Hasta La Gadget!

When you’ve got the brand cachet of a Bowers & Wilkins, the decision to launch your first-ever headphone will be met head-on with plenty of pre-defined market expectations. But with products spread wide across diverse audio tastes and prices, well, pretty much anything goes. So it’s probably no surprise then to find B&W prostrating itself to the dollar with its P5 Mobile Hi-Fi Headphone. These Made for iPod noise-isolating cans with speech and device control are meant for use far beyond your carefully constructed “critical listening” audio nest at home. You can, however, swap out the iPod cable for the B&W supplied gold-plated cable by popping off the magnetically attached ear pad. Mind you, the P5 does not offer electronic noise cancelation, instead, the listener is isolated through a combination of the P5’s closed-back design and sealed leather ear pads. They also bring the promise of “unfatiguing performance” thanks to B&W developed ultra-linear neodynium magnets and Mylar diaphragms. Naturally, we’ll reserve judgment until these babies ship sometime in January.

Filed under: Portable Audio

Bowers & Wilkins first ever P5 headphones follow the iPod money trail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally, the teaser‘s over. The latest delivery to Engadget‘s UK penthouse is the Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset due out in the US on 8th November, and we took no time to extract the pebble from the transparent cylinder. In front of us are the two parts of the STONE: an earpiece of a breakthrough form factor that instantly makes you pity its rivals, and behind it is the accompanying portable charging base which serves as an external battery. The latter is equipped with a micro-USB port and an LED indicator — simply green or red — to show whether there’s enough battery juice for one full charge. It’s a pretty neat idea as this is the only feasible way to fit eight hours of talk time (or twelve days of standby time) into such tiny package: two on the earpiece and an extra six from the surprisingly light battery base — our scale reckons it is just under one ounce. We also dig the auto-off function when you dock the earpiece and vice versa. Docking and undocking are pretty straight forward too: just snap in for the former, and poke your thumb through the bottom hole of the base to push the earpiece out. The generic click button hidden under the Jabra badge is easy to access and responds well. Above that is the invisible vertical touch strip for volume control and similarly it responded nicely to our strokes. What’s left on the earpiece are the two LED indicators on the underside for Bluetooth connectivity and battery. So far so good, but what really matters is the ear-on experience and the audio quality — listen for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset review

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Wireless

Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so this thing is way more “traditional Bluetooth headset” than “a round object that looks nothing like a Bluetooth headset,” but we’ll give the marketing team credit — STONE sure got us looking. Jabra‘s newest Bluetooth headset has just become official, bringing with it a behind-the-ear design, a wireless portable charger (which doubles as a carrying case) and Noise Blackout Extreme technology to keep things quiet when your yammering. There’s also a “nearly invisible touch-controlled volume pad” on the outside of the headset, a battery good for 8 hours of talk time (or 12 days in standby), dual BT pairing support and A2DP compatibility. Unfortunately, you’ll have to waltz into an AT&T retail store starting on November 8th to get one, and worse still, you’ll walk out $129.99 poorer. But hey, you’ll leave Stoned. (Sorry.)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Wireless

Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset brings extreme noise blocking, $130 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dual-mic Bluetooth headsets are nothing new, but i.Tech Dynamic may be helping to bring the price down. The company just launched the i.VoicePRO 901, a noise-canceling model with multipoint capability to connect two cell phones simultaneously.

The company uses its own noise-filtering software; one mic detects and helps eliminate ambient noise, while the other focuses on your voice. The i.VoicePRO 901 also features Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (enhanced data rate) Class 2 compatibility, five hours of talk time, and a weight of 0.4 ounces.

The i.VoicePRO 901 comes in three colors: silver, black, and wine. It lists for $79.99, and is currently on sale at Amazon and Skymall.

Motorola has unveiled the H17, a Bluetooth headset with an extended mic boom that folds up and turns the unit off in the process. This is nothing new for Motorola–the idea dates back at least to the Motorola HS850, if not earlier. But it’s interesting to see it make a return in a new product.

In addition, the H17 features Motorola’s CrystalTalk technology for better audio quality, along with RapidConnect, which lets H17 owners power-up the unit and answer a ringing call just by unfolding the boom. The H17 also includes voice prompts for pairing instructions and battery status. It lacks the bone conduction found in the company’s high-end Endeavor HX1 headset, though.

Motorola claims the H17 offers five hours of talk time on a single charge; a quick 15-minute charge will bring back two hours of talk time. It also connects simultaneously with two devices (like many recent Plantronics models). No word yet on a price or release date.