TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: New Earphone Devices Let You Go Cordless On iPods, Cellphones

New Earphone Devices Let You Go Cordless On iPods, Cellphones

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:59:44 -0500

By Walter S. Mossberg

Wireless earphones are becoming quite common. You often see cellphone
users walking down the street with the alien-like appendages
protruding from an ear. And even in the world of iPods, where the
famous white earbud cord still rules, a half-dozen or more wireless
headphones have been introduced.

But there are problems with going cord-free. In the case of cellphone
wireless headsets, loud street and crowd noises make it hard to hear.
And the wireless iPod headphones have been big, bulky units of
unremarkable audio quality.

Now, some wireless earphones address those problems. For cellphones, a
new wireless headset called Jawbone promises to filter out all that
background noise. For iPods, new wireless earphones called Ety8
promise to bring small size and great sound quality to the wireless
category. Both products use Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit
audio from the device to the ear.

I've been testing these two new products and have found that each
lives up to its claims. Both are advances that have real advantages
over the more standard cord-free competitors. But each also has some
drawbacks that might deter some folks from using them.

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20061221.html

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