jabra

I'm one of those Bluetooth people--you know, the guy who's always got a weird flashing thing stuck in one ear and you can never quite be sure if he's actually listening to you. But I can take the stares and the eye rolls and the mockery, because I know the rest of the world just doesn't understand what we have; my old Jabra BT8040 headset and I have been through a lot together.

In the rural area where I live, many folks don't have e-mail or any kind of smartphone yet, so I can look particularly ridiculous jogging down the road or snowshoeing a high-altitude trail with an earpiece jammed in the side of my head. But it's worth it--my Bluetooth is my window on the world.

Most of my time online is spent on work, leaving little time to follow news and podcasts or check out new music. Whenever I'm not staring at a laptop, I'm probably driving, exercising, or doing chores with my trusty BT8040 in my ear getting caught up on those sorts of things, or with friends and family on the phone. In short, I constantly hear little voices in my head in more ways than one.… Read more

Jabra this week introduced its new Pro 900 series professional wireless headsets. Though not shy on features, you'll pay $199 for the privilege of using them.

The Pro 900 series consists of two headset models, the Pro 930 and Pro 920, which connect to desk-side office phones and allow workers to receive and initiate calls wirelessly.

While cordless headsets have been around for years, Jabra says these new products offer premium features such as active noise-canceling, a comfortable fit, and pristine audio quality for an "affordable" price. No, that's not cheap for an individual consumer, but it beats the cost of full enterprise equipment that businesses might otherwise choose to deploy. … Read more

Jabra has announced the Jabra Supreme, which promises to be the first mono Bluetooth headset to have active noise cancellation. The technology is similar to the noise cancellation we've seen in high-end Bose and Audio-Technica wired headsets, where it actively blocks out noise by generating an "antinoise" sound.

The Supreme incorporates other technologies like Noise Blackout 3.0 and wind-noise reduction to reduce noise on the other end of the call. It has a boom arm that flips, letting you power the headset on and off just by flicking it open and close. Jabra promises an adjustable … Read more

Some have exceptional sound quality. Others have intuitive voice command. Still others pack useful features, such as FM transmission. But at the end of the day, most Bluetooth speakerphones do pretty much the same thing: allow you to make a phone call while safely keeping your hands on the steering wheel.

In an attempt to stand out from the herd and further enhance driver safety, Bluetooth speakerphone manufacturers have begun to bundle smartphone apps and services with their hardware. These apps do everything from read incoming text messages aloud to update your Twitter and Facebook statuses with little more than … Read more

Admittedly, there's a bit of embellishment in that headline. The Jabra Freeway is good, but perhaps not truly audiophile-quality. However, as visor-mount Bluetooth speakerphones go, the Jabra Freeway's audio quality is among the best that we've tested.

The Freeway is also one of the largest visor-mount Bluetooth speakerphones we've tested, but that's because in order to provide the big sound it does, the Freeway packs three speakers behind its fabric grille. The result is a stereo speakerphone that's good enough for listening to certain genres of music and sound that's full enough to … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--Jabra has released the Freeway, the first in-car speakerphone to feature three speakers. The company says this creates a virtual surround-sound effect that can be used inside or outside the vehicle.

Other features include a built-in FM transmitter, the ability to announce incoming caller ID, and voice controls that let you answer, end, reject, and redial calls just by speaking. Jabra has also partnered with Voice Assist, a service that lets you respond to e-mail and text with your voice, and post to Facebook and Twitter via voice as well. The Voice Assist subscription is only good … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Jabra debuted its latest hands-free calling solution for cars at the Mobile World Conference this week. The Freeway improves upon the previous Cruiser2 model and is expected to deliver higher voice and audio quality.

Three speakers in the Freeway create a Virtual Surround Sound for incoming calls, according to the company. Jabra also added a second microphone to help counter background noise from wind and other vehicle passengers. The visor-mounted Freeway uses an embedded motion sensor to automatically turn on and off when it detects the car in motion. New voice-activated features enable the driver to make, accept, and … Read more

Jabra announced a slew of new products here at CES 2011, and three of them are made with the PC in mind.

First is the Jabra EasyGo for the PC. Announced less than a month ago for the beginner headset market, the EasyGo is now Skype-certified to be used with the computer. It comes with a handy USB adapter and will automatically connect to the headset. The EasyGo is slim with simple controls, and it promises the usual DSP noise-canceling technology. The Jabra EasyGo also has multipoint, so you can connect to your phone and your PC at the same … Read more

Jabra has just introduced the sequel to its Stone headset from last year, and it's appropriately dubbed the Jabra Stone 2. It has the same design as its predecessor--the curved hook housed inside a portable "stone" charger--but it now features voice control, so you can answer and reject calls just by using your voice. It has dual microphone noise canceling, A2DP streaming, and up to 10 hours of talk time as long as you remember to keep it in the charger. It will be available on November 21 for $129.99.