Off the Wire

Why are we still, in 2010, wearing headphones with wires? Is the technology too crappy, too expensive? Or is it a fashion thing?

I decided to bluetoothify my life, and purchased a wireless stereo headset with a microphone (Motorola S9 HD). In my hometown Stockholm, Sweden, stereo bluetooth headsets are virtually impossible to find, so eBay was my savior.

After a frustrating hour of getting it to pair with my iPhone (note to Motorola UX designers: don’t let a semi-long blue light mean something completely different to a not-quite-as-long blue light), I’m quite impressed with the results. Headphone sound quality is excellent, it’s lightweight, remote controls work fine and battery time is decent.

On a negative note, the transmission range on my iPhone is very limited (works much better when paired with my Mac), forward/previous buttons don’t work, and the manufacturing quality feels a bit sub-par (rubber pieces try their best to fall off). Microphone audio seems worse than the headphones but it’s sufficient.

But I didn’t stop there in my pursuit of a completely wireless life. I also purchased a stereo bluetooth transmitter that plugs into any stereo jack.

I was curious about how pairing this transmitter to a headset would work, since it lacks a display. But it proved to work quite well, with just the feedback from the device’s LEDs.

So now I can stream sound wirelessly from the TV and the Xbox, not just the devices with bluetooth built-in. Epic geek win!