Can You Hear Me Now? Headsets Make the Mobile Home Officer

By Jeff Zbar 
www.homeofficehighway.com

When it comes wireless phones and my choice of hearing devices, this home office worker tends toward the dysfunctional. I’m a fan of Bluetooth and the wireless functionality and freedom it delivers.

But I like the clarity and simple effectiveness of wired headsets. Hence my confusion (my wife would argue that it doesn’t end there, but that’s another story).

Headsets are important — and sometimes legal must-haves — accessories for wireless phones. As you’re tooling around town or exploring the Final Frontier in an RV with better things to focus on than answering your wireless phone, they free your hands for note-taking or driving (helping avoid costly traffic tickets in those markets where hands-free cellular phone use is the law - see list below).

Yet sound quality, especially when driving, was lacking. Enter new Bluetooth products designed to enhance the speaker’s voice and eliminate background sounds, like wind, lawn equipment and crowd noise. Products like Jabra, Plantronics, and the novel Jawbone (which offers a pretty creative marketing ploy: Redeem your cell phone moving violation for a discount on a new Jawbone purchase).

Even with all this technology around, I like the old wired standby. Call it the Old Faithful of hearing devices. I may have Dare, Verizon’s latest handset. But I’m still a fan of my Ativa mobile phone earbud headset.

Sure, wires seem passe, and everyone kind of digged that Lt. Uhura look from Star Trek. But Bluetooth — named for a Danish king who sought to unite Scandinavia a millennium ago — used digital signal processing to adjust voice levels and improve sound at both ends of the call. Jawbone’s “Noise Shield” technology was developed in part for use in noisy military settings – like inside tanks or helicopters. Using a voice activated sensor, the two-inch device actually touches the high cheek (hence, the name “Jawbone”) to feel vibrations as words are spoken. At the same time, two microphones model background noise to cancel it out. Volume control is automatic (though also adjustable), based on the environment.

Talk time tops six hours; standby is 120 hours. www.jawbone.com and www.plantronics.com. Price: Starting around $100, and available online, and at many retailers and cellular providers.

Plantronics’s AudioIQ technology improves signal processing and automatically adjusts voice levels to improve the sound. Both Jawbone and Discovery are small and light (the 665 weighs nine grams), and feature an aesthetic unlike any traditional “operator headset.” Noting some users appreciate technology that’s both attractive and functional, Jawbone brought in industrial designer Yves Behar to design Jawbone for the consumer market. The earpiece delivers voice quality, comfort and style. “It’s not just a mobile accessory,” said Alexander Asseily, Jawbone’s founder and chairman. It’s like good sunglasses or a piece of jewelry.”

And it’s pretty functional when driving down the highway trying to keep the straight and narrow in the RV home office…

States With Wireless Restrictions.

State rules differ on wireless phone use while driving. According to the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (www.ghsa.org), Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania (by jurisdiction), Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia have some or no restrictions. California, Connecticut, DC, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington ban such use. No state bans all cell use; hands-free and use of earpieces typically is permissible.

Since the '80s, Jeff Zbar has been a writer, speaker and spokesman on all facets of working from home and entrepreneurship. His columns and blogs have appeared via Entrepreneur, Success Magazine, Home Office Computing and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and he has been a small business expert on national television and radio.

Jeff Zbar recently went on a three-week voyage with three kids, two adults, one teched-out, Internet-connected RV-turned-home-office – with almost 3,000 miles of America to be explored and a new way to work to be chronicled. Driven by Jeff Zbar, the Chief Home Officer, Home Office Highway shines headlights on a whole new "remote" office. Learn more at www.homeofficehighway.com.