Windows Phone Thoughts: Talking on the Wind -- the Helium Digital Bluetooth Communicator HDBT-110

In the Office
In the office the Helium Bluetooth Communicator can be used as an impromptu speaker phone for sharing conversations. It definitely has better quality reproduction than the speakers built into most phone PPCs or cell phones and it seemed to have better pickup at the microphone as well. It seems to work as well as, or slightly better than the units built into desk phone units and would be good in a smaller boardroom / meeting room with 4 or 5 other people. It certainly wouldn't work as well as a dedicated speakerphone in a larger boardroom.

Pairing with my Fujitsu laptop was also very easy, with the Communicator showing up as a headset unit. To be honest, I was quite impressed with the quality of the sound reproduction on music. It certainly wasn't as good as a home stereo or a decent pair of headphones, but it had much better frequency range than the speakers in the laptop and most of the smaller external speaker sets available. It would be quite usable for sharing a presentation, including music, with a small to medium group. On the laptop, there were even settings for audio quality – standard and high. Switching to the High setting did produce a noticeably (albeit) slightly better sound.

Documentation
As mentioned above, the Communicator comes with an illustrated User Manual which describes all the functions and features of the unit. It's also available on the website. I have to admit, it was a real treat to read documentation which had been written by someone who speaks English natively. It was crisp, to the point, and covered all the salient points of using the Helium Communicator. I was very surprised to find it was in English only. Maybe other language translations will be coming in the future.

Conclusions
This unit is so easy to use, it's become a permanent addition to my traveling package. It's great to use in the car, when you want to include others in the conversation (we find it particularly good when we're using our cell phones to keep track of others in our vacation 'convoy'). And it was quite a hit at the office when we were strapped for a room with a conference phone – we just had the conference right at my cubicle! About the only things I wish they would add are slightly stronger magnets, just so I get more of a 'clunk' when I attach and I know it's there to stay and illuminated buttons for night driving would be wonderful.

Don is an Associate Director with Fujitsu Consulting and a member of its Enterprise Mobility Community. Talking on the wind just seems to come naturally... :roll: