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Jawbone Bluetooth Headset with NoiseAssassin-Black (Jawbone II) | 
| Brand: Jawbone
Buy New: See price in cart
New (33)
Rating:  109 reviews
Sales Rank: 4
Color: Black
Media: Wireless Phone Accessory
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: Jawbone II
UPC: 811726010019
ASIN: B001AQYUWC
Release Date: June 28, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Bluetooth headset in gold with military-grade noise elimination technology and invisible touch controls | | • | Patented Voice Activity Sensor that feels your speech | | • | Includes 3 earbuds, 2 leather earloops, and 2 slim earloops for a personalized fit | | • | Magnetic USB cable and wall charger delivers 80 percent charge in 35 minutes (full charge in less than 1 hour) | | • | Over 4 hours of talk time and 8 days of standby time |
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Setting new standards for mobile voice clarity and personal style, the new Jawbone Bluetooth headset by Aliph represents a complete departure from the gadgetry of the mobile headset industry. Originally developed for military use in extreme environments, Jawbone features NoiseAssassin--a proprietary technology that eliminates background noise from mobile phone conversations. Jawbone is the only Bluetooth headset with a Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) that actually feels your speech, which helps Jawbone distinguish your voice from background noise. 
The new Jawbone in black. |  |  | Widely recognized as the best Bluetooth headset on the market, the new Jawbone is 50 percent smaller than the original, award-winning Jawbone, offer over 4 hours of talk time, and comes with three earbuds and four earloops for a comfortable and personalized fit. Military-Grade NoiseAssassin Technology
Developed over years of research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Jawbone's NoiseAssassin eliminates real world noise better than competing headset because it's the only hands free device that accurately separates human speech from ambient noise. Unmatched in its ability to remove noise from loud environments like busy streets, cars, crowded cafes, and airports, NoiseAssassin is comprised of two features unique to Jawbone: a patented Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) and proprietary Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms. Jawbone is the only Bluetooth headset with a VAS that feels the speech vibrations from your jaw. This enables Jawbone to capture the distinct frequencies of your voice. Proprietary DSP algorithms work in concert with two powerful microphones and the VAS to accurately model surrounding noise and aggressively eliminate it from the conversation. Conventional "noise suppression" headsets do not have a Voice Activity Sensor and can only estimate when speech is occurring. This causes performance issues like voice distortion, especially in the presence background noise. Not Just a Headset, It's Earwear
Made with premium materials like medical-grade plastic and fine leather, the new Jawbone with NoiseAssassin combines science and beauty in the most unassuming, yet richly detailed product. Every effort has been made to contain best in class noise suppression technology in a miniature form that is 50 percent smaller than the original, award-winning Jawbone. The new Jawbone accomplishes a clean and sophisticated look thanks to invisible buttons. Touch-surface technology allows the user to operate switches by lightly pressing the outer shield. Curved and rectilinear to follow the face, the outer shield is lightly textured and inspired by three-dimensional noise abatement surfaces. The infer surface, the one touching your face and creating contact with the Voice Activity Sensor, is gently curved to be ergonomic and comfortable on your skin. Offering a comfortable and personalized fit, the new Jawbone comes with three sizes of earbuds and four earloops--two sizes of leather and two of slim, which are ideal for use with eyeglasses. Jawbone can also be worn on either ear and with or without an earloop. Specifications
- Talk time: Over 4 hours
- Standby time: Over 8 days
- Range: Up to 33 feet (10 meters)
- Weight: 10 grams (0.35 ounces)
- Supports Bluetooth 1.0, 1.1, 2.0
- 80 percent charge in 35 minutes (full charge in less than 1 hour)
What's in the Box
The new Jawbone with NoiseAssassin by Aliph headset, magnetic USB cable and wall charger, 3 earbuds, 2 leather earloops, 2 slim earloops, QuickStart Guide
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| Customer Reviews: Read 104 more reviews...
Major Improvements but 1 Major Flaw June 30, 2008
Louis Mastrangelo
216 out of 217 found this review helpful
I am a huge fan of the Aliph technology. The first Jawbone is still my favorite headset of all time. It was a workhorse and the ambient sound nullification was and still is far and away the best out there.
The only faults I found in the original version were cleared up with the "New" Jawbone:
The user's listening volume is much improved. People had no trouble hearing me when I was in loud environments, but it was often difficult for me to hear them. The volume on the new version is so much better that for the first time ever, I turned the volume down because it was too loud.
The charging system on the first Jawbone was poorly designed. I've had three of them and it was a real trick to get the plug on the back of the headset to fit right for charging. The "New" Jawbone charging plug slips on easily and is held in place by a magnet- so much better! I have however, twice knocked the headset off the plug so once it is on, make sure you leave it where it won't be disturbed.
The size and weight are about half that of the earlier unit.
Styling is okay, but I really liked the glossy black and red colors on the original version and the "machined looking" slots pattern along the face of it. The new look is really feminine to me (not that there is anything wrong with that...).
So why did I give the "New" Jawbone a mediocre rating? My company bought five of these units for we "heavy users" to replace our original Jawbones. Only two of us can get these darn things to stay in position in our ears. We've tried every possible combination of ear-bud and hook and nothing seems to do the trick. Within a few minutes, it's dangling from our ears by the hook.
I am always adjusting it and during a call, I invariably wind up hanging up on the person at the other end. The primary button is activated regardless of where you press on the side of the unit when you are trying to push it back into your ear. (Even if you squeeze the sides with your thumb and forefinger) As you may know, the small clear projection nub needs to touch your cheek in order for the "Noise Assassin" to work. For three out of five of us, this is not happening making it completely useless. Note: Reviews on various sites refer to poor user audio and I would bet anything it's because they are suffering from poor fit.
I almost gave it a lesser rating but it did fit two of us and both of those guys are very happy.
Some other details: The talk time has dropped somewhat but for me that is a non-issue for me as I have a desk phone and I don't talk more than a couple of hours on my cel per day.
It comes with four hooks and three ear buds. two of the hooks are leather-wrapped and two are plastic with what look like machined aluminum bottom tips. The hooks attach in the same manner as the original Jawbone, but instead of being metal, they are slightly bendable plastic. I knew several people who broke the metal hooks when they put the headset in their pocket.
Bottom line: Make sure you buy it from someone that will take it back without a lot of grief if it doesn't fit your ear. If it does fit your ear, it will be the absolute best headset you can buy.
UPDATE: For better or worse, the unit will turn itself off if not connected to a paired device after an hour or less (not 100% sure of the time). So, if you leave the headset in your car and walk away with the phone it will eventually shut down. Presumably intentionally; presumably to save battery power.
Also, if not connected to a device (paired, but not connected)it will flash red. If paired and connected it will flash white.
 Fit is crucial June 12, 2008
Daniel H. Hamilton (Harwich, MA USA)
103 out of 104 found this review helpful
The New Jawbone is just what I need for my iPhone and I find its quirks to be easy to get used to in exchange for fabulous sound quality. However, fit is crucial to proper operation and so be sure to buy from a store with very good return policies in case it doesn't fit your ears.
Here's the biggest issue: The voice sensor must contact your cheek in order for noise suppression to work properly. If it does not touch your cheek, the people you are talking to will hear echo, hollow sound, clipped words or other distortion. The challenge is to get the earbud far enough into your ear that the sensor is aligned properly. I have what I believe are average ears and the smallest supplied rubber earbud is still a little too big.
But as long as I remember to periodically adjust the Jawbone to keep it touching my cheek, it works quite well. I am going to experiment with other earbuds (Aliph does not sell any sizes other than the S, M & L in the box).
Much lesser quirks are that it is impossible to tell whether the headset is on or off when it is in your ear and button action when accepting/initiating/refusing a call is far from easy to control due to the invisible, non-tactile switches.
So when you press on it to seat it in your ear properly, it turns off or on, depending. This is easy to work around by starting with the unit off and pressing hard for two seconds to simulateously turn it on and seat it, but the button design is not the smartest. This design also makes it awkward to change call volume, but the default setting is fine, especially because you can adjust it in finer increments anyway on many phones.
Overall this is an excellent product, marred only by limited fit options and slightly dumb ergonomics. I plan to keep it. Best testimonial came from my daughter, who when I called her a few minutes ago asked, "Are you still using the Jawbone?" If she has to ask, that means it's working (grin).
UPDATE: I tried the Jabra clear gel earbud with the long "tail" and it works quite well. I can use the JB without the ear loop now, though I prefer retaining it for safety. Sound is good and fit is much improved.
-dan
improved over previous jawbone June 6, 2008
Jong Lee (Seattle, WA)
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
having owned the previous jawbone model, this one is:
-much smaller and hence shorter battery life
-improved volume control (max volume is much louder)
-better robustness where build quality is better and earpiece less flimsy
-in ear piece fits better and doesn't fall off
Jawbone 2 better than original in most areas June 27, 2008
W. R. Davis (Houston, Texas United States)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
I owned and used the original jawbone headset for several months, using it with a Palm Treo and Palm Centro. It worked reliably and had very good sound. Its achilles heel was that it was virtually useless in a windy environment unless you turned off the noise suppression and then it was marginal in the wind.
The first jawbone 2 I ordered was defective. I could barely hear it and the sound was raspy. I returned it for an exchange. I can hear the new unit just fine.
Sound quality: - decent, but its not the high fidelity quality I experienced with the original jawbone. I believe Aliph went backwards in this area and its the reason I gave only 4 stars.
Voice pickup and clarity: My wife reports that she can hear me much better with the jawbone 2. I've tested it in the wind and it works well. This is a major improvement in this headset.
Comfort: I did not like the earclip and earpiece on the original jawbone and I don't like this one either. The earclip does not come close to working on my ear. I took it off and just stuck the unit in my ear. This worked well until it fell out when I bent over.
Now I am using the headset with what worked well for me with the original jawbone. I removed the clip and rubber earpiece cover and installed a jabra ear gel. This works great and I'm very happy with it.
The new jawbone 2 is much smaller and lighter. I like the low weight and clutter-free fit.
The electronics and bluetooth function seem to work really well. Pairing and connecting is very fast.
 Most of the "fit" problems are due to the lack of instructions July 11, 2008
Young (San Jose, CA, USA)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Purchased this after a lot of amazon reviews.
The sound quality is as described (positives) in most of the reviews, and very happy with mine in all situations (street, wind noise, driving highway speed noise, and even in my convertible top down at city speeds).
Jawbone "Fit" problem that most people report could have easily been corrected by treating the ear-loop as an adjustable eye-wear and hand-adjust for a good fit. I had a initial problem also -- the ear-loop wire was too close to the top of my ear and was uncomfortable to wear after a few min.
Here is a simple guide.
1. Take the ear-loop off.
2. Find the ear bud that fits your ear, both comfortable and would actually hold the unit on without the ear-loop. That size would provide both the tight enough and comfortable fit.
3. Put a ear-loop on. Start adjusting the top so that there is no to little pressure to the top of your ear. I found that ear-loop sizes makes very little difference (included large, small, etc sizes are too similar to make a difference anyway).
4. Then bend the ear-loop toward to unit so that it provides support on the back -- but no need to go for a exact or tight fit. If you had used wire-frame eye-glasses, you should be familiar with this process.
5. The key steps are the #2 and #3 above. Should not take you more than a few minutes to get the comfortable enough fit you need, and forever to get that perfect fit (just like eye glasses).
======== Not related to "fit" problem, but Quality of my unit ====
- Update after 2+ weeks of use.
- Too bad I cannot change the 5 star rating down to some lower # based on this updated experience.
The fit (as adjusted above) and sound quality has been great.
The Problem with my Unit: My unit shuts down randomly, almost regardless of the battery status (I have hade my unit charged near full, since I was not traveling during this period). Most often during a call, and seldom during standby. Once the unit shuts down, it behaves as if the battery has run down and would not turn back on, for up to 15 mins (did not try after that). But after an hour or two, the unit could be turns on and operates for a few more hours (and for even 1 hour conference call). So this is not clearly run-down battery problem, but something else.
Now for the Aliph (the MFGR) Customer Service: Called Jawbone directly, and they insist that the problem is my phone dropping the call. Now I explained that yes, this could happen if you have the phone in your pocket, and some keys could be pressed..., but it does not explain the case when I had the phone on my desk, nor explain why the unit would not turn back on (not just dropping the call, but shutdown), yet operate properly after a ~ few hours. The Customer Service insisted that this is not a problem with their unit -- would not even recognize the logical disagreement in the evidence I provided and their explanation. This problem happened about every other day with normal business use (~ 1 hour talk, ~15~20 calls, 6+ hour standby per day). BTW, I got to a live person to talk to in less than 1 min -- fairly positive and frankly impressive when I now normally expect menus, menus and more phones menus and no live person interaction for 10~20 min.
I am returning the unit for replacement -- still like the sound quality and the fit. If the replacement behaves the same way as my current unit, I will be giving up on this unit and seek alternative.
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Quick update on replacement -- the replacement unit (new) works flawlessly. Perhaps the quality problem discussed on this forum is true for this manufacturer for now...
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