Saturday, December 29, 2007

Jawbone is great -- but its attachments are terrible!

As an early adopter, I was psyched to grab the Jawbone, a bluetooth headset with really meaningful noise reduction.

It works pretty well. Callers hear my voice clearly even when I am in the car -- wind noise on the street or with the top down is still a problem. But it's a big step up from others I have owned.

The volume in my ear could be a little louder -- I find I have to put a finger up there to push it into my ear canal if I am not in a quiet environment.

But the big gripes all are about the attachments.

First, the designers chose a proprietary charging adapter. This sucks a bit -- who wants to carry yet another charger in their bag when traveling? A mini USB would have been SO much more friendly.

Second, the earloops (you get several in the package, for different sizes of right and left ears) are very fragile. Within days of purchase, the one that fit my ear best had fractured. The next best fit lasted only another week before it had become bent -- and surely will break if bent back into shape.

Third, the earbuds (again, you get several in the box, of different sizes/shapes) are not securely attached to the headset. They click on with a quarter turn, and are prone to detach and get lost unless you pack the thing in cotton and transport it in a hardshell case......

Here's the smoke on Jawbone: cool first generation device, but early adopters will be penalized with poorly thought-out attachments which make the headset hard to use in real life.