Barbie’s always been plugged in to the latest and greatest — from her pink Corvette to her Malibu dream house, she lives a life of wealth and fame without any of the paparazzi. For her 50th anniversary in France, Colette is going to help you look like a bit more like this icon (no surgery required) by offering a limited-edition light pink bluetooth headset, manufactured by the fashionable designers at Jawbone. Just don’t wear it out to dinner with Ken. Total turnoff.
Blackberry Storm:Buy It ($199)
We love the touchscreen functionality of the iPhone, but we’re still not floored by its usability when it comes to email or texting. Blackberry’s newest phone gives us that ability to get tactile with our phone but also features a haptic keyboard that makes sending coherent texts that much easier.
T-Mobile G1:Buy It ($179)
Google’s first phone is geared for those who are pathologically undecided. The phone – which comes in bronze, black, and white and runs on Google’s open-source Android system – features both a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard (a touchscreen keyboard is coming early next year) that slides out. As a result, it’s just a glorified Sidekick that’s still kind of glorious.
Foof Cases:Read JS Review | Buy It ($13)
These cases come in a variety of gorgeous fabrics and protect your phone by holding it snug and wrapping it in satin. We’re totally jealous of our phone. They’re also available for your other portable Mac items.
Speck Cases:Read JS Review | Buy It ($30)
They offer a wide range of designs, but their newest are so preppy they make us want to rename ourselves Muffy and go play some croquet — in a totally non-judgmental way.
Jawbone Bluetooth Accessory:Read JS Review | Buy It ($130)
You may be a Bluetool, but you don’t have to look like one all the time — at least not with the sleek device that’s also incredible at eliminating background noise. Ok, so you still look like a tool, but if it’s between sounding good and looking good…
Incase x Parra iPhone Case:Read JS Review | Buy It ($60)
Stay protected, stay sexy, and grab a colorful — but expensive — hardshell case produced by Dutch artist Parra for reliable manufacturer Incase. Our phone gets to stay safe and we get to enjoy the acid flashbacks.
Hulger Handsets:Read JS Review | Buy It ($40 – $190)
Sometimes we long for those good old days of ginormous handsets. Hulger captures our nostalgia by wirelessly connecting or plugging a nice chunky receiver into our cellphone or our PC to chat via Skype.
Brian Eno x Bloom iPhone App:Read JS Review | Buy It ($4)
Coutesy of Brian Eno, Bloom lets you create sounds and images just by touching your screen. It also features nine mood settings — though we don’t think holiday stress is one of them.
Hands-free traffic laws: freedom-stripping legislation passed in the name of public safety or just a way of getting assholes to pay attention? Neither! If you live in one of those despotic states that don’t think you can talk and drive at the same time (and to be fair, a lot of you can’t. There should really be some kind of DMV test), Jawbone feels your rage. Which is why they’re offering $20 off their products if you’ve been issued a cell phone citation. But we’ve got a secret: any number will work. We don’t advocate plugging in a phony combination of five or six digits in the “Hands Free Ticket Processor” to receive a discount. But look at it this way: it’s like a cash advance for the ticket you would’ve received had you not bought your Jawbone.
Michael — Not just for his tenacity, but for two thought provoking entries: Jem and the Holograms and Kids Incorporated. Way to play on our ’80s nostalgia.
Justin — Do you think when Neil Young did his MTV: Unplugged concert, he’d been told that Roxette had done “Heart of Gold” first?
Hit us back at feedback[AT]joshspear[DOT]com to claim your glittering hands-free device.
Just a gentle holiday weekend reminder to get your answers in for the gold and silver Jawbone 2 giveaway: Who can find the cheesiest song, music video, or album with the word Gold or Silver in the title? We’ll be grilling meat, and charring ourselves with tanning and illegal fireworks. But, before we let you go, why haven’t we seen these obvious answers?
We gushed about the release of the Aliph Jawbone 2, but when it launched it was only available in black (as shown here on the right). It’s very stealth, but not sexy enough for some. The new Jawbone is a vastly improved product with a much smaller form factor, more comfortable leather ear loop, and the slickest charging dock on the market. Oh, and as you can see, they just launched gold and silver versions of the headset. And guess what? We’ve got one of each to give away to two lucky readers. Glitzy gold and sparkling silver — one could be yours very shortly.
Last time around we had you talk dirty, sweet, and trashy to win. This time, we’re giving them away to the best answer to the following question:
Who can find the cheesiest song, music video, or album with the word Gold or Silver in the title?
Post in the comments — whoever gets me laughing the most, wins.
Frequent JoshSpear.com readers know that we’re big fans of the Jawbone since way back in ‘04. It’s hard to imagine how Aliph could improve on an already solid product, but the Jawbone 2 sports a new design, a footprint about half the size of its predecessor, and improved noise-canceling technology (dubbed “Noise Assassin”) … RED TEAM GO, RED TEAM GO!
Looking back at the first generation product we only had a few criticisms. First, the package was huge for the size of the headset. Hats off to Aliph for trimming down the sexy lucite packaging to something a little more proportional and eco-friendly. Our second gripe was the beautiful but difficult to use ear loop. The second generation Aliph opted for a simpler leather-wrapped design that not only feels good on the ear, but makes putting on the headset a snap. Lastly, was the charger and USB cord. To be honest, the first generation version of these accessories felt like an afterthought. The wall plug was pretty ugly and the USB cord was difficult to detach from the headset. These issues no longer exist with the introduction of a updated charger and much easier magnetic USB cord.
Beyond that, you can really tell that Aliph took some time to analyze the old version and challenge themselves to make the new one even better. Pairing is enabled the first time the headset is powered up. Standby time has increased to a whopping eight days — though talk time has decreased to four hours from six. But, best of all, the sound quality is as crisp and noiseless as we’ve come to expect from Jawbone.
Okay, I admit it. I’ve been selfish. I’ve been shying away from live blogging this year at TED, and mostly been twittering overheards and interesting things throughout the conference– it’s a lot easier, and lets me truly focus on the brain safari that is the incredible TED experience.
If you’re dying for coverage as it happens (I certainly would be) here’s who is on the ball here:
Ethan Zuckerman has great coverage, as does Mark from BoingBoing– both are doing a fantastic job (yeah, disciplined bloggers!).
Still want more? Spend some time on the TED 2008 Flickr Stream, and of course, the official TED blog is always a good place to get involved…
Highlights from the conference so far that made me think:
Amy Tan talks about how, and more importantly why she writes.
We’ve been Jawbone fans since the beginning, even back in 2004 when the first non-bluetooth version launched. Creating the “best bluetooth headset ever” and “sexiest way to talk” wasn’t enough for Yves Behar, so he had to go on and create a line of ridiculously sexy limited edition headsets shown above — we approve. Gold is for sweet talk, black is for dirty talk, white is for trash talk.
They were made in a *very* limited quantity, so these will no doubt dry up quickly (and you can’t buy them anywhere). Good thing I secured a set of them here at TED to give away to you, my fellow readers, right?
But I’m not going to let go of them easily, here are the rules:
The best sweet talk to me gets the gold adorned sweet talk headset, dirty talk, gets the sexy black dirty talk version, and trash talk (talk trash) gets the coveted shiny white trash talk version. Leave your dirty, sexy, and trash talk in the comments for me, and have fun. (FYI: comments below may be a liiiiitle NSFW. Just a heads up.)
Full product shots after the jump, courtesy of fuseproject…
Sure, we've been yammering on about the uber-awesome noise canceling Jawbone headset since 2004, but despite our consistent praise and even a few giveaways, not everyone owns one yet. You're probably holding out until you see it in action, and I guess we could understand your consumer hesitance, but you're about to be converted. Aliph, the creator of the headset that allows you to hear all of your cell phone conversation in the rowdiest of situations, has released two hilarious new videos to put the accent on just how phenomenal of an invention the Jawbone is. The first video was directed by Samuel Bayer of “Smells Like Teen Spirit†fame and features the lovely Miss Missouri 2007 along with a shark used in the films Deep Blue Sea and The Perfect Storm, while the second video may or may not appeal to your love of Rugby.
(NSFW, depending on where you work. Like, say, the Christian Coalition.)
The speaker lineup for the legendary and incredible TED Conference I attend in Monterey, California just released their speaker lineup for the event — 50 days away! — and it is seriously stellar. As the folks at TED say, their most ambitious to date (I’m not surprised, they don’t play around); a diverse group of folks like Kaki King (love her) alongside author Dave Eggers, John Knoll, Walter Isaacson, industrial designer Yves Behar (he did the Jawbone) to name a few. And of course, Al Gore will make another appearance on the same stage he announced his film, An Inconvenient Truth. The yearly brain safari I alluded to last year in all my TED 2007 posts is almost here. I can’t wait! Be sure to check out the whole program here, because you know you can look forward to them as TED Talks in the future.
Must you wear one? I’m not personally a huge fan of the bluetooth headset craze. Yeah, they’re convenient, but I just can’t get used to seeing people walking down the street talking to themselves, er…someone. It’s weird. New York has enough crazy people on the streets, now we’ve got them looking mostly normal, other than the wild gesticulations.
But, if you must, you must. And if you must, then you must have a look at Jabra’s newest addition to its bluetooth line. The BT3010 allows you to choose from a variety of designs on their website, including 8 submitted by users, so at least you can add a little flair to your technological insanity. Of course, it’s probably only a matter of time before someone figures out how to change out the image on the earpiece making it fully user-changeable. They guys over at Complex are partial to a Space Invaders theme. What’s your poison? If you could slap any design on your bluetooth thingamawidget, what would it be?
Due to an overwhelming response to our Jawbone Giveaway last week, I’ve decided to extend the contest by another week, giving readers another 5 days to register their email addresses into our mailing list for a chance to win the best Bluetooth headset on the market, period. If you aren’t feeling lucky, don’t want to wait for the results on Friday, and want one right away, Jawbone’s website has several units back in stock for $120.
The Jawbone is not only the best performing bluetooth headset on the market hands down, but easily the best looking– designed by the legendary Yves Behar. The Jawbone uses a super-duper patent pending noise cancellation device that literally cuts the background noise out completely. I’ve tried this in cars with the windows down, standing by waterfalls, inside small airplanes and the person on the other side of the line still thinks I’m sitting in a vacuum sealed executive office. As many of you have probably noticed, they’re sold out everywhere due to such high demand! I spent quite a bit of time with good folks at Jawbone last week at TED and they gave us a couple of these bad boys to give away to JoshSpear.com readers. Sign up for our mailing list during the next week and 3 random winners will get their choice of a black, silver or red headset.
Fortune Mag’s Best Products of the years has called the Jawbone Headset one of the best electronic products of 2004. Remember where you saw it first. They also have this crazy new Nokia 7280– with no dialing pad. It places calls via speech recognition or a rotary deal with a button. Hmmm. Cool technology but no dialing pad?, my prediction? Total Flop.
Barbie’s always been plugged in to the latest and greatest — from her pink Corvette to her Malibu dream house, she lives a life of wealth and fame without any of the paparazzi. For her 50th anniversary in France, Colette is going to help you look like a bit more like this icon (no surgery required) by offering a limited-edition light pink bluetooth headset, manufactured by the fashionable designers at Jawbone. Just don’t wear it out to dinner with Ken. Total turnoff.
Hands-free traffic laws: freedom-stripping legislation passed in the name of public safety or just a way of getting assholes to pay attention? Neither! If you live in one of those despotic states that don’t think you can talk and drive at the same time (and to be fair, a lot of you can’t. There should really be some kind of DMV test), 
The speaker lineup for the legendary and incredible 
Must you wear one? I’m not personally a huge fan of the bluetooth headset craze. Yeah, they’re convenient, but I just can’t get used to seeing people walking down the street talking to themselves, er…someone. It’s weird. New York has enough crazy people on the streets, now we’ve got them looking mostly normal, other than the wild gesticulations.
