tell I’m using a headset. I did a test where I was vacuuming my LR with the stereo on while talking on the jawbone over the iPhone. The person I was calling couldn’t hear anything but the vacuum and stereo. I hit the button and voila! All she could hear was my voice loud and clear and I was whispering! I’m sold on this jawbone. Looks good too.

Posted by Mark Philbrick on July 25, 2007 at 6:10 AM (PST)

10

I got one and would give it an “excellent” rating if the thing would just work in “pod” mode. It might not be that great for music but I bet it would be just fine for audiobooks and podcasts.

I WANT TO BE WIRELESS!!!

Posted by Michael Long on July 26, 2007 at 1:16 AM (PST)

11

I purchased my apple bluetooth to go with my iphone last week.

I have had several different bluetooths-and this one sucks-at least for women.

The quality is a moot point if I can not wear it in my ear for longer than 5 minutes.  The ear piece is toooooo large for most
female ears.  Yes, you can go ahead and shove it in-but not for long-since it is extremely uncomfortable.

Bad design on Apple’s part.  They had to have known this and marketed it anyway-without mentioning this huge tidbit to their consumers .  If they didn’t know it then what kind of product testing do they NOT do?

Posted by Kim Schild on March 31, 2008 at 10:06 AM (PST)