Windows Phone Thoughts: The Long Trek to a Jawbone review...

Be sure to register in our forums! Share your opinions, help others, and enter our contests.


Digital Home Thoughts

Loading feed...

Laptop Thoughts

Loading feed...

Android Thoughts

Loading feed...



Wednesday, October 3, 2007

The Long Trek to a Jawbone review...

Posted by Don Tolson in "HARDWARE" @ 08:00 AM


Introduction
Our journey starts back in April 2007. Fresh upon news releases regarding a Bluetooth headset with incredible noise canceling capabilities, one of our review team was contacted by a marketing representative from Aliph, asking if we'd like a unit for a review. “You bet!”, we said back, and awaited a response. And waited, and waited. A month of emails back and forth later, we finally determined that the marketing group had no more review units and wasn't likely to get anymore soon.

At this point, we usually just give up and move on, but I'm intrigued by the noise canceling technology. I use my BT headset while riding my bike to and from work, so there is frequently quite a bit of wind noise and I'm always worried about it falling off my ear. According to the marketing material, the Jawbone could be a solution. Not only does it have military-grade noise canceling built-in, but it also features an in-the-ear design fit, which should be perfect for keeping it audible and in place while I'm riding.

So, now it's mid-June, and I've begun checking all the local cellular franchises to see if any of them carry the Jawbone. Unfortunately, my home town is a bit backward technologically, so none of them had even heard of the Jawbone – most of them thought I was mispronouncing Jabra. Next step -- check eBay for a reasonably priced unit. Unfortunately, most are trying to flog it for a buy-it-now price that's either equal to or greater than the price direct from Aliph. Ah ha! Found a used one for $40USD -- but it doesn't come with the power supply, USB cord, or the set of earbuds and loops. OK, no problem. I understand from the user manual that the unit is charged using a wall-charger to USB adapter and I have plenty of those from other gadgets. The eBay unit comes with an earbud and loop, so I'll see how that fits first. The only thing missing is the USB charge cord. So, I check on Aliph's website and while they will gladly sell you a wall charger ($20USD) and the set of earbuds and loops ($20USD), there's no mention of the USB charge cable. I fired off an email to Aliph's customer support people, explaining my predicament and asking if there was any way I could purchase just the cable. Within a couple of days, I got a very nice reply with an offer to send me a cable (gratis) for the review! Thanks, Aliph! – things are looking up.

About the beginning of July, the eBay Jawbone arrives, and of course, the provided earbud and loop don't provide a snug fit on my ear. So, back to the Aliph site to put in an order for the earbud & loops set. Guess what? Aliph's out of stock of those, but should have some more 'in a week or two'. Hearing nothing after four weeks, I start getting a little antsy, and contact Aliph via phone. I'm told that they should have stock in a couple of days and they will be shipping out my units then. I guess there were more delays since the ear buds and loops didn't arrive until mid-August.

Right, it's now been almost 5 months and I finally have everything to start the review. So, here we go...

What Comes in the Box
The Jawbone, as you get it in the commercial package, includes everything you need to get going.


Figure 1: What you get with a Jawbone (Note: the Wall-to-USB power supply is not shown).

Included is the Jawbone unit, the USB charge cord, a set of 4 earbuds of different sizes and shapes, and 4 earloops. There are both a large and regular loop for each of the right and left ears. (To be honest, I didn't really see why there needed to be a distinction between left and right, since you can bend the metal part of the earloop to match either side.) Also included is a printed copy of the user manual, which is available online here. The manual is well written and includes lots of illustrations, so I would strongly suggest you read through it before trying to fit or use your Jawbone and there is quite a lot of useful 'how to' information there and discussion about how the noise canceling technology works. Also included will be a wall-to-USB adapter into which you plug in the cable to charge the Jawbone.

Here are some shots of the Jawbone itself.


Figure 2: Front View.


Figure 3: Side View showing the Voice Activator button (in white). Note that the rubber bud has been removed from the earpiece on the left side.


Figure 4: Back view, showing the connectors for the USB Charge Cable.


Figure 5: A view of the USB Charge cable, with the pins in the proprietary connector which fit into the back of the Jawbone. Be careful how you fit this in, since those pins look like they could easily get bent.

Tags:

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...