Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth Headset

Thanks to the NSW State Government I spend a minimum of two hours in the car a day on the M2 – and paying nearly $20 a day for the privilege. This is a good time for me to catch up with interstate work colleagues or friends and family on the phone.

The inadequacy of bluetooth hands-free systems became apparent to me as my wife became more involved with the school run and I found we were trying to communicate when we were both in a car. It became a real struggle to decipher the muffled, mumbling noise occasionally pierced by the sound of a screaming infant. I thought that there had to be a better solution.

A colleague had recommended me some time ago to a brand of bluetooth earpiece called Jawbone made by a company called Aliph. Based on technology developed for the military, these devices have a small sensor which sits on you cheek and picks up the sound by vibrations through your face. This is then compared with the sound coming through the microphone and by some clever processing virtually all ambient noise is removed. This is remarkably effective – I was sitting next to my young daughter with a nebuliser running and the person at the other end of the phone was completely unaware that the machine was on.

The Icon is Aliph’s latest Jawbone model and as of writing is unavailable in Australia – other than through eBay. There are 6 variations of colour and style – 3 aimed towards men and 3 more jewelery like for the ladies. Another interesting feature of the Icon is that it talks to you in a style that matches the phone variation. For example the Bombshell is a crumpled gold model with a sultry, sexy voice. The voices will tell you when the headset connects, how much battery life remains and the number of the person calling you. New voices can be uploaded to the headset by connecting it to your Mac or PC.

Another interesting feature is ‘apps’. Well, this is what Aliph are calling them but it is a bit of a stretch. Essentially it means that the single button can be programmed to call a preset number for a service – but you cannot set it to a number of your choice which seems silly. Lets hope that this becomes more useful in the future.

For me a big plus was that when connected to an iPhone there is a battery meter for the headset next to the iPhone battery meter. Apparently this was a function available to the original Apple bluetooth headset which was not sold in Australia.

In summary the sound quality of this headset leaves everything else I have tried in the dust. I bought one for my wife as well and we are able to have a comfortable conversation in the car. There is no manual volume control on the device which I found strange at first – volume is adjusted depending on ambient noise – but I have not had a problem. Availability is difficult at this stage – but I’m sure they will be on sale here soon.