Playing It Cool with a Jawbone in Your Ear

And now theyre everywhere (apps, that is, not normal people). Apps on our phones. Apps on our TV sets. Apps on our Blu-ray players. And now, with the release of the Jawbone Icon ($85), apps on our Bluetooth earpieces. Some kind of line has just been crossed.

Why are so many people these days clipping these wireless, cyborgish earpiece/microphone gadgets to their ears? Maybe its the convenience of having both hands free while theyre on the phone. Maybe theyre responding to all the state hands-free driving laws (even though study after study shows that its the distraction of being on the phone, and not physically holding a phone to your head, that causes accidents.)

Or maybe people think that speaking without any visible phone makes them look cool, rather than deranged.

In any case, a company called Aliph has been striving to become the Lexus of Bluetooth earpiece makers. Each new years model is designed to be smaller and cooler than the previous years. The new Icon model is the smallest and coolest yet. In a few places, in fact, the designers have stepped past cool into ridiculous. But over all, the amount of thinking thats gone into this thing shows that their hearts are in the right place.

For example, the package all recycled and recyclable materials (thank you, Aliph) includes a range of black rubber rings of different sizes, to accommodate everyone from the large of ear to the cartilage-impaired. Theres also an optional over-the-ear hook to keep the thing even more solidly in place.

The pairing process is quick and simple especially on the iPhone or BlackBerry, with no ridiculous password requirement.

(Pairing is a one-time task, in which you wirelessly mate a Bluetooth earpiece with your phone. You can pair the Jawbone Icon with as many as eight different phones; in fact, you can be on calls on two of them simultaneously, conferencing or swapping them as you see fit.)

The Jawbones noise-cancellation technology has improved, too. The idea here is to erase the ambient sound around you traffic noise, washing machine, engine roar so that you sound clearer to your calling partners. On that score, the Icon works great. Once seated in your ear, the Icon sends and receives excellent sound.

In fact, because its screwed right into your auditory canal you insert it with the earpiece pointing down, then rotate it 60 degrees to point toward your mouth it often supplies better, more consistent sound than youd get holding the actual phone to your head.