We met up with Parrot at CES and the company showcased their latest bluetooth products. The Parrot MKi series hands-free bluetooth music system car kits give the user a wide variety of options. The MKi line includes three different products: MKi9000, MKi9100, MKi9200. The Parrot MKi9000 is a bluetooth hands-free system that does have a screen. Once installed in the car, the user can make and receive calls and play music using USB, line-in, iPhone or iPod, or a A2DP-compatible phone. The Parrot MKi9100 is a bluetooth hands-free system with OLED screen. Users can wirelessly control the OLED screen using a wireless remote control that can be placed on the steering wheel. The MKi9100 automatically synchronizes the phonebook with your phone’s phonebook as for easy calling. The Parrot MKi9200 is also a bluetooth hands-free system, but has a 2.4″ color screen included. Using the same wireless remote control that can be places on the steering wheel, users can go through menus, contacts, settings, and playlists.

Parrot also highlighted the ZIMKU Parrot wireless bluetooth speakers. These speakers are by Philippe Starck as to create premium sound that makes the music sound almost 360 degrees. The ZIKMI Parrot speakers have a docking station that can be used to play a iPhone or iPod. Users can also stream tracks from their Mac or PC via Bluetooth. People with PCs will be able to stream over Wi-Fi as well.

For more information on any of the highlighted products, check out Parrot’s website here.

Ever hated using annoying earphones when your trying to work-out and have the line hanging down to your pocket where your phone or music player was connected? Well if you do, then your in luck. Sony Ericsson has recently released wireless headphones using bluetooth technology not too long ago and has sent us a free pair for us to review, and that we will do.

The Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 is a wireless, ultra-compact,  bluetooth earphone with a microphone which can be connected to any A2DP compatible music player or phone. The earphones have a built in battery and is charged with an AC adapter included when purchased and include a nice round carrying case. The earphones have one single button. Holding it turns it on, Holding it again, turns it off. Simple enough.

The sound quality of the earphone has lots of treble and some bass but not enough and doesn’t sound as great as wired earphones. The product is also quite pricey carrying a price-tag at around $129.99 USD depending on where you purchase it. Reason I love it is because once its synced with your phone. You can turn it on with just press of a button. Making phone calls with this was also great with the built in microphone and me and the other person on the other line had no problems hearing.

Battery life on this bluetooth earphone is beyond amazing. If you find a phone that will last longer then the earphones battery life, then your set. I’m still currently running on the first battery charge and my BlackBerry 8900 has never been able to last longer then it.

Overall. If you are paranoid of having earphone lines hanging down your shirt, then this is for you. If it doesn’t bother you. I wouldn’t suggest getting it mainly because of the price and how only a select few devices will allow full control of the HBH-IS800 bluetooth earphone. Also, the quality isn’t that great and for that price tag. You can easily find a good pair of quality earphones. Just make sure you charge your phone or mp3 player everyday. Bluetooth’s a battery killer.

Follow me on Twitter: @AndrewCjDuong

We here over at Smartphone Nation love reviewing things. The fact that we get to play with new technology is probably the best part of blogging, and lovely Sony Ericsson has shipped us bluetooth speakers for us to try out and keep. So lets gets started.

The Sony Ericsson MS500 is a wireless bluetooth speaker which is very portable and easy to setup with only one button. Holding it down until it turns green turns it on. Holding it down again turns it off. Holding it down until it flashes green and blue means its in sync mode. The speaker is splash proof and come in black and orange or white and pink made with strong, durable plastic running on 2 AA batteries which are included when purchasing the product.

Features include:

• Ultra portable with sturdy hook
• Powered by 2 AA batteries
• Splash proof
• Music time: Up to 5 hours
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and DSP
• Bluetooth A2DP/AVRCP
• Efficiency: 2 Watts

Now when it said 5 hours of battery life. I thought “nah, maybe 2 hours” but I’ve been taking this thing out almost every day and I’m still running on the exact same batteries it was included with.

We tested the device with an HTC Magic, Blackberry 8900, and iPhone 3G. Using the speaker with the HTC Magic and BlackBerry 8900 was great and all the volume controls and everything worked, but when we tested the speaker with the iPhone. Volume control was disabled and since the device only had one button. There was no way to control it. What a shame…

Sound quality is amazing. You wouldn’t think that something this small (113 x 83 x 45mm and only 155g with the batteries) would be this great, but there was enough bass and enough treble for it to sound amazing.

Follow me on Twitter: @AndrewCjDuong

Just recently, we recieved a Sony Ericsson HBH-PV715 Bluetooth Headset in the mail. A great headset unit for daily usage at a great price. Let me start off by saying that more and more provinces and states are banning cellphones while driving including my province (Ontario) which will have the “no talking while driving” law in effect around fall, as well as the state of California which banned the usage of a cellular device while driving back in July 2008. We figured it’d be a great time to do a Bluetooth headset review and help you decide what device you want. Read the full story

Aliph has always been known for making superior bluetooth headsets. The Jawbone has proved to consumers to be one of the best headsets all around. On May 2nd, Aliph began selling the new Jawbone Prime at Best Buy Mobile, the Apple Store, Verizon Wireless stores, AT&T stores, and T-Mobile stores around the country. The headset costs $129.99, but it is well worth it if you are a heavy phone user. It is also available internationally in the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, and Canada. The Jawbone Prime offers three major changes from the New Jawbone headset that was released about a year ago. The changes are better audio quality, more comfortable and customizable fit, and a fresh and fun array of color choices. The Jawbone Prime is available in black, brown, and platinum. They also have a limited edition Jawbone EARCANDY edition that comes in yellow, red, green, and purple

The Jawbone Prime has NoiseAssassin 2.0, which is military-grade technology that virtually eliminates all background noise and provides outstanding voice clarity. Another great feature in this headset is the Acoustic Voice Activity Detector (AVAD) which picks up when the Jawbone is not touching your face. This is useful when you may be doing activities that require you to run or be active. The Jawbone Prime handles wind better than most headset we have tried. With a patented voice activity sensor (VAS), the headset claims to remove wind up to 10 MPH. We did a bunch of test on the Jawbone Prime to see what these features lived up to their hype. First we had someone use the Jawbone in the car with the windows up blasting music. Our results with this test were that the Jawbone Prime completely blocked out the music and the voice stayed clear. It was hard for the person using the headset to hear us with such loud music, but on the other end it sounded fine. Our second test was to turn the air conditioning on high in the car and aim it in our face. When the air was aimed on the face, there was no sign of wind on the other end. The only time we had a problem was when we directly aimed the air conditioning at the bluetooth headset, which sounded like there was a lot of wind blowing right into it.

The Jawbone Prime allows users to customize how the headset fits in their ear. There are many different earbuds to choose from, ones to use with the earloop and ones to use without the earloop. Each choice comes in three different sizes: small, medium, or large. Like the New Jawbone, the Jawbone Prime comes with a regular earloop and a premium leather wrapped earloop. Because of all these options, it allows consumers to use what is most comfortable on their ear. We used the medium earbud with the earloop, as it kept the device secure on our ear. We found that with the New Jawbone, the one from last year, after a few hours of use it would begin irritating our ear. However, with the Jawbone Prime we did not have that problem as Aliph has changes the design of the earbud.

Aliph has also changed the texture of the headset to make it easier to feel the buttons. On the New Jawbone, it was sometimes difficult to tell where the buttons where and how to answer or hang up a call. With the Jawbone Prime there is a little groove that can be felt while running your finger down the headset. This groove will indicate that where to click to pick up/hang up a call and other commands. We found this useful as it helped us know where to press when we were driving.

Another improvement to the headset is the placing of the LED indicator. This indicator has many uses such as putting it in pairing mode and seeing if the headset is on. With the New Jawbone your finger would block the LED when pressing the button, making it very difficult to tell what color the LED was. Aliph has listened to the customer feedback and has changed this in the Jawbone Prime. With the Jawbone Prime, it is no longer necessary to press right where the LED is to do a command. It is much easier to tell what color the LED indicator is now.

In conclusion we can say the Jawbone Prime is by far the best best bluetooth headset we have ever used to date. While the Jawbone Prime costs a hefty $129.99, if you are a heavy phone user than this is the bluetooth for you. With superior noise cancellation and wind reduction, we can easily recommend this to anyone in the market for a stylish, yet useful bluetooth headset.

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The Jawbone bluetooth headsets are known for being among the best out there; with a $129.99 price tag it better be. Today Aliph announced their new headset, the Jawbone Prime. The Jawbone Prime comes in many different bright colors, these colors are called EarCandy edition. Right now they are available on pre-order and will be out in retail stores beginning May 2nd.

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LG’s new Decoy device is equipped with an attached, snap-on Bluetooth headset for those who would prefer their headsets to match seamlessly with their device. No word yet on how good the headset may be, but you can probably place a small bet that there won’t be any connectivity issues. The Decoy will set you back $179 after a two-year contract agreement and a $50 rebate.

Be sure to witness the unboxing.

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A new version of the best bluetooth has been released. Aliph has officially announced their new headset called “New Jawbone.” The New Jawbone is 50% smaller than the first one. This New Jawbone is available on the Jawbone website and through AT&T immediately.

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