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Aliph introduces Jawbone Thoughts for the iPhone

Aliph, the maker of the Jawbone series of Bluetooth headsets, announced a new iPhone app recently at D: Dive Into Mobile, and it's called Thoughts. A sort of sophisticated voice messaging platform, Thoughts is designed to bridge the disconnect between text messaging and voice communication.

The power of asynchronous communication methods like texting, instant messaging, e-mail, and Facebook posts is that the messages can be sent and received at much different times, while phone calls typically demand more immediate attention. However, Aliph says that text-based communication often misses the emotion and nuance that the voice offers, which might lead … Read more

Jawbone Jambox brings boom to Bluetooth

Update: CNET's full, rated review of the Jawbone Jambox is now available.

One of the most overlooked features in any laptop, iPad, smartphone, or iPod Touch, is Bluetooth music streaming. Sure, everybody loves the idea of music without wires, but in reality, stereo headsets are either bulky or messy, and Bluetooth speakers are generally wimpy and ugly.

Enter Jambox--a rechargeable speaker that breaks our preconceptions for what a Bluetooth can do (and how good it can look doing it). Priced on the high end at $199, this little speaker bar uses two 1.25-inch drivers on the front … Read more

Jawbone Icon brings battery meter to BlackBerrys

One of the benefits of the Aliph Jawbone Icon is that if you pair it with an iPhone you can see the headset battery meter next to the iPhone's. Now BlackBerry owners have the icon as well. Just pair and connect the Jawbone Icon to your BlackBerry and you'll see the Icon's battery meter. To get this new functionality, you'll have to get it from Jawbone's MyTalk Web site under the "Mobile Apps" tab.

The Jawbone Icon comes in six designs, and you can customize it with a variety of "apps" … Read more

Aliph adds A2DP to the Jawbone Icon

Aliph Jawbone Icon owners rejoice: you will now be able to add A2DP or stereo Bluetooth functionality to your Bluetooth headset for the unbeatable price of zero dollars. All you have to do is plug in your Icon headset to the computer, log on to Aliph's MyTalk Web site, go to the "Innovations" section, and then add the new A2DP feature. This lets you stream music or any other audio from your phone to your headset.

We were already big fans of the Aliph Jawbone Icon--the variety of the Icon's designs, its features, the audio quality, … Read more

The 404 554: Where Justin and Wilson take a trip to the Jersey Shore (podcast)

Look for me and Wilson at an Ed Hardy store near you! We might just pop up on your television set too, if all goes well with a casting call in L.A. asking for Asian-Americans to audition for a reality show based on "Jersey Shore" and "The Hills."

It's rumored to be set in Koreatown, and we're not putting much faith in the series based on the fact that Jin and this guy are the only two Asians on TV right now. That being said, an Asian-American reality television show would be a real gag...maybe their first order of business will be to help Snookie and the Situation get that elusive GED.

Artist Jack White of The White Stripes has a few words of advice for aspiring musicians, not the least of which is to put down the plastic guitars and drums and learn how to play a real instrument.

While we completely agree with Mr. White that the fad has turned living rooms across the country into nurseries, there's still an element of self-appointed stardom that goes along with the Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands of the world, and it doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.

That being said, real musicians have an opportunity to show off their recording skills in our ongoing The Audiophillie Music Awards for Excellence in Recorded Sound, so get going and you could win a set of either Monster Turbine Pro Gold ($299) or Pro Copper ($399) headphones.

We're excited about a new pilot for a show called "Immersion" that tests video game concepts out in the real world. One real-world scenario is the idea of a third person steering like you'd see in a driving game. To put it to the test, the crew mounted a camera on a long arm behind a car and put a monitor in front of the driver. To make things more "video game realistic," they also blacked out all the windows in the car. It's a hilarious and creative premise, and we're looking forward to an episode where they compare GTA to real life.

The second half of the show is all about a list of the eight most irritating types of gadget owners. Characters like "The Bluetooth Warrior" and the "Super Tech Spec Guy" are universal, but we really spend the whole time complaining about our own personal tech pet peeves, like our friends who are "too cool" to get on Facebook or refuse to own a cell phone in order to "reduce their carbon footprint."

And don't think we've forgotten about the main perpetrators of tech-induced fury: our PARENTS! Share in the horror of showing your father how to import a CD in iTunes, teaching a grandparent to cut and paste, and forcing your mother to use a Roomba.

EPISODE 554 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Aliph Jawbone Icon boasts industry-first software platform

Aliph has just unveiled the Jawbone Icon, which promises to be the company's most sophisticated Bluetooth headset yet. We had a chance to really put the headset through its paces for the past week, and we have to say it absolutely delivers. Not only does it look and sound great, it offers more flexibility than any other Bluetooth headset due to an industry-first software platform.

It's called MyTalk, and the Jawbone Icon has what Aliph says is an operating system on a chip. This lets Aliph do some really interesting things with this headset. For example, when you pair the Jawbone Icon with the Apple iPhone, you'll see a visual battery meter of the Icon right next to the iPhone's own battery meter on the upper-right corner. This way you can easily check on the Jawbone Icon's battery status. While this may strike some people as a small thing, we think it's pretty cool.

The big news with MyTalk, however, is that you can plug the Jawbone Icon into your computer and customize it with a variety of Audio and Dial "apps." Simply log on to the mytalk.jawbone.com Web site (which will be live shortly), plug in the headset via a USB cable, and the Web site will automatically detect it. You can then customize it with a variety of Audio apps, which are essentially voice profiles of different personalities.

There are six voice personalities--The Ace, the Hero, the Thinker, the Bombshell, the Rogue, and the Catch--plus a default that comes with the headset. The voices range from a deep male baritone to that of a sultry female. You can also have it in French, German, or Spanish. The different voice profiles are used for spoken alerts on the headset that announce things like incoming caller ID and the headset's battery status.

As for the Dial apps, they are essentially speed dial numbers you can map to the Talk button on the headset. Some of the Dial apps include Voice Dial; Directory Assistance; 1800Free411; Jott (a service that lets you dictate notes, reminders, and more); and Dial2Do; which is similar to Jott. Though calling these personalization options "apps" is a bit of a stretch, we really have to commend Aliph on the intuitive interface of the MyTalk Web site. Perhaps the best thing about the MyTalk software platform is that Aliph can easily send out firmware updates this way.… Read more

The Gizmo Report: Klipsch's Image S4i In-Ear Headset

If you've flown on a commercial airline since 2000, you've probably seen people wearing Bose QuietComfort headphones. They're expensive and large, and I don't like them.

Their noise-cancellation circuitry actually generates noise of its own, and my ears are good enough to hear it as long as I'm not seated too near the engines.

I started wearing earplugs on airplanes in the 1980s when I discovered the squishy memory-foam type. They block noise better than headphones ever could, and they don't make any noise themselves.

But when I bought my first iPod, that strategy didn't seem quite so perfect anymore. The ear-bud headphones that came with the iPod never fit me at all; they just fell out. After some experimentation with small folding travel headphones, I decided I was happiest with in-ear headphones. They gave me most of the noise reduction of the foam earplugs along with the ability to listen to music.

The problem with in-ear headphones is finding a model that fits me. I gather that this is a common problem with this type of product. I went through several low- and mid-priced models before settling on the old Apple In-Ear headphones--they just worked the best for me. (Interestingly, I had the same experience as CNET's Steve Guttenberg when he reviewed them: they only fit well when inserted upside-down.)… Read more

Aliph Jawbone Prime with 'Earcandy'

Aliph has just announced the Aliph Jawbone Prime, the successor to the highly acclaimed Aliph Jawbone 2 from last year. The Prime sports almost the same design as the Jawbone 2, except it has a dimpled loop pattern on the surface and a slight dip on the front to indicate the multifunction Talk button.

Other changes in the new Jawbone Prime include a more comfortable fit thanks to rubber ear buds with loops, and enhanced noise reduction due to a reworking of Noise Assassin, its noise cancellation technology. This means the Jawbone Prime works much better to combat wind noise … Read more