Since Sensory has gotten very actively involved in providing speech recognition for Bluetooth® based products, I have been asking friends and family about their experiences with various “hands-free” wireless devices.
I recently had an interesting conversation that I’ll share. A woman I know (I’ll call her Jane) uses a Jabra SP-200 Bluetooth® car kit. She says she had tried a wireless headset, but found the car kit much more comfortable and convenient since she really only uses it while driving. Jane found the initial pairing process clumsy and uncomfortable, but after much reading and experimentation is now very happy with her Jabra car kit.
When I pressed Jane more about what she likes and doesn’t like here’s what I found:
Likes:
- Doesn’t have to wear it on her head
- Call quality is good
- Simple and easy to use
Doesn’t like:
- Every once in a while it makes a call accidentally
- There is no easy way to call people back when she gets disconnected
- Doesn’t always understand the different flashing lights
I found this particularly interesting, since on the one hand she said it was simple and easy to use, but also said the lights were confusing, there were control issues, and it was too difficult to easily call someone back.
Of course, if you know Sensory’s BlueGenie™ Car Kit product then you understand that ALL these issues are solved with a BlueGenie™ Voice Interface! (By the way, have you seen the BlueGenie™ car kit video on the Sensory website front page with my daughter Samantha? Smart kid.)
I decided to go a little more in-depth on the SP-200 and looked it up on the web. Interestingly, Jabra markets it as “hands-free” (of course it’s not), and calls it part of the EASY series (it could be a lot easier with BlueGenie™ …) Jabra must understand it’s not Truly Hands-Free, because in some places they call it “hands-free talking.”
Here’s what I learned from the manual:
- It has 3 LED’s (Blue, Green, and Red) that each mean a different thing. Sometimes they are solid, sometimes they blink, and SOMETIMES THEY BLINK AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS. No wonder Jane found this confusing. Even the same color doing the same thing can mean a different thing in a different mode (e.g. solid blue can mean it’s on, or it can mean it paired successfully).
- There’s a single big button to tap. This is part of what makes it EASY I guess. However, Jabra differentiates between a TAP and a PRESS. A tap is short and a press is long. And there can be DOUBLE TAPS, and PRESS AND HOLD, and the HOLD can be for 1 second or 5 seconds, etc. For example, you “tap” to answer a call, and you “press” to reject an incoming call, or you double press to redial. Maybe this has something to do with the “accidental” calls Jane mentioned??
I think you absolutely must read and memorize the manual to know how to use this product…and once you do know how to use it, you need to touch it, touch your handset and look at the car kit while driving. That’s not a Truly Hands-Free, Eyes-Free product.
On the other hand, BlueGenie™ car kits will hit the market in 2010, and they will change the world! People will understand what “Truly Hands-Free” really means!