The New Jawbone Icon

Last week I was flying to Denver and lost my Bluetooth mobile phone headset on the flight. I travel a lot and more and more states are making driving with mobile phone in hand illegal, so I needed to replace my headset.

I've never owned a headset I've liked.

After doing some research on cnet.com, I walked into a Best Buy and picked up a Jawbone Icon.

It is by far the finest Bluetooth headset I've ever owned, including an earlier stint with a Jawbone 2, which completely underwhelmed me.

This time the folks at Aliph have gotten it right. The most impressive feature, and - of course, the most important - , is the quality of the Icon's sound outbound and inbound. The people with whom I speak have been impressed at the difference in sound when I turn off NoiseAssassin. NoiseAssassin 2.5, which was developed by the military for use in helicopters and tanks, does a great job at substantially reducing wind noise. The headset has a Voice Activity Sensor that gently touches your cheek and discerns when you are speaking. Inbound audio clarity is also noticeably superior to what I've seen in other headsets.

But the Icon has some other cool features as well.

The headset only has 2 buttons. One is an on-off switch and the other is a button that controls everything else. If you press it once when not using it, a voice will let you know how much time you have left on your battery. Press it 2x and it will redial the last number. Press and hold it down and my Blackberry prompts me to give a voice command to dial someone in my Contacts.

If you have an iPhone, there is a meter on your iPhone that will also advise the user of battery life. You can also connect the Icon to a webpage and download different applications and even different voices. There is a choice of 6 styles to choose from with the Icon. It has a USB cord for recharging which makes it more flexible. It only weighs 10 grams and has a number of different earbuds and an ear loop so that you can find the right fit.

Finally, the design of the headset is quite stylish.

Highly recommended.

toward a new (old) mode of political discourse

""If you're someone who only reads the editorial page of the New York Times, try glancing at the page of the Wall Street Journal once in a while," Obama said. "If you're a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post Web site." "It may make your blood boil," he said. "Your mind may not often be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship" [links added]

Barack Obama speaking to over 90,000 at a University of Michigan commencement address on Sat 1 May 2010 (Washington Post story).

This president and I disagree on some issues, but I thoroughly endorse his sentiment here. Obama's comments remind me of something I heard one of my favorite theologians, the late S. Lewis Johnson, say some time ago. The content of this remark is a talk that Dr. Johnson is giving on two variant theological orientations: Covenantalism and Dispensationalism, but the spirit of the remark can be applied to any controversy whether political, religious, or personal.

"Now I hope you won't mind that when I talk about Covenant Theology, I'm going to try to present it as faithfully to its proponents as I can. And when I talk about Dispensational Theology I'll try to present it as faithfully to the viewpoints of its proponents as I can. That won't necessarily mean that I agree with everything of either one of these theologies, of course. But I will try to be as honest as I can and presenting [sic] the viewpoint in as strong a way as possible. And if some of you are partisans for one view or the other, you may get upset when I present ... the other person's viewpoint - and I hope you realize that what I'm trying to do is to do what any person should do in discussing an issue. He should present all of the viewpoints in as positive a way as possible, in a way in which proponents would present it (emphasis mine)."

Effective political discourse is not possible unless we have the ability to stop two-dimensionalizing those with whom we disagree.