[Kyos]

Originally Posted by pdutta2000

Has anyone tried this headset in windy conditions? Living and working in Boston, wind is a big problem and I often find myself outside walking from one place to the other where the wind destroys my calls...even if I'm just using the headset. If this thing can handle the wind...then I'll be buying.

It handles wind good. Doing 90 m/p with the widows down didn't seem to have and effect. The other person on the other side didn't have any problem hearing me.
I just didn't like the feel of it, not conmfortable for me to wear.

[kramerica]

I also had problems with the "tin" sound with incoming audio. I also wish the volume was louder. It's ok in the office, but in the car, I could use some volume control. Weird thing about the volume was the adjusting. When I adjusted the volume on the headset, the "beep" notification it gives, increased in volume to a satisfactory level (almost to loud at the 6th level), but the volume of the caller never increased. Odd?

I love everything about this headset except the headset earpiece volume. My clients love everything about this phone as a great number of them commented on the clarity and lack of background noise.

I have returned the headset to Cingular and am waiting for a replacement (as they only had the 1 I bought in stock) to give it another shot. Hopefully it was that headset and the replacement will work properly. I have used about every BT headset out there and would like to stop looking (for a while anyway). (I use a 8703e and Q by the way).

[faisal]

Originally Posted by pdutta2000

Has anyone tried this headset in windy conditions? Living and working in Boston, wind is a big problem and I often find myself outside walking from one place to the other where the wind destroys my calls...even if I'm just using the headset. If this thing can handle the wind...then I'll be buying.

I have not had any problems with wind. Keep in mind the way the sound cancellation works is thru noise cancelation. If it "hears" noise it will cancel it out.

IF wind is blowing into the mic then it may be an issue. Not just with jawbone...but any bt headset. i think the Plantronics 510 has some wind mic that helps.

But then the problem is that people wont understand you because it wont cancel out the wind "noise".

Your bet is the jawbone!!

[faisal]

Originally Posted by kramerica

I also had problems with the "tin" sound with incoming audio. I also wish the volume was louder. It's ok in the office, but in the car, I could use some volume control. Weird thing about the volume was the adjusting. When I adjusted the volume on the headset, the "beep" notification it gives, increased in volume to a satisfactory level (almost to loud at the 6th level), but the volume of the caller never increased. Odd?

I love everything about this headset except the headset earpiece volume. My clients love everything about this phone as a great number of them commented on the clarity and lack of background noise.

I have returned the headset to Cingular and am waiting for a replacement (as they only had the 1 I bought in stock) to give it another shot. Hopefully it was that headset and the replacement will work properly. I have used about every BT headset out there and would like to stop looking (for a while anyway). (I use a 8703e and Q by the way).

I am glad its not just me.. Please tell me if the next headset works better. Sometimes the volume is fine but other times it needs to get louder. YOu might want to send an email to the makers and tell them.

I dont think they will do anything but it doesnt hurt

[kramerica]

I actually did send them an email about the volume issue as well as the fact that they have no real support via their website (other than 12 FAQ's) which I thought kind of sucked since they released their product into the wild.

Will let you know about the replacement. Have noticed a couple other members from this forum (and another) commenting on the volume (or lack thereof) in comparison to the 510 and 655. Had hoped maybe its the headset and that I'm not going deaf.

[faisal]

There is some great forum discussions on the jawbone at Treocentral.com

go to discussions and bluetooth. Lets make sure to share what we learn on that site to this site so other can benefit.

one thing i learned was that the Jabra eargels help in making the sound better in the earpiece. i havent tried it yet but will soon and report

[faisal]

Hosain Rahman @ Dec 24th 2006 4:09PM

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the comments and responses. I appreciate all of your feedback on the Jawbone Bluetooth headset. I wanted to address some of the issues raised in the various postings:

1. The way our technology works is that there is a small voice activity sensor that rests on the cheek and tells our algorithms definitively when the user is speaking. It does so by detecting the vibrations in the jaw that only occur when we speak. We also have two microphones that constantly scan the user’s background environment (500 times a second) to understand and characterize the noise by making a model of it – its spectral content, where it is coming from, and how it is changing over time. So what we end up with is two pieces of information that are critical to improving mobile audio quality – we know exactly when the user is speaking and we know exactly what the background noise is. No other solutions that we are aware of in the marketplace are able to get the same amount of information that we are and as such this is really the foundation of our advantage. Both pieces of information are critical to our performance, but it all starts with the voice activity sensor understanding when the user is speaking through its contact with the skin. Hence the name Jawbone. We have been utilizing this approach since the late 90’s and that’s why we have the trademark and the pending patents. It is not conventional bone conduction as some of the responses correctly noted. The reason we do not use our sensor to characterize speech the way bone conduction techniques do is that bone conduction techniques often end up muffling the speech, making you sound like you are taking through a tube. Bone conduction technologies often loose the fricatives (off the mouth sounds like p’s, b’s, and f’s, etc.) and thus loose a lot of the nuances and intonations that make up our speech. We think it is absolutely critical to preserve as much of the intelligibility of human speech as possible and unfortunately bone conduction does not do this. When we teamed up with DARPA in 2001 to optimize our solution for their battlefield communications needs, they chose our technology because of the ability to cancel out a large amount of the noise while still preserving intelligibility.

2. I noticed one user couldn’t get the unit to work. First thing I would suggest is to make sure that the voice activity sensor (white nipple) touches the skin. If it still does not appear to work I would make sure that you are holding the black button down for at least three seconds – this will turn the technology off. If you don’t hold it down for long enough it will just cycle through a volume table. You can turn the technology back on by holding the black button down for another 3 seconds. If the unit still does not work reset it by pressing the middle button on the charging pads – the middle of the 5 charging pads is actually a hard reset button that is detailed in the user manual. The product works - the noise suppression performance has been tested extensively and validated by independent testing labs and guys like Walt.

3. Wind – We have never claimed to block out wind. Wind is a vibration issue that plagues almost every headset and handset on the market today. Wind literally blows over the microphones and actually physically pushes the membrane in the mic. There are some solutions that have utilized mechanical techniques (like the boom muffs, etc.) to solve these problems. We are always working on new ways to improve our performance in wind. In our first (wired) product we had a wind mode that utilized the voice activity sensor to actually characterize the user’s speech (like bone conduction). It sounded so muffled (like bone conduction) that we were not willing to accept the degradation in speech quality and intelligibility. So we removed wind mode for this product and believe that ultimately even if you can hear the physical vibration of the wind, you can still hear the user’s speech loud and clear. We’ll keep you posted on our progress on solving this wind problem once and for all.

4. The fit of the product is something that we are always looking to make better for users. We definitely want your comments on how we can make the headset more comfortable for you. Please bear in mind that we have 4 different interchangeable earbuds to find the best in the ear experience. We are willing to look at additional solutions as people’s ears vary so much, sometimes from left to right. The earloop is made out of metal to make it strong, but it is flexible and shapeable to be able to conform to the particulars of your ear shape. You can and should absolutely flex the earloop to find the most comfortable configuration for you.

In any case please let us know if you have any additional comments. Relative to my saying that the “market was crap” - it is an unfortunate summary in Piers’ own words of a long conversation we had about the state of the market when we decided to build our own Bluetooth product. We thought that we could bring our unique technology into a market where we had heard a lot of user complaints about the audio quality of the products that they were using. In fact audio quality/noise performance was the number one complaint we heard from users and retailers alike. We’ve always had a commitment to design and also felt like we could apply these skills in building the product. We think design is critical because ultimately these are products that people wear on their faces and whether we like it or not the aesthetics and comfort along with performance matter a lot.

We look forward to all of your comments and definitely keep them coming!

Best wishes to all for a happy and safe holiday.

Hosain

CEO + Co-Founder
Aliph

[rjhouck]

Originally Posted by kramerica

I also had problems with the "tin" sound with incoming audio. I also wish the volume was louder. It's ok in the office, but in the car, I could use some volume control. Weird thing about the volume was the adjusting. When I adjusted the volume on the headset, the "beep" notification it gives, increased in volume to a satisfactory level (almost to loud at the 6th level), but the volume of the caller never increased. Odd?

I love everything about this headset except the headset earpiece volume. My clients love everything about this phone as a great number of them commented on the clarity and lack of background noise.

I have returned the headset to Cingular and am waiting for a replacement (as they only had the 1 I bought in stock) to give it another shot. Hopefully it was that headset and the replacement will work properly. I have used about every BT headset out there and would like to stop looking (for a while anyway). (I use a 8703e and Q by the way).

I took my first jawbone back to Cingular and they gave me another one but the tin or mono sound on incoming audio is the same. I paired the jawbone with my wifes Razr and it was little better but still not up to par.

I have noticed when trying the different ear gels and loops will make a difference in the audio volume. So be sure to take the time and experiment.

I tested the outbound audio in a very noisy indoor environment by leaving myself a voicemail I was blown away at how great a job it does to eliminate the background noise. I will probably keep the headset just because of this.

[rjhouck]

Hosain:

Thank you very much for your comments and for taking the time to share information with us.

[Captain Scarlet]

There are now several BT Headset manufacturers entering the market with innovative technologies with differing price points. There is also on offer a range of functionality. Which will grasp the high road.

Aliph have the Jawbone
Samsung the WEP400 (?Nextlink Tech)
Nextlink the Invisio Q7

So called "Bone" Technology from the above

Then we have the advanced DSP Processing

Gennum
Jabra
Plantronics
Cardo etc.

Then the ultra slick technology from

Qstik

Who will win the battle?

The offering from Qstik is perhaps larger but for the 2 chips requires a larger estate. It packs Bi-Directional NC along with SLE, EC and ASP. It works without the tinny voice effect and also has stereo streaming. The noise cancellation is excellent and is on send and receive. There is no need to have the headset near the skin, which I dislike.

So when this lot port this s/w to a single chip?????

All will no doubt be revealed but I already know some Blackberry users that would not leave home without the evoQ from Qstik.

[damianp67]

I got my Jawbone a few days ago. A bit difficult to get on my hear compared to the Plantronics 510, but I can get over that. The noise reduction is very impressive, and overall outbound sound quality is very good.
Incoming sound is my issue. As others have said it is very tinny and low in terms of volume compared to my standard, the 510. I'm still up undecided whether to keep it or not. I got it for long conference calls in my car, or walking in NYC and needing to speak to my clients. I'm worried that even if the callers can hear me clearly, I won't be able to hear them.

With that said, I'm not giving up my 510 quite yet. Make the Jawbone a bit more bassy/loud and easier to get on my ear, its almost perfect.

[faisal]

Originally Posted by damianp67

I got my Jawbone a few days ago. A bit difficult to get on my hear compared to the Plantronics 510, but I can get over that. The noise reduction is very impressive, and overall outbound sound quality is very good.
Incoming sound is my issue. As others have said it is very tinny and low in terms of volume compared to my standard, the 510. I'm still up undecided whether to keep it or not. I got it for long conference calls in my car, or walking in NYC and needing to speak to my clients. I'm worried that even if the callers can hear me clearly, I won't be able to hear them.

With that said, I'm not giving up my 510 quite yet. Make the Jawbone a bit more bassy/loud and easier to get on my ear, its almost perfect.

I too have both. I like my 510. all around good performer BUT.. If noise reduction is important the jawbone delivers. i travel every week. I am in and out of airports and in restaurants etc etc. with my 510 and 655 i couldnt talk to anyone. With the jawbone i can.

If you have used the 510 and no one has complained then i would say you dont need the jawbone.

One thing i did that did help the sound volume in my ear was use a different ear piece. I used the circular one. The oval ones they provided were not as good.

hope it helps

[faisal]

Originally Posted by Captain Scarlet

There are now several BT Headset manufacturers entering the market with innovative technologies with differing price points. There is also on offer a range of functionality. Which will grasp the high road.

Aliph have the Jawbone
Samsung the WEP400 (?Nextlink Tech)
Nextlink the Invisio Q7

So called "Bone" Technology from the above

Then we have the advanced DSP Processing

Gennum
Jabra
Plantronics
Cardo etc.

Then the ultra slick technology from

Qstik

Who will win the battle?

The offering from Qstik is perhaps larger but for the 2 chips requires a larger estate. It packs Bi-Directional NC along with SLE, EC and ASP. It works without the tinny voice effect and also has stereo streaming. The noise cancellation is excellent and is on send and receive. There is no need to have the headset near the skin, which I dislike.

So when this lot port this s/w to a single chip?????

All will no doubt be revealed but I already know some Blackberry users that would not leave home without the evoQ from Qstik.

I have tried all the plantronics headsets. They may say DSP or whatever but they do not cancel noise. many people have complained that the sound was horrible.


the jawbone delivers.

[faisal]

Originally Posted by Captain Scarlet

There are now several BT Headset manufacturers entering the market with innovative technologies with differing price points. There is also on offer a range of functionality. Which will grasp the high road.

Aliph have the Jawbone
Samsung the WEP400 (?Nextlink Tech)
Nextlink the Invisio Q7

So called "Bone" Technology from the above

Then we have the advanced DSP Processing

Gennum
Jabra
Plantronics
Cardo etc.

Then the ultra slick technology from

Qstik

Who will win the battle?

The offering from Qstik is perhaps larger but for the 2 chips requires a larger estate. It packs Bi-Directional NC along with SLE, EC and ASP. It works without the tinny voice effect and also has stereo streaming. The noise cancellation is excellent and is on send and receive. There is no need to have the headset near the skin, which I dislike.

So when this lot port this s/w to a single chip?????

All will no doubt be revealed but I already know some Blackberry users that would not leave home without the evoQ from Qstik.

Where do they sell the Q stick?

What makes it different than the Jawbone in terms of performance.

Thanks

[fastrunner]

"All will no doubt be revealed but I already know some Blackberry users that would not leave home without the evoQ from Qstik". I am in this category too as it brings a number of firsts to the market place that to me is sorely in need of them.

Leaving all the tech stuff to one side my testing over the past month has shown that it provides:
-Totally natural noise free sound even indoors/outside and in winds in BOTH the send and receive mode. So if a friend calls me from a noisy car where he is NOT using a noise cancelling mic my evoq will remove all his car noise.
-It is a round shape with no awkward looking boom (I think this aspect is unique on a mono headset) as the DSP (based on UK military) works so well the mic can be right next to the ear without acoustic echo feedback
-Provides stereo music via stereo earbuds that you can fit in
-Has an acoustic shock protection so sound spikes cannot hurt your ears (again I think this is only BT headset with this)
-Has additional signal processing to clean up VOIP calls on skype (again I think this is only BT headset with this) if VOIP calling over the PC is important for you.

The downsides are two for now: it is only available in the UK via online retailer spectrum retail (check google for the link) and it is larger and heavier than the micro ones like the Jx10. It is very comfortable for up to 3-5 hours so this is not a problem for me and all my friends that use them but may be a deterrent for some. The cost is £60 plus postage.

The "jawdropper" for a quick demo on this device is quite how natural voice is under extreme noise cancelling. I will never need to look for anything else. Have a look a the qstik website (again you can find this via google) for all the background info.

[mgerbasio]

Originally Posted by Captain Scarlet

There are now several BT Headset manufacturers entering the market with innovative technologies with differing price points. There is also on offer a range of functionality. Which will grasp the high road.

Aliph have the Jawbone
Samsung the WEP400 (?Nextlink Tech)
Nextlink the Invisio Q7

So called "Bone" Technology from the above

Then we have the advanced DSP Processing

Gennum
Jabra
Plantronics
Cardo etc.

Then the ultra slick technology from

Qstik

Who will win the battle?

FWIW the jawbone really belongs in the DSP column. Is the Qstik available? You can add the Motorola H5 to the bone technology too however these are vaporware now so it really doesn't matter. I have tried the Gennum and Plantronics which worked very well in an office or car. However, on the Manhattan streets, even without wind, it was constant clipping for both. with even a slight wind these were not usable. I'm not planning on trying the Aliph since I doubt it would fair better.

I've given up on DSP for now although it is really good when someone, like Aliph, tries to advance the technology.

Regards-Michael G.

[fastrunner]

"I've given up on DSP for now although it is really good when someone, like Aliph, tries to advance the technology." Qstik evoq is simply in the opinion of those who have used it the only one that works in wind and without wind and as from last month is NOW available online only in the UK.
www
spectrum-retail
com

Read the info from the GSM mobile awards in barcelona in early 2006 where it was nominated as the 2nd best innovation out of 150 new mobile innovations. Have a look at the www-qstik-com website for info. I have already stated a caveat on the size so you must consider this aswell.

[mgerbasio]

[QUOTE=fastrunnerRead the info from the GSM mobile awards in barcelona in early 2006 where it was nominated as the 2nd best innovation out of 150 new mobile innovations. Have a look at the www-qstik-com website for info. I have already stated a caveat on the size so you must consider this aswell.[/QUOTE]

I'm going to see what CES2007 brings next week. I did contact the Qstik site and put my name in for a notification when these are available in the USA.

Regards-Michael G.

[forevergreen]

I purchased the jawbone a few days ago. At first I hated how loose it was on my ear. After bending and forming the metal to my ear a bit, the fit and wearability is completely fine. I have had some wind complaints, but outside of that, everyone hears me fine. I don't like the little rubber cover for the charging contacts, it falls off frequently. Turn the unit on and off in your hand, not on your ear, as it's quite a loud chirp.

Overall, I'm quite happy with it so far.

[kramerica]

Received my replacement and all small hope is lost. IMHO, as far as DSP goes, I really believe this is heads above the rest when worn and used properly. Wind is always a factor, but again, so is your environment (car, office, sidewalk, etc.). It worked very well for me on the road in highway driving for outgoing quality, but incoming, it just failed miserably (for me).

The "tin" effect was still there and all variations for ear pieces to ear loop unfortunately failed. I had given this unit a full week of travel to "make it work" as I really like the look, feel and outgoing sound quality, but the incoming audio quality (and lack of real volume control) is just not worth the price.

Good luck to those who press forward. Going to the old standbys (510 & BH-900).

PS. The 510 is the best for incoming volume and audio quality, but not the greatest outbound, while the BH-900 is great for outgoing and if it didn't sit off your ear, would probably be great for incoming as well.