Jawbone ERA Bluetooth Headset: Shadowbox

The Jawbone Era is well-named: being one of the first Bluetooth headsets to have the ability to have software loaded onto it, it marks the beginning of a new era of 'smart' devices. I use the Era with my Samsung Captivate (a.k.a. "Galaxy S") and I have found it to be an excellent headset overall. The Era is light. It comes with just about every possible kind of attachment you could imagine. The packaging is really pretty slick: with the Era in a clear window sitting on a stem, the body of the box then folds out to reveal a book, a bunch of different attachments, the charger, and each part carefully labeled for you. You can use the Era with either the over-the-ear hook (okay, "binaural loop" according to the manual) or the rubber ear-plug (the "spout connector"). It didn't make sense to me at first, but with some trying it became obvious that the loop on the end of the plug can be tucked into the fold of cartilage at the edge of your ear canal. This makes a nice alternative to the ear-hook for several reasons: -You can still wear glasses without tangling in the hook -You can switch from left to right ear without having to adjust anything -With the right size plug for your ear, the headset won't fall out any easier than it would with an ear-hook -The shape of these plugs funnels sound straight into your ear canal The inner surface of the Era has a tiny power switch to turn it on or off. It may not be as slick as my Motorola, which used the foldout mic to turn on and off...but that's because there is no foldout mic on the Era: it's all one tiny unit with no other moving parts. I have accidentally left it on a time or two and killed the battery, so this is something that needs watching--a tiny power light will also clue you in, as well as change color based on battery status, pairing mode, etc. Some people have complained that the power switch is hard to flip, but I haven't had this problem despite having somewhat largish hands. There's also a nub on the inner surface that's designed to rest against your cheek. It doesn't poke me annoyingly; in fact, it's hard to notice at all once you put the unit on. This is the Voice Activity Sensor, and when the pointed at a good angle helps the Jawbone to detect and filter your voice against outside noise--the other Jawbone products apparently pioneered this technology, and the quality of sound in the Era is very good. The back of the unit has a mini-USB connector for the charger. My only complaint here is that the plug sits at an angle, and it takes some getting used to, pushing in the charging connector at an angle to make a proper fit. Some customers don't care for the fact that the charger cable is only a few inches long, but I find that useful because it makes the charger a lot easier to tuck into a pocket or laptop case. The charger cable connects to the power adapter using a standard USB port, so this situation is easily remedied by using a longer USB-to-mini cable. One useful feature of the Jawbone is that when you turn it on, it makes a sound to indicate it is powered up...and then tells you in a clear voice about how much talk time you have remaining on a charge. This voice will pop up again if the battery gets low while on standby, but won't interrupt a conversation if you're talking and the battery starts to die. Getting the Jawbone to connect really is as simple as a couple of flicks of the wrist (with the Jawbone held horizontally between thumb and forefinger); pairing mode is activated with four vertical shakes (hold the Era upright). Answering an incoming call is as simple as tapping the button on the back end of the unit (near the charging connector). Calls on the Era are extremely clear, and this is where it wins above the other headsets I've used. I can step into the wind or walk through a crowd and still carry on a conversation. I try to find isolated spots to place a phone call, but I've noticed people have an annoying unconscious habit of walking close to me while talking loudly even when I'm out of the way in a corner somewhere. My voice comes through just fine on the other end, anyway--I don't get asked to repeat anything. I've tried to deliberately feed wind directly into the mic, but even this is tricky to do because the microphones are extremely tiny. They sit on one side of the unit, so typically noise cancellation works better in the right ear because this places them on the underside of the unit. I had a call the other day where I was able to get wind blowing in--it was certainly noisy for me, but the person I was talking to said nothing about it and was still able to hear me. I've also streamed music off my phone into the headset, but I'm a bit skeptical about the "HD Quality Audio" label--one tiny speaker playing stereo music isn't really going to be able to be measured as to whether it's "HD Quality"--the music I'm playing doesn't really sound any better or worse than it does on my Motorola Rokr S-9 headphones, except that at least headphones are in stereo. Software for the Era is very simple: you access the website, create an account, and then it will quickly walk you through connecting the device (through the USB cable). The Era not only automatically updates itself, but you can mix & match any of their applications for free as you wish. For example, you can have voice-dialing or voice recording (but not both at the same time). You can also change the Era's voice that talks to you: the website will let you listen to samples and they've actually hired voice actors to have sexy, hip, or just plain fun speech responses for you. Making changes is as easy as connecting the headset, logging into the website, and making your choice. If you're looking for a high-tech headset with excellent noise filtering, excellent sound quality, and a variety of options to choose from, the Jawbone Era makes an excellent choice. It has a fitting for just about every preference, the ability to add more features via software (such as voice recognition) that can be loaded onto the unit. The price is much more than your average headset, but that's also putting you in a top-notch technological tier.