Friday, May 16, 2008

New Jawbone Review, Day 2

(Scroll down for first day of the new Jawbone review, or click here.)

After wearing the new Jawbone for an entire day, I find it light years more comfortable than the original. As I noted in my initial review, I've already switched to the Jabra mini ear gel off of my original Jawbone. If someone made a customized ear gel that would fit snugly and firmly in the ear (hint, hint, Mr. Berkey), I believe I could get rid of the ear hook altogether.

Maybe.

The one thing with which I'm still experimenting is ensuring that the Voice Activity Sensor (a.k.a, the little doohickey that must touch the cheek to make the unit function properly) is actually resting against my cheek. I had a couple of complaints today from folks on the other end of the line that they couldn't hear me very well; as soon as I readjusted the headset to ensure that the VAS was firmly against my cheek, the complaints went away. One other issue which will bear further testing...when on the phone with The Wife on her BlackBerry Curve's speakerphone, I noticed an annoying hum in the earpiece. This was definitely on my side, rather than coming from The Wife's Curve.

One final point.

Kudos to Aliph for getting the product damn near totally right this time around. Promote whoever runs product management.

While you're at it, fire whoever runs marketing communications. I just popped over to the Jawbone website to find out the proper name of the cheek doohickey thingie (Voice Activity Sensor). I noticed a link entitled "Club Jawbone" on the bottom of the home page. So, I clicked it...and found the following...
(click the image for a bigger version)

Seriously? You launch a successor to one of the best-reviewed Bluetooth headsets of all time, meaning you're gonna get millions of hits, and you can't even get a freakin' opt-in newsletter set up. Seriously.

I mean, how about a little effort on the website campaign? When I click on the link for Club Jawbone, you throw up a page that basically says "Go play in traffic". C'mon. "Please check back soon" Seriously?

When I think of the cost of customer acquisition for any manufacturer, particularly one in the headset category (where many consider the items throwaways after a year, and where very little brand loyalty exists), and I look at this lack of effort, I'm stymied. Flummoxed. Mortified even. Put up a freakin' web form that says "Enter your e-mail address here, and we'll let you know when Club Jawbone is ready to launch. We promise, it'll be something you can sink your teeth into."

Or something like that. But, Aliph, you're killing me here. I'd love to know how many people have clicked on that link, and how many lost customer or prospective touches you've lost by not putting forth the most minimal of efforts to capture an e-mail address.

Seriously.
Posted by at 10:06 PM

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm...your having trouble with the VAS touching your cheek when using the ear-gels, too? Well, I guess I'm glad I'm not the only one, but maybe the gels are part of the trouble?

    I'm also having some trouble getting the ear-gel aligned 'just right', so it'll sit in my ear, but still rest against my cheek. When it's not aligned, the ear-gel feels good, or the earloop feels good, but it's tough getting it perfect.

    Too often, I have folks tell me they hear wind noise when I'm walking around, or my voice audio drops way down because I'm moving my head as I work, and I have to press the unit against my cheek, much the same way a World War II pilot use to have to hold his throat microphone to talk.

    I'm still using the original version, but I'm not sure I'm ready to try the new version.

    -Z-
    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review. I just got my Jawbone 2 and it's awesome.

    I do have a question for you. Is the Jabra eargel is direct replacement for the plastic ear piece Jawbone provides you? I heard someone had to glue the Jabra eargel on.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Plantronics Discovery 925 Soft ear gel is a direct replacement for the Jawbone 2 earbuds.
    ReplyDelete
  4. With the new Jawbone 2 Bluetooth Headset comes fitting problems for many.The Jawbone 2 has a 'Voice Activity Sensor' that rests on your cheek and detects if you are talking so it can filter out background noise accordingly.

    Included in the box are a few earbuds and loops to accommodate different users. This is the source of the Jawbone 2 fitting problem. Getting the Jawbone 2 to fit properly on my ear was a bit challenging. I tried various earbuds and flexed the earhook several times to get it to stay put but it never felt comfortable and often come loose. It would be better if the earhooks provided were more flexible. They are the type that require a lot of force and even still tend to go back to their original shape.

    Plantronics Discovery 925 soft ear gel is one of the most comfortable ear gel on the market today and it is a direct replacement for the rubber earbud on the Jawbone 2 bluetooth headset.They fit very nicely on the Jawbone 2 Bluetooth Headset, are extremely comfortable, and hold the jawbone 2 in perfect position on the face for the noise cancellation to work.The Jawbone 2 was worthless with the included earhook and rubber earbud fittings. I could not make them fit, and without good face contact, the Jawbone 2 noise cancellation does not work. Plantronics Discovery 925 Soft ear gel allows me to comfortably wear and use the Jawbone 2 without an earhook while doing a lot of moving around. In fact, I don't think I could shake the headset off my head if I was doing the 'DUTTY WINE'

    The Plantronics Discovery 925 soft ear gels are the ultimate solution for the Jawbone 2 Bluetooth Headset fitting problem, and they are going to make a lot of potentially disappointed Jawbone 2 customers happy.They come in three sizes, large, medium and small. I recommend buying all three sizes to determine your best fit.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Fix for Jawbone 2 Fitting Problems
    Aliph came out with the Jawbone 2 New Fit Earbud. These earbuds look identical to the Plantronics Discovery 925 self-stabilizing eartips that let you tailor the fit.
    ReplyDelete
  6. A salesrep in a shop confirmed that it was the device's issues. I got the 2nd one, and exchanged it within next two days because of really bad quality of output sound. People could hear me, but I could not hear them clearly. All settings were correct.

    dsi r4
    ReplyDelete

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