Brand New! Latest Aliph Jawbone, The Rogue!The latest and most sophisticated Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Technology!

Compatable with The DROID, by Motorola, as well as the HTC Eris Droid, MyPhone, iPhone, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Storm 1 & 2, and all other Bluetooth Compatable Cell Phones, PDA's, Smartphones, and Devices!

Comes in Retail Packaging, not bulk or OEM!Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth Headsets - The Rogue -

Works well With Motorola Droid! Also has special features and software which integrates with iPhone and delivers special features such as special voice prompts.NoiseAssassin 2.5 delivers best in class noise cancellation, wind suppression and call quality.

Your satisfaction is Guaranteed! ICON - The Roguefeatures military-grade NoiseAssassin 2.5, for crystal-clear communication. NoiseAssassin 2.5 delivers best in class noise cancellation, wind suppression and call quality. Easily connect and disconnect with dedicated on/off switch. Spoken updates keep you connected, delivering in-ear caller ID, battery status and more. Offers the most ergonomic options of any headset (includes 7 earbuds and optional earloop to ensure a stable fit).

CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
Detailed editors' rating

Design : 8.0
Features : 9.0
Performance : 9.0
Overall score: 8.7 (4.0 stars)

The good: The Aliph Jawbone Icon series comes in a variety of beautiful jewellike designs; it has a dedicated on/off switch; and it comes with several ear fit options. It has many advanced features, which include an iPhone battery meter and is highly customizable with certain Audio and Dial "apps" via Jawbone's own MyTalk Web site. It has amazing sound quality and excellent wind-resistance.

The bottom line: Not only is the Aliph Jawbone Icon attractive and affordable with great call quality, it is also highly customizable with advanced features, which makes it the most innovative Bluetooth headset we've seen to date.

We see so many Bluetooth headsets here at CNET that most of them seem the same after awhile. That's why we sit up and notice when a really unique one comes along. Last year, for example, we were awed at the stellar audio quality of the Plantronics Discovery 975 and praised the design of the Aliph Jawbone Prime. Aliph, in particular, has been bullish in pushing innovation in its Bluetooth headsets, consistently making it on our top Bluetooth headsets list year after year.

This year, however, it appears that Aliph has outdone itself with quite possibly the most innovative Bluetooth headset yet. It's called the Aliph Jawbone Icon and not only does it come in an array of designs that look as if they belong in an art museum, it is one of the first headsets in the world to have a built-in "operating system." This internal chip can be programmed to provide a far richer experience than other headsets; for example, this lets it have a visual battery meter right next to the one on the iPhone. Also, this is the first headset we can think of to have its own line of Audio or Dial "apps" that you can install via Jawbone's own MyTalk Web site.

We do have a few issues with its design, but its outstanding features and improved quality definitely makes the Jawbone Icon the best headset of the year so far.

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Compatable with The DROID, by Motorola, as well as the HTC Eris Droid, MyPhone, iPhone, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Storm 1 & 2, and all other Bluetooth Compatable Cell Phones, PDA's, Smartphones, and Devices!

Aliph Announces New Jawbone ICON, Works With iPhone's On-Screen Battery Meter

Aliph announced a brand new version of the Jawbone today called the Jawbone ICON. The new headset features an improved version of Aliph's Noise Assassin technology, comes in several different styles and colors. It also has a cool feature called MyApps which lets you customize a button to call 411, perform voice-to-SMS, or even listen and post to Facebook and Twitter. The headset can also read things like caller-ID and battery life to you. To top it off, your iPhone will display the headset's battery life right next to the iPhone's battery life, just like Apple's short-lived bluetooth headset.
It'll show up in Apple Stores soon, but you can get it now, here, for a great price!

Aliph™ Introduces Jawbone ICON™, The World's First Truly Intelligent Bluetooth® Headset

“New Icon for Personal Expression” Is Now Accessible to Everyone

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — January 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Aliph -- maker of the market-leading Jawbone® Bluetooth headset and inventor of NoiseAssassin®, the world’s first and only military-grade noise-eliminating technology -- today unveiled its most sophisticated product yet, Jawbone ICON. Jawbone ICON offers unprecedented ease of use and audio quality as well as an industry-first software platform called MyTALK™ that lets users personalize and update their Jawbones via the web. Jawbone ICON will be available for $99.99 beginning January 18 in six unique design personas.

“In building the next generation of wearable computing, we focused maniacally on creating the world’s best customer experience. We incorporated significant intelligence into the headset and as a result this is the simplest-to-operate Jawbone ever created, with a rich array of design choices to suit any preference or lifestyle. We like to call it a new icon for personal expression,” said Hosain Rahman, Aliph’s CEO.

Industry-first intelligence makes Jawbone ICON easy, convenient and personal

Jawbone ICON offers built-in intelligence and the ability to personalize with the click of a mouse using the all-new MyTALK platform, currently in private beta at mytalk.jawbone.com.

“Each customer is an individual, with unique tastes and preferences. With this in mind, we invented MyTALK as a place where people could go to get a richer in-ear experience. MyTALK is just a hint of the exciting ways people will be able to breathe life into their Jawbones over time,” said Rahman.

“Customers also tell us they don’t want to reach for their phone when their hands and eyes need to be elsewhere, like on the steering wheel and on the road. So Jawbone ICON uses its brains to now whisper important information like caller ID and remaining battery life into the user’s ear,” he added.

New personalization and convenience features include:

Six stunning designs and personas deliver rich set of consumer choices

Jawbone ICON is smaller and lighter than its predecessors, and comes in six designs with lush textures and finishes rarely seen in consumer electronics.

“Design and self-expression have been at the core of every generation Jawbone to date, and now we launch an unprecedented suite of choices to match that personal style that makes you who you are,” said Yves Behar, Chief Creative Officer of Aliph.

“Each Jawbone ICON is infused with a unique and exciting look. Like characters in a film, each captures a different fun-to-wear persona,” he added.

New leaps in sound technology sustain Jawbone’s lead in audio quality

Continuing Jawbone’s leadership in sound technology, Jawbone ICON provides improved inbound audio quality as well as upgrades to its battlefield-tested NoiseAssassin technology. Audio advancements include:

Jawbone ICON Specifications

Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours (varies by phone)
Standby Time: More than 10 days
Range: At least 33 feet (10 meters)
Charge: 80% charge in 35 minutes, 100% charge in less than 1 hour
Weight: 8 grams
Fit: 7 earbud sizes + 1 premium adjustable earloop
Accessories: AC power adaptor, micro-USB flex cable
Supports Multipoint: Pairs with up to 8 devices, 2 simultaneous connections
Supports Bluetooth: 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), 2.0, 1.2, 1.1
Packaging: 100% recyclable

Aliph's Jawbone grabbed the attention of gadget blogs a few years back as one of the first Bluetooth earpieces to use bone-conduction technology to filter out noise. Since then they've come out with incremental upgrades to the original design, but nothing that noteworthy. The latest Jawbone, however, called the Icon, stands out as more than a mere update by adding software called MyTalk.

MyTalk lets you do some pretty cool stuff: First up, if you're pairing it with an iPhone, you'll see a visual battery meter for the Jawbone right next to your phone's. We likey. Second, you can choose between six different voice "personalities" — with names like "The Ace," "The Thinker" and "The Bombshell" — for spoken alerts. The mere existence of spoken alerts is pretty neat, so why not? Finally, you get apps for speed-dialing some numbers (like directory assistance or the dictation app Jott) right from the earpiece… nice to have, though we suspect few will use them.

Aliph, you had us at the "iPhone battery meter." We'll gladly declare the Icon our favorite Bluetooth earpiece of 2010 so far.

Review: Jawbone ICON brings style and intelligence to a Bluetooth headset

I have tried a number of Bluetooth headsets over the years and my favorite that I have been using for the last couple has been the second generation Jawbone. For the last few days I have been testing the latest generation device from Aliph that was announced today, the Jawbone ICON. The Jawbone ICON takes Aliph’s advanced headset technology and adds in a software platform to further their vision for a wearable computing platform. The ICON is available now for $99.99 in six different personalities and as you will read about in my review below, Aliph brings you a superior headset all the way from the packaging materials to the details on the headset. Check out my image gallery for photos of the Aliph Jawbone ICON.

Vision, research, and base design elements

I had the pleasure of spending an hour talking with Travis Bogard, Executive Director, Product Management & Strategy, about the Jawbone ICON and Aliph’s vision for headsets. Aliph wants to give users the best experience possible with headsets and the ICON is a start of their next generation of wearable computing where the user is freed up to manage their life hands-free. This includes the ability to interact with their smartphone through social networks, text messages, email, and more. They want the intelligence of the headset to require just short interactions by the user while giving the user a seamless and consistent audio experience with multiple devices. We are not just talking about phones here, but all of those devices we have today with Bluetooth technology. They have four key areas they are focusing on for future devices and in the ICON you can see the first generation of these building blocks. They are:

As the tech guy in the family who gets asked a million questions about setting up Bluetooth devices, I was also pleased to hear Travis state they are building headsets for a zero frustration experience so even my mother-in-law should be able to turn on, pair, and use the ICON. Their research showed that four out of five people prefer talking on a Jawbone vs a cell phone alone. I can say after a few days of use that I too prefer the freedom and ease of using the ICON over holding the headset up to my ear.

We all know that the smartphone market is actually still in its early years with millions and millions of people out there without smartphones and Aliph’s research shows that only 11% of wireless subscribers bought Bluetooth headsets in 2008 so this headset market is also one with huge potential growth. Just about every single feature phone and smart phone that I see available from wireless carriers now has Bluetooth and with the laws in many States requiring hands-free devices Bluetooth headset sales should be increasing exponentially. I think part of the reason people don’t buy headsets is that they haven’t tried one that gives them an easy and functional user experience.

Specifications

Before moving into my experiences and usage of the ICON, let’s check out the specifications below:

As you can see above, I was pleased to see Aliph integrate the capability for 2 simultaneous connections and understand this features is more advanced than what they have had in a headset before. I know many people who carry a BlackBerry that their company provided along with a personal phone like an iPhone so with the Jawbone ICON they can now have the headset connected to both phones at the same time and when a call comes in answer with the headset like normal on one phone with the ability to quickly toggle from the headset to the other phone if a call comes in there as well. You no longer have to have multiple headset or answer one with a headset and the other through the phone.

Out of the box experiences

As I stated earlier, Aliph focused on making everything better with the ICON, even the box. As you can see in my image gallery photos, the packaging is minimized to just what is needed to pack in all the contents, while being able to highlight the headset for the buyer. The plastic upper portion is 100% recyclable material and unlike recyclable plastics you may have seen before it is clear and very sturdy so it also appeals to retailers wanting to keep products safe from theft. You can simply pop off the plastic upper portion and throw it in your recycle bin with other plastic bottles and there is a small flyer showing this in the package.

The lower portion is 100% recyclable paper material and can also be thrown into your recycle bin if you decide not to keep it. I like how you can take off the plastic to portion and recycle it while keep the bottom portion to hold the different earpieces. The ICON comes with seven earbud sizes and one ear loop. Three earbuds are designed for Option A: earbud only wear and four others are designed for Option B: earbud and earloop wear. You can actually throw on the earloop with and earbud only piece as well if you wish.

Opening up the front of the lower portion where the earbud options are mounted in fit openings you will find a small gray A/C adapter with USB port and a short USB cable for charging and connectivity to your computer. The USB cable is only about 2 inches long and is made so you can angle it up when plugged into your computer and keep it off the table. I also found the cable handy for in the car where you can have the headset pointed up and away from the DC port. There is no car adapter in the packaging, but I found the USB cable works with several USB car adapters I already have.

Meet the ICON

The Jawbone ICON comes in six different personalities and I have photos of each in my image gallery. You will find the HERO, ROGUE, THINKER, ACE, BOMBSHELL, and CATCH. Each has the same technology, controls, and software platform capabilities with the personalities focused on the visual style design elements. I was sent the ROGUE to try out and like the ACE you will find the color is on the back panel while the top is a clear shield so that as you angle the device in the light you will see the red highlights show through. All of the personalities have two square panels on the oustside face, except for the BOMBSHELL that is a bit more like jewelry than a headset with a rippled blonde face.

One of the first things I noticed on the ICON was the physical on/off switch. With the number of headsets I have used it was nice to see a physical button present instead of having to remember what area or button to press and hold and for how long to turn the headset on and off. The switch is very small and located on the inside so it is not noticeable and does not take away from the style and design of the headset. The switch and talk button made pairing extremely easy by just pressing and holding the talk button while flipping the switch to on. Most phones I have paired automatically, but if your phone does prompt for a code it is simply 0000.

The LED has also been moved to the inside around the Voice Activity Sensor that rests against your face (for best performance) and after pairing the LED goes off so it won’t blink and distract you or others. The LED does turn on when you plug in the headset to give you a visual interaction of the charging status (red if charging and white when fully charged).

Speaking of charging, the ICON uses a standard microUSB port for connection to your PC/Mac and for charging so you won’t have to remember to pack along a special charging adapter when you travel to keep your ICON charged up.

There is also one single Talk button on the back side of the ICON so there is no confusion with multiple buttons. I also have found other headsets with buttons on the outside leading the headset to fall out or shift as I pressed the button to activate the headset. With the easy to feel button on the back I simply put my thumb on the front while pressing with a finger on the back button and the headset doesn’t move or cause any pain going into my ear. The button is pressed once to take a call and pressed again to hang up. You can also dial as you normally would on your phone, listen and talk with your headset and then press the Talk button to hang up.

If you press the Talk button once while not on a call you will hear a voice (see below for how MYTALK lets you customize this) state the remaining charge on the headset and this is one feature I particularly find attractive on the ICON. Charging status is one area of headsets that has bugged me and actually kept me from using them more because when I went to use them the headset seemed to always be dead. In the past you never knew how much charge was left and if you didn’t keep mental note you may never have known and instead wasted time charging or forgot to charge. Now, a simple button press and you know the estimated charge remaining! By the way, it takes 40 minutes to get your headset 80% charged when empty and 90 minutes for a full charge. If you have an iPhone then you will get an even better charging status experience because after you pair with the iPhone you will see a headset battery meter in the upper right status bar. Aliph found that this battery meter changed the behavior of users so they would charge their headset at night with their iPhone and get much more use out of the headset.

If you press and hold on the Talk button (and you have a compatible device) you will be able to voice dial with the ICON. I was able to use this on my iPhone 3GS and Nokia N97 mini, but the N900 and Google Nexus One do not support voice dialing.

The headset will also talk to you and let you know when it is ready to connect, give you the status of Noise Assassin, and speak the number that is calling you. I found the caller ID function to be pretty slick and while it doesn’t speak the caller name it does give you the number and if you are like many of us we generally take calls from the same 5 to 10 people so you will quickly recognize their number if you don’t know it already.

Speaking of the Noise Assassin technology, version 2.5 in the ICON is intelligent and has a set it and forget it feature where you set the headset volume on your phone and the ICON will remember it and automatically adjust the headset to that volume even if one caller screams on the phone while another whispers. This is very slick and results in no need for a volume button or controls on the headset.

MyTALK software platform

The MyTALK service is currently in private beta and since I am in this beta I took a couple of screenshots to show you what is there in my image gallery. The MyTALK system works through your browser and a small Jawbone Updater utility is required to be installed on your PC or Mac when you first connect. I used the ICON on my MacBook Pro and found that an menu item was added to the top of my screen for easy connection to the MyTALK service.

After successfully connecting to your ICON you will find that you can manage your ICON headset through USB. Configuration settings you can manage include toggle on or off the voice and caller ID functionality. You can also edit your connections and see how many of the 8 available headsets you are connected with on the ICON. You can even rename your ICON to add a bit of personalization to it when you connect to your phones.

The MyTALK software platform is divided into AudioApps and DialApps. AudioApps are the six voices associated with each personality. You can install and use any of the personalities, even if you bought a different personality so you can have a style of headset you want with a voice you want. There are Spanish, French, and German voices if you want these on your headset too. The default can also be reloaded if you like.

DialApps are services that let you customize the Talk button on your ICON. By default, pressing and holding on the Talk button launches the Voice Dial application already loaded by default on the headset (your phone must support voice dialing). Other available DialApps include 411 directory assistance, Jott Assistant, 1-800-FREE411, and Dial2Do HandsFree Assistant. Selecting one of these and then installing it on your ICON changes the number that is dialed with a press and hold while the default Voice Dial application is an actual application. As you can see the 411 app is one that will result in your carrier charging you for services rendered while the 1-800-FREE411 will result in using just your voice plan minutes with no service charges. Jott Assistant lets you perform a large number of tasks via voice and is a service you have to setup and pay for prior to using on your ICON. I thought about trying Jott Assistant, but it is a bit costly for my tastes and I couldn’t find any support for Evernote.

I signed up for and am trying out the Dial2Do service because it lets me quickly create notes in Evernote, send messages to Twitter, send text messages, listen to current news, create a WordPress blog post and much more. You can get a free Dial2Do account that gives you reminders and a 30-day trial of the Pro services ($39.99 per year) so I am trying out the advanced features to see how useful they are in my life. If I find it to be a valuable service then I will add the phone number to the MyFaves account on T-Mobile and get free access to my subscription service. Otherwise, each call uses up plan minutes and I do not have an unlimited voice plan.

As you can see the service did a good job of translating my text to speech and still gave the option to listen to the original recorded message.

I tried out the standard Voice Dial app with the iPhone 3GS and it will let you use the Voice Control application on the iPhone. This is good for dialing, but if you select music I experienced the music playing through the speaker and not through the ICON headset like I hoped. When I connected to the Nokia N97 mini I was able to listen to music, text messages, and use the integrated voice dialing application on the N97 mini. You will find that all audio plays on the ICON from most Nokia devices. Your experiences will vary with the ICON depending on the Bluetooth support provided on the phone you are using.

The application support is interesting and I wonder if we will see other apps added for things like controlling the text input fields on the Google Nexus One and other advanced applications as phones evolve. It seems that the platform is flexible in providing this and I look forward to seeing it develop.

Closing thoughts and experiences

I used the Jawbone ICON the last three days and found it to be extremely comfortable when in my ear for hours at a time. I actually tried wearing it throughout the day even when I was walking around the house to see how comfortable it was too. I used the earbud only option 90% of the time and found it to hold in my ear very well with no sensation of falling out at all. Callers said I sounded very good and on my end all callers sounded fantastic.

When I had the ICON ROGUE fully charged the voice told me there was about 4 hours left. It seemed to be fairly accurate as I tested the headset over the last few days, but it does seem a bit shorter than some other headsets I have tried. Thanks to the battery status (voice and visual) it should still be more useful as I have a better understanding of when to charge up the headset.

As I stated above everyone of the personalities has a default voice loaded on it, but when you get access to MyTALK (public beta will launch after further testing) then you can change the voice loaded on your ICON. I put the one that matched the headset design, ROGUE, on mine at first to hear a kind of 007 spy personality for caller ID and power status, but plan to change it to other personalities and try them all out over time.

About Aliph

Aliph is committed to creating personal technology products that deliver an unsurpassed user experience. The company’s flagship product, the award-winning Jawbone Bluetooth headset, first disrupted the industry in 2006 with its military-grade NoiseAssassin technology and instantly became recognized as the best Bluetooth headset available. In 2010, Jawbone ICON becomes the company’s most innovative Jawbone yet; introducing unmatched ease of use, personalization, sound quality and design into the consumer marketplace.

Co-founded by Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman, Aliph is a privately-held company headquartered in San Francisco.