craig mathias
Principal

Jawbone NoiseAssassin Bluetooth Headset

Feature
Nov 10, 20081 min

 

Cool Yule Rating: 2 stars

Price: $129.99

Product Web site

Description: I have a love/hate relationship with Bluetooth headsets. I love the convenience, but in most cases I’ve really hated the sound quality and comfort of most of the Bluetooth units I’ve tried. That’s why the NoiseAssassin caught my eye – the company advertises a sophisticated form of noise cancellation called Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) originally developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the product certainly looks cool. It’s recharged via USB, a big plus in my book, but the user interface is tricky and not something I’d want to use every day.

How did it sound? Great on my end, but the person I called reported a distinct muffling. For best results, the unit must touch the user’s cheek; I did that, and the noise cancellation seemed to work well. But the Jawbone would be hard to recommend, especially at this price.

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craig mathias

Craig J. Mathias is a principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory firm specializing in wireless networking and mobile computing. Founded in 1991, Farpoint Group works with technology developers, manufacturers, carriers and operators, enterprises, and the financial community. Craig is an internationally-recognized industry and technology analyst, consultant, conference speaker, author, columnist, and blogger. He regularly writes for Network World, CIO.com, and TechTarget. Craig holds an Sc.B. degree in Computer Science from Brown University, and is a member of the Society of Sigma Xi and the IEEE.

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