Jabra's BT620 does double duty as a Bluetooth stereo headphone and a mobile phone headset.For instance, Jabra Corp. announced that it's shipping the BT620 (US$129), which does double duty as a Bluetooth stereo headphone and a mobile phone headset. When the phone rings, the music automatically pauses to let you pick up the call.
The company promises 16 hours of talking time or as much as 14 hours of stereo music streaming. (We'll see about that in a future review.) Phone controls on the left speaker handle answer/end calls, voice dialing, call waiting and hold, etc. The right speaker controls the music functions.
A companion Universal Serial Bus adapter, the AS320s ($34.99), allows you to stream tunes in stereo, transfer data from the phone to a PC and talk wirelessly.
Don't get excited and hit the "order" button before you take a close look at the requirements for this headset. It's not just enough to have a Bluetooth-enabled phone to use all of its features. Your phone will have to support the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) for listening to music in stereo and Audio Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) to work the music controls on the headset, as well as the Headset Profile (HSP) and Hands-free Profile (HFP). You'll find a compatibility guide on the company's Web site. If you're not interested in mixing business and entertainment, note that Jabra's JX10 ()Bluetooth headset ($129) won this year's CTIA Wireless Emerging Technologies Award. It's stylish and tiny (weighs less than an ounce), and features Digital Signal Processing technology to automatically adjust volume in noisy situations.
The Samsung t719 comes with a rotating 1.3-megapixel camera, camcorder, media player and speakerphone.There was also plenty of buzz about other wireless devices. Samsung Electronics Co. took the wraps off its t719, a flip phone sporting BlackBerry functionality, thanks to BlackBerry Connect, software licensed from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) that brings push e-mail to other manufacturers' phones.
The quad-band t719 supports SureType predictive text entry, EDGE high-speed data transfer, voice recognition and Bluetooth. It comes with a rotating 1.3-megapixel camera, camcorder, media player and speakerphone. It's due out in the third quarter of this year.
Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology that will enable mobile phones to switch seamlessly between Global System for Mobile Communications and Wi-Fi networks was among the hot topics at CTIA. Samsung's t709 and Nokia Corp.'s 6136 which were showcased at the trade show, both support UMA. These phones could find a following among corporate users looking to Wi-Fi to improve coverage in dead spots and download content at broadband speeds, but with carriers and handset manufacturers still figuring out strategy and pricing, who knows how soon that will happen.
Interestingly, Kyocera Corp., traveling down another path at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association event, showed off a prototype of a unit that can switch between Code Division Multiple Access and Wi-Fi.
RIM, meanwhile, announced a collaboration with Yahoo Inc. to bring real-time delivery of Yahoo mail to BlackBerry users. Future plans will tack on the ability to wirelessly import and synchronize Yahoo address-book and calendar entries, as well as Yahoo Instant Messenger.
VeriSign used CTIA to tout Backup Plus, a new service that will back up your cell phone's address book to a secure server. If you wipe out your data or fry your handset, you can download a backup to your existing phone or a new one . Cincinnati Bell Inc. will be the first carrier to roll out Backup Plus. Later this year the service will expand to include calendar, pictures, videos and audio backup.
Michelle Johnson is a freelance writer in Boston. You can contact her atmijohn@mail-me.com.