Why I Hate Bluetooth Headsets...

[Joseph Moon]

Okay, bear with me a moment...

I found my need for a bluetooth headset in two reasons... First, I nearly had a head on collission with an SUV when reviewing the 2.5" screen on my Treo 700w while making a call. I know, it was stupid and I deserved it. Anyway, it scared the bajeevas out of me.

Second, I was using my wife's motorola BT headset... The one that came with her pink razor... Not exactly very cool looking for a guy... Needless to say, I could only take calls in the car - I never got out of the car with that pink thing stuck to my ear.

Now... Here is my hatred...

I got in the habit of stopping people in the street when I saw a BT device strapped around their ears. I would question them on their expierences with past and current headsets. I found a lot of very dissatisfied BT owners/users. I became discouraged myself. Then one day, I bumped into a guy in Costco. 15 minutes later - I was sold on a Plantronics Voyager 510 ($45 @ Amazon). Now in the store, he was able to play his music on the headset... It was one of my requirements... Yet I can't do the same on my Treo... That is a bummer when I just want the ballgame to come through the Voyager.

Next - and this is the most stupidest thing... All my ringtones that I have setup for caller ID don't come through the voyager. What is up with that? If you attach a dang corded headset, you will get the ringtomes - but not in the more advanced device like the BT headset... So, here we are - no audio from a player and no caller id tones.

So I am back to looking at my 2.5" screen when a call comes in to see who it is. What a joke, you call that hands-free?

I realized the gravity of how dumb this is when I left my phone in the car and was still wearing the headset - a call was coming in but I had no idea who it was! Imagine answering the phone and not knowing the caller?! Who would have thought such anxiety... Should I, or should I not take this UNKNOWN CALL! It could be someone I know, or it could be someone I wish I never knew!

Anyway, I hope you had a laugh with it - but honestly, I am looking for a way to channel those two previously mentioned sounds to my BT headset when the headset is active.

Thanks for your time and suggestions...
Joseph...

[Janak Parekh]

Well, you do hit upon some valid points, although not all of them are the BT headset's fault; the 700w has a pretty generic (read: lame) Bluetooth implementation.

I find Bluetooth headsets to be useful for one specific niche item: when I'm driving and expecting a call (for example, if I'm picking up people from the airport). I leave the 700w in the pocket, and if the call comes through, I answer it using the BT headset. That's about it... and if I'm not expecting a call, I usually just let it ring through voicemail. I don't use distinctive ringtones, just a vibrate.

For more frequent users, a phone that supports Bluetooth voice dialing would be far more useful. What I'd ultimately like is a phone that would announce the caller's name over the BT headset.

--janak

[Joseph Moon]

I just spent about an hour reading some stuff over at PocketPlayers site. It appears like they are working on a fix to allow music/sound to be channeled through to the BT headset...

Awesome thought...

Joseph...

[Jason Dunn]

The sad truth is that the Bluetooth SIG has allowed Bluetooth to become fragmented and the end result is that some Bluetooth devices support some profiles. In the end the consumer loses. :?

[Brad Adrian]

What I'd ultimately like is a phone that would announce the caller's name over the BT headset.
Yep. It kinda defeats a lot of the purpose when I have to pull my phone out of my pocket to see who's calling before I answer it with my BT headset.

[Cybrid]

For more frequent users, a phone that supports Bluetooth voice dialing would be far more useful. What I'd ultimately like is a phone that would announce the caller's name over the BT headset.

--janak I haven't tried this but... if you can select separate ringtones for individual contacts...Why not record the name of the person in a wav/mp3 file? Set the default into a "unknown caller" ringtone and "Mr. Smith", "Uncle Bob", "Office" for the important contacts.

[Jason Dunn]

Why not record the name of the person in a wav/mp3 file? Set the default into a "unknown caller" ringtone and "Mr. Smith", "Uncle Bob", "Office" for the important contacts.

That's a very clever idea. :way to go:

[Sven Johannsen]

Doesn't solve the problem of the ringtone not coming over the headset though.

The nicest thing would be MS Voice Command A) working with a BT headset, & B) being avialable for Smartphones.

[alese]

This is not really an issue with Bluetooth or even BT Headset. It's more an issue with manufacturers making not full featured BT implementations or specifically it's an issue with crappy MS BT Stack.
I used my first BT headset more than 3 years ago with Sony Ericsson T68i and it worked just fine, it even announced the name of the caller provided that I had voice tag for the contact.
Unfortunatelly, three years later none of very expensive high end WM devices have BT stack that can be compared to what other BT phones have as standard, stuff like A2DP, voice dialing, caller ID... is standard on most phones, but on WM things like this are either not working very well, work only as hack or are not supported/implemented at all.

[Joseph Moon]

So help me understand something...

From reading through some posts, it appears that there is no hope of having a functional BT headset because of Windows. Yet in other posts, it appears that some programmers are blowing out the BT Stack provided by Windows and providing a "New and Improved" stack that seems to provide us with the features we want.

Sounds to me kinda like open code - which can be a good thing. And if so, why isn't this code more readily available?

I don't know - it kinda seems simple to me... The sounds that travel through the wire SHOULD travel through the BT connection as well. It dosen't make sense to me that something more technologically advanced actually provides less functionallity.

This is exact reason why I walked away from PDAs about 2 years ago. So much dang potential, yet the dang hardward manufacturers leave us "HOPING" for more...

I feel another post brewing - so I am going end this one here...

Joseph...

[Janak Parekh]

This is not really an issue with Bluetooth or even BT Headset. It's more an issue with manufacturers making not full featured BT implementations or specifically it's an issue with crappy MS BT Stack.
Well, why didn't the Bluetooth SIG specify much more precisely what a headset or handsfree profile should be? In general, they've left too much flexibility in profiles... and too much flexibility in which profiles people can implement.

Mind you, I'm not absolving Microsoft for their lame Bluetooth implementation, or OEMs for including it. But I think the BT SIG could have significantly helped in this regard as well.

(And, you know, I never knew that the T68's voice command would also announce calls. At the time, I never really used my Bluetooth headset outside of the office with my T68. Go figure. That phone was so way ahead of its time it's not funny.)

--janak

[myrampar]

After reading the front page post from Darius concerning JETware's hands-free extension support for Microsoft Voice Command and browsing the JETware website, it appears that some of the features we are looking for may become reality.

In the list of features, three items stand out to me. 1) Activate MS Voice Command voice dialing over Bluetooth. 2) Use custom ringtones through your Bluetooth device. 3) Improved Caller ID.

I just upgraded my Verizon XV6700 with the new ROM and the inclusion of the Voice Speed Dial application allowed me to apply the MS Voice Command hack to issue commands and dial contacts using my Bluetooth headset (Jabra Freespeak 250). So I can already do #1 and it seems to work reasonably well.

I don't really have many custom ringtones but I can see where this would help you easily identify an incoming call w/o having to look at the phone's Caller ID.

I found this quote after going to the JETware support page. Under the paragraph labeled "Use phone ringtones" they write "If your hands-free device supports in-band ringtones the Extension can play your custom ringtones through your Bluetooth hands-free device. This is convenient while driving if you have selected custom ringtones for your Outlook contacts. You will know who is calling based on the ringtone without having to look at the caller ID display.

When Microsoft Voice Command is installed and configured to announce incoming calls checking this option will allow the Voice Command announcement play through your Bluetooth hands-free device."

In MS Voice command under Phone-->Options there is a setting to "Announce incoming calls". Unfortunately, my Bluetooth headset just beeps right now when I get an incoming call even with this checked. Maybe JETware's extensions will remedy this!

I think most of the extensions would really be beneficial to cars with Bluetooth hands-free implementations but some of the extensions are sure to provide much needed functionality to our hands-free headsets.

We can dream, can't we?!

[Joseph Moon]

I just installed the JetWare software... Unfortunetly, my BT headset decided to go dead on me at the same time... I am anxious to see if this solves one of my problems... When the headset is done recharging, I will give it a go and see how it works...

Joseph...

[myrampar]

Joseph-

Definitely keep us posted! BTW- What device/headset combo are you using? Do you use MS Voice Command or another voice dialing app?

It will be interesting to see what works/doesn't work for different folks.

I may try to install the JETware software in the next few days.