Bluetooth-enabled stereo headphones dish out the tunes and let you answer incoming calls with a certain...ahem, degree of flare.
Laws banning the use of cell phones while you drive have
become quite common all over North America, and it is hard to argue with those
who claim that most people have enough problems driving, let alone drive and
talk on the phone at the same time. As someone who averages seventy-five miles
per hour in the right lane, I can tell you that they are dead on in their argument.
The wireless Bluetooth headset was a brilliant invention to deal with this
problem. I can now drive even faster and talk.
That of course created another social problem.
The annoying person with the flashing blue light on their ear.
I actually know people who wear their Bluetooth headset so
much, that it has become part of their anatomy. They would fall asleep with
these things still on and pulsating, waiting for that next important phone
call, if their families did not object.
Don’t you hate people who appear to be talking to you, but
are actually talking to someone else on their Bluetooth headset?
What is up with that?
In theory, the Motorola HT280 is a brilliant idea. Kill two
birds with one stone. Take calls from your lawyer and listen to Prince on the
same device.
The headband on the HT280 reminds me of a good pair of
sunglasses I used to wear playing baseball; unless you take long-term comfort
and coolness into account.
After reading the manual (always a bad move, I know), it
took almost twenty attempts before the HT280 would synchronize up with my LG
Bluetooth-enabled phone. I bought it because it was designed to work with
Motorola Bluetooth headsets, so the connection issues were frustrating.
Finally, after getting it to work, I realized that I would
have to download some music to my phone before I could hear anything. More
money spent.
Needless to say, I was not impressed with the set-up of this
device.
When I did it to work, the HT280 sounded merely okay as a
pair of headphones. It felt so awkward on my head, that I took it off after ten
minutes. I know that Etymotic has taken some heat for the design of their Bluetooth-enabled
headphones, and I think Motorola must have used the same designer.
As I was about to pack the entire thing up and take it back,
a call came in over the headphones.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Anybody there?”
Silence.
Exactly.
