Well, time once again to get a great phone. The prices are pretty reasonable right now. You can get a Symbian phone that has full stereo plumbing for $100 with a 2-year plan from AT&T. This is an EDGE phone, so it is incredibly fast.
“Letstalk.com”:http://letstalk.com is about $50 more expensive than Amazon.com for this phone, but they let you take a number from an existing phone and they have a family plan. So for us, this is great. I can get a phone for Adrian and me to do demos for “Mfoundry”:http://mfoundry.com, “Melodeo”:http://melodeo.com and “Mobilelime”:http://mobilelime.com for about $100 per phone on a $60 shared rate plan with $25 for unlimited data.
Since I’m doing that, I might as well try Bluetooth headsets. If you google, you’ll find that Ask Engadget folks have some good reviews of them.
Opinions vary, but the Motorola headset gets good reviews. The most intriguing is the Nextlink ones, but lots of folks are raving. They don’t distribute in the US, but you can get them from “Pilcon”:http://pilcon.com.
Here’s one opinion:
I own a Nextlink Digital Bluespoon Gold and it’s great!
1) Currently, it’s the smallest of the BT headsets out there.
2) It’s the only one out there that’s Digital. It has noise cancellation (2 microphones built in) features and great sound quality.
3) It’s the only one that will allow you to wear sunglasses/glasses while you’re using the headset, because it doesn’t wrap around your ear. That’s an important thing to consider.
4) It’s the smallest and lightest of all the BT headsets out there.
5) It has the best battery life of all the BT headsets out there.
6) It’s also one of the best looking headsets out there, IMO, because it’s very small and doesn’t cover up your whole ear or run down the side of your face like some of the dorky, ugly, huge and heavy headsets you see out there.
7) Now the hard part: it’s the most expensive headset out there. But for the smallest, lightest, highest sound quality unit out there with the best battery life, along with it being one of nicest looking headsets, you’re going to pay more.
8) But yet another great part, is that the guys at Nextlink are FANTASTIC. If you ever need any help with one of their products, they’re there to help. Really great service. And THAT can make such a big difference. One of the best ways to get in touch with them is at “Howard Forums”:http://www.howardforums.com. Just do a search for Nextlink and you’ll see their (Lars’s, Jan’s, and Jon’s) posts.
The newest model is just US$85 and is analog but incredibly small. It is just 9 grams and has a USB connector for recharging. How cool is that. Called the AX. The Digital is expensive at $200 (so more than a phone!) and the AX is about $85.
Other ones folks like include the “Bluetrek G2”:http://www.mobileplanet.com/listing.asp?cat%5Fid=105&cat%5Fname=Wireless+%26+Smartphones&pdept%5Fid=51&dept%5Fid=5130&dept%5Fname=Bluetooth+Headsets which is about $65 from mobileplanet.com.