Motorola Endeavor HX1
Product summary
The bad: The Motorola Endeavor HX1′s bone conduction mode can result in poor voice quality, and the HX1 might fit too deep in the ear for some.
The bottom line: Though the call quality isn’t perfect, the combination of bone conduction, CrystalTalk, and other features make the Motorola Endeavor HX1 a fantastic headset.
Specifications: Type: Built-in ; Product type: Headset ; Design: Over-the-ear
- Reviewed on: 07/24/2009
Though the Aliph Jawbone is so named for the voice activity sensor that touches the side of the face, it is not actually a bone conduction headset. The sensor on the Jawbone is just there to detect your voice and help separate it from the surrounding noise. Few headsets can truly claim bone conduction, a technology that promises to translate the vibration of the jaw into speech. In fact, we’ve never really seen one before until CES 2008, where we took a look at Nextlink’s Invisio Q7. Invisio claims to have tested its bone conduction headset with the military, and indeed, we were so impressed with it that we nominated it for the Best of CES that year. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard a thing about Invisio since then, which led us to believe it was vaporware.
Enter Motorola. There were rumors last year that the handset manufacturer was partnering up with Nextlink to come up with a Motorola-branded version of the Invisio Q7. It now appears that the rumors are true, because Motorola have recently announced the Motorola Endeavor HX1, which claims to be the first genuine bone conduction headset in the U.S. market. Motorola calls this bone conduction technology “stealth mode,” and combines it with Motorola’s own CrystalTalk noise-cancelling technology to produce really top-quality noise reduction. The idea is that you would use regular CrystalTalk for normal everyday use, and then for extremely noisy or windy situations, you can engage “stealth mode” to take advantage of the bone conduction.
We’re incredibly impressed with the bone conduction technology on the Endeavor HX1. It definitely delivers when it comes to completely blocking outside noise and still being able to transmit our voice. It’s not perfect, but combined with CrystalTalk, voice prompts, and multipoint support, the Endeavor HX1 definitely earns a top spot in our list of headsets. Final pricing is yet to be announced, and the HX1 is slated to come out in late 2009.
The Motorola Endeavor HX1 has a very business-like design, with black and silver tones all around. Measuring 1.85 inches long by 0.71 inch wide by 0.47 inch thick, the HX1 is rectangular and a bit blocky, and looks very much like a traditional Bluetooth headset.
The front surface is divided into three black areas separated by two silver lines. The topmost section with the phone icon is the multifunction call button. It’s easy to press, even when the headset is worn on the ear. Underneath that is a slim silver grille, which is the external microphone. This is used to pick up ambient noise so that CrystalTalk can separate the user’s voice from the background. The second silver line is the “stealth mode” button that activates or deactivates the bone conduction.
On the right side of the headset are a volume rocker and a sliding power switch. The rocker is raised above the surface and has bumps indicating the volume increase and decrease directions, which makes it that much easier to use. We also like the sliding power switch that makes it easier to turn the headset on and off–most headsets require you to hold down the call button for a few seconds instead.
Flip the headset around and you’ll find a rather large protruding earpiece that is designed to fit snugly in the ear. Covering it is a rubber ear bud with an attached loop, which is made to nestle inside the openings of the ear and ensure the correct placement of the headset. The HX1 comes with two different ear loop fittings plus two additional ear fittings that have a unique “soft spring” curve instead of a loop. We found the ear fittings with the “soft spring” curve much more comfortable and secure than the ones with the loop. Also, we were a bit uncomfortable with how deep the HX1 felt in our ear at first, but we soon got used to it.
We felt the earpiece fit quite securely when placed in the ear, but if you want additional security, you can also use the optional ear hook. The hook is thin, flexible, and can rotate to fit either the left or right ear.
Underneath the earpiece, at the very tip, you’ll find a small rubber nub. This is essentially the part that helps the HX1 with bone conduction. When placed in the ear, this “stealth mode” sensor will sense the vibration of your jaw as you talk, and then translate that into speech for the other person on the line. Near the bottom of the headset is another microphone, which is used to amplify your voice, and right next to it is a LED indicator light.
Features of the Motorola Endeavor HX1 include the typical answering, ending, and rejecting calls, call waiting support, call mute, last number redial, the ability to transfer calls from the headset to the phone and vice versa, plus multipoint support. The latter means that the HX1 is able to connect to two devices at the same time. This works especially if you want to use one headset with two phones. The first phone to pair and connect to the HX1 will be designated Phone 1, the second one will be called Phone 2.
We paired the Motorola Endeavor HX1 with both the Apple iPhone 3G and the LG LX290. The Endeavor HX1 features voice prompts similar to the BlueAnt Q1–it announces to you when it’s ready for pairing and walks you through the pairing process. It will also announce its battery status, when stealth mode is on or off, and if an incoming call is coming from Phone 1 or Phone 2. We found the voice prompts handy, especially when handling more than one phone.
We were extremely impressed by the sound quality of the headset on the whole. On our end, we could hear our callers very clearly with plenty of volume, though we did hear the occasional static and crackle. It was about on par with the incoming call quality of the handsets.
As for outgoing call quality, we found that we didn’t have to use the “stealth mode” bone conduction all the time, especially in a quiet office or a moderately busy restaurant–the dual-microphone noise-canceling CrystalTalk technology was sufficient for the most part. With just CrystalTalk and without activating “stealth mode,” callers said we sounded very clear with a natural sounding voice. They didn’t hear a lot of static or interference. However, callers could still hear some background sound at times when we were outside, and the HX1 did poorly with wind noise when just using CrystalTalk.
It was a whole different story with the “stealth mode” activated. Background noise was absolutely eliminated–even when we were standing in front of a fan blowing at full speed, our callers didn’t hear the fan at all. However, while they did say the sound quality improved, we did encounter a few snags. They said our voice sounded digitized and almost garbled at times. We had to enunciate words and speak a bit slowly and deliberately to avoid sounding garbled or mumbled. Our callers also heard a tiny bit of crackling at times. This is why we would only use “stealth mode” in the most extreme of noisy situations, since the bone conduction affects the quality of the voice.
The Motorola Endeavor HX1 has a rated talk time of 7 hours talk time and 10 days standby time.
Motorola Endeavor HX1
Product summary
The bad: The Motorola Endeavor HX1′s bone conduction mode can result in poor voice quality, and the HX1 might fit too deep in the ear for some.
The bottom line: Though the call quality isn’t perfect, the combination of bone conduction, CrystalTalk, and other features make the Motorola Endeavor HX1 a fantastic headset.
Specifications: Type: Built-in ; Product type: Headset ; Design: Over-the-ear
- Reviewed on: 07/24/2009
Though the Aliph Jawbone is so named for the voice activity sensor that touches the side of the face, it is not actually a bone conduction headset. The sensor on the Jawbone is just there to detect your voice and help separate it from the surrounding noise. Few headsets can truly claim bone conduction, a technology that promises to translate the vibration of the jaw into speech. In fact, we’ve never really seen one before until CES 2008, where we took a look at Nextlink’s Invisio Q7. Invisio claims to have tested its bone conduction headset with the military, and indeed, we were so impressed with it that we nominated it for the Best of CES that year. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard a thing about Invisio since then, which led us to believe it was vaporware.
Enter Motorola. There were rumors last year that the handset manufacturer was partnering up with Nextlink to come up with a Motorola-branded version of the Invisio Q7. It now appears that the rumors are true, because Motorola have recently announced the Motorola Endeavor HX1, which claims to be the first genuine bone conduction headset in the U.S. market. Motorola calls this bone conduction technology “stealth mode,” and combines it with Motorola’s own CrystalTalk noise-cancelling technology to produce really top-quality noise reduction. The idea is that you would use regular CrystalTalk for normal everyday use, and then for extremely noisy or windy situations, you can engage “stealth mode” to take advantage of the bone conduction.
We’re incredibly impressed with the bone conduction technology on the Endeavor HX1. It definitely delivers when it comes to completely blocking outside noise and still being able to transmit our voice. It’s not perfect, but combined with CrystalTalk, voice prompts, and multipoint support, the Endeavor HX1 definitely earns a top spot in our list of headsets. Final pricing is yet to be announced, and the HX1 is slated to come out in late 2009.
The Motorola Endeavor HX1 has a very business-like design, with black and silver tones all around. Measuring 1.85 inches long by 0.71 inch wide by 0.47 inch thick, the HX1 is rectangular and a bit blocky, and looks very much like a traditional Bluetooth headset.
The front surface is divided into three black areas separated by two silver lines. The topmost section with the phone icon is the multifunction call button. It’s easy to press, even when the headset is worn on the ear. Underneath that is a slim silver grille, which is the external microphone. This is used to pick up ambient noise so that CrystalTalk can separate the user’s voice from the background. The second silver line is the “stealth mode” button that activates or deactivates the bone conduction.
On the right side of the headset are a volume rocker and a sliding power switch. The rocker is raised above the surface and has bumps indicating the volume increase and decrease directions, which makes it that much easier to use. We also like the sliding power switch that makes it easier to turn the headset on and off–most headsets require you to hold down the call button for a few seconds instead.
Flip the headset around and you’ll find a rather large protruding earpiece that is designed to fit snugly in the ear. Covering it is a rubber ear bud with an attached loop, which is made to nestle inside the openings of the ear and ensure the correct placement of the headset. The HX1 comes with two different ear loop fittings plus two additional ear fittings that have a unique “soft spring” curve instead of a loop. We found the ear fittings with the “soft spring” curve much more comfortable and secure than the ones with the loop. Also, we were a bit uncomfortable with how deep the HX1 felt in our ear at first, but we soon got used to it.
We felt the earpiece fit quite securely when placed in the ear, but if you want additional security, you can also use the optional ear hook. The hook is thin, flexible, and can rotate to fit either the left or right ear.
Underneath the earpiece, at the very tip, you’ll find a small rubber nub. This is essentially the part that helps the HX1 with bone conduction. When placed in the ear, this “stealth mode” sensor will sense the vibration of your jaw as you talk, and then translate that into speech for the other person on the line. Near the bottom of the headset is another microphone, which is used to amplify your voice, and right next to it is a LED indicator light.
Features of the Motorola Endeavor HX1 include the typical answering, ending, and rejecting calls, call waiting support, call mute, last number redial, the ability to transfer calls from the headset to the phone and vice versa, plus multipoint support. The latter means that the HX1 is able to connect to two devices at the same time. This works especially if you want to use one headset with two phones. The first phone to pair and connect to the HX1 will be designated Phone 1, the second one will be called Phone 2.
We paired the Motorola Endeavor HX1 with both the Apple iPhone 3G and the LG LX290. The Endeavor HX1 features voice prompts similar to the BlueAnt Q1–it announces to you when it’s ready for pairing and walks you through the pairing process. It will also announce its battery status, when stealth mode is on or off, and if an incoming call is coming from Phone 1 or Phone 2. We found the voice prompts handy, especially when handling more than one phone.
We were extremely impressed by the sound quality of the headset on the whole. On our end, we could hear our callers very clearly with plenty of volume, though we did hear the occasional static and crackle. It was about on par with the incoming call quality of the handsets.
As for outgoing call quality, we found that we didn’t have to use the “stealth mode” bone conduction all the time, especially in a quiet office or a moderately busy restaurant–the dual-microphone noise-canceling CrystalTalk technology was sufficient for the most part. With just CrystalTalk and without activating “stealth mode,” callers said we sounded very clear with a natural sounding voice. They didn’t hear a lot of static or interference. However, callers could still hear some background sound at times when we were outside, and the HX1 did poorly with wind noise when just using CrystalTalk.
It was a whole different story with the “stealth mode” activated. Background noise was absolutely eliminated–even when we were standing in front of a fan blowing at full speed, our callers didn’t hear the fan at all. However, while they did say the sound quality improved, we did encounter a few snags. They said our voice sounded digitized and almost garbled at times. We had to enunciate words and speak a bit slowly and deliberately to avoid sounding garbled or mumbled. Our callers also heard a tiny bit of crackling at times. This is why we would only use “stealth mode” in the most extreme of noisy situations, since the bone conduction affects the quality of the voice.
The Motorola Endeavor HX1 has a rated talk time of 7 hours talk time and 10 days standby time.
Devotec Unveils First Solar Powered Bluetooth Speaker
If the name ‘Devotec’ is familiar that’s because it has established a solid rep as a manufacturer of solar chargers for, well… just about everything! This however is clearly the next step in its evolution.
The ‘Solar Sound’ capitalises on all the company’s solar experience to create the first solar powered wireless Bluetooth speaker. So how practical is it?
In short: very. The speaker is fitted with a 150mA solar panel which at full charge can last up to eight hours on medium volume or four hours at full volume while recharging just involves leaving it in any form of light. Recharging takes between 12 and 24 hours for the solar panel or just four when hooked up to the mains.
n terms of compatibility the Bluetooth standard means it will work with virtually any Bluetooth equipped handset or MP3 player and since it has A2DP bass response will be improved if the connecting device sports the same. Audio can be controlled either directly from your device or using the touch button controls. Furthermore, if Bluetooth doesn’t appeal a 3.5mm headphone jack will come to the rescue. Finally, making the Solar Panel even more flexible is the inclusion of an integrated mic which means it can be used as a hands free car kit when driving.
As for sound quality, given the Solar Sound is designed to be very portable (165 x 55 x 55m and 260g) it won’t be shaking any walls but a pair of 2W speakers should be plenty enough for some peaceful garden listening or audiobook enjoyment.
If all this sounds rather tempting then the price shouldn’t put you off at £59.99 and it’s available from the company’s site from today. Let’s hear it for the sun!
Bluetrek Duo Stereo Bluetooth Headset Review
Thinking of buying a Bluetooth headset but can’t decide between a standard mono one or a snazzier stereo version so you can also listen to music from your phone? Well, thanks to this clever headset from Bluetrek you no longer have to make that decision.
As its name suggests the Bluetooth Duo can be used either as a standalone mono in-ear headset or can be quickly converted into a pair of wireless stereo headphones complete with built-in support for SRS WoW HD pseudo surround sound. So the question is whether it’s a jack of all trades or a master of none?
The Duo comes as two totally distinct parts. The first part looks pretty much like any run-of-the-mill mono headset. It’s short and stubby with rounded edges on both sides and comes supplied with four different ear gels of differing sizes. However, unlike many other headsets, none of the gels supplied here are designed so you can use the headset without an ear hook. Perhaps this is because the Duo is ever so slightly fatter and heavier than most headsets. It certainly needed the extra support of the ear hook to hold it stable on my ear. There are two of these supplied in the box (large and small), and as they clip around the earpiece they can be mounted on either side so lefties will have no problems.
The Duo isn’t exactly laden down with controls. In fact there are only two buttons. The first is the volume rocker switch which takes the form of think chrome strip and is mounted on the top edge of the headset. The second is the small multifunction call handling button that sits toward the back of the outer face of the Duo. The multifunction button also has an integrated multicoloured LED to let you know when it’s charging, in paring mode or needs to be topped up with juice.
On the rear of the headset you’ll find a microUSB port. On most headsets this is used purely for charging, but that’s not the case with the Duo. Here it also doubles as a kind of expansion port because this is where you plug the Duo’s stereo headphones.
The headphones are actually supplied in two parts. The first part is an adaptor that attaches to the microUSB port, with the stereo headphones then plugging into this via a standard 3.5mm jack. As this adaptor also houses the hands-free microphone it means you can really use whatever headphones you like with the Duo. However, the supplied headphones are specially designed so the headphone cable forms a neck loop. The result is that when they’re attached to the headset it hangs around your neck like a dog tag. Or that’s the theory at least; instead it tends to hang at an awkward angle as the earpiece on the back stops it from lying flat on your chest. Because of this the look of the whole setup isn’t perhaps as elegant as it could be.
As you would expect, pairing the headset with your phone is a piece of cake. All you’ve got to do is press and hold the multifunction call button for seven seconds until the headset’s LED starts to blink blue and red. It’s then simply a matter of doing a search for the Duo on your mobile and entering the standard ’0000′ Bluetooth passcode.
Once connected, the call controls are pretty straightforward. Tapping once answers or ends a call, and if you’re on a call and hear the call waiting alert you can press and hold the button for three seconds to connect to the new caller. The headset also has a neat voice alert feature where it will speak to you to let you know if pairing failed, it needs a recharge or if the headset is disconnected from your phone as well as various other alerts.
When used as a standard headset, call quality is pretty good. Callers sound loud and distinct through the mono earpiece while the mic delivers clean audio for the most part. However, callers did note that the mic tended to pick up a fair degree of background sounds in noisier environments, which isn’t really all that surprising as the headset doesn’t include any noise cancelling technology.
Our course, the sound quality from the stereo headphones is just as important and on this front the Duo scores pretty highly. The phones use sound isolating in-ear buds which help to block out a lot of background noise – handy on tube journeys in London. The ear buds produce a decent amount of bass and have a pretty solid mid-range, plus the highs tend to sparkle nicely. However, when you push the volume to higher levels a touch of distortion does tend to creep in.
Unfortunately the integrated SRS Wow HD sound enhancement technology wasn’t up to much cop. The pop, jazz and classic settings tended to boost the mid-range so much that the sound was very tinny and unappealing, while the Trubass function didn’t really add any more bass, but instead simply created a bit of extra stereo width. Overall, we found it was a much better idea to simply leave the SRS off, which was a tad disappointing.
Battery life wasn’t wonderful either. It takes around three hours to fully charge the Duo via the supplied wall charger and once it’s fully topped up with juice, Bluetrek says it’s good for around six hours of talk time or around four hours of music streaming. During our test period we got around five hours of talk time from it and around thee and a half hours of music streaming.
Philips Bluetooth Webcam Concept
Philips Bluetooth Webcam Concept
Bluetooth speaker looks like a futuristic torch
Bluetooth speaker looks like a futuristic torch
Dilus- Bluetooth teddy bear to delight ill kids
Dilus is an electronic teddy bear by Brazilian industrial designer Bruno Oro de Abreu. This concept bear does more that mollycoddle ill kids; it has a holographic display that kids can use to surf the Internet, play games, attend remote classes, and make friends with other Dilus-using kids. It can display 2D and 3D images and has a customizable polymer body that can be changed according to design preference. The designer was inspired by cancer inflicted children who were hospitalized and bedridden for long stretches, which can be quite boring for the kid. Apparently some kids have already tested Dilus and hopefully hit the market by 2010.
Dilus- Bluetooth teddy bear to delight ill kids
Dilus is an electronic teddy bear by Brazilian industrial designer Bruno Oro de Abreu. This concept bear does more that mollycoddle ill kids; it has a holographic display that kids can use to surf the Internet, play games, attend remote classes, and make friends with other Dilus-using kids. It can display 2D and 3D images and has a customizable polymer body that can be changed according to design preference. The designer was inspired by cancer inflicted children who were hospitalized and bedridden for long stretches, which can be quite boring for the kid. Apparently some kids have already tested Dilus and hopefully hit the market by 2010.
