Plantronics

What do you look for in a headset? When I'm headset shopping (which is probably more often then your average geek) I always look for three characteristics: reliability, comfort and good sound. Quite often you only get two out of three--I've seen headsets a plenty that have been reliable and good sounding but not comfortable, or comfortable and good sounding but not reliable.

So it was with some anxiousness that I opened up the .Audio 625 USB Headset that Plantronics recently sent me to try out. Would this headset meet my high headset standards? Fortunately yes, the .Audio 625 is indeed reliable, comfortable and good sounding (great sounding, even), and it's quickly become my regular, go-to headset. Why? Read on to find out.

Continue reading "Skypegear Roadtest: Plantronics .Audio 625 USB Headset" »

A friend of mine sometimes jokes that bluetooth headsets are evil because on the TV show 24, only terrorists wear them. I used to completely agree with him. A few years ago I tried to Skype with an old bluetooth headset I had. Seemed like a great idea, but the experience left a lot to be desired. The headset never fit very well on my ear, I couldn't control any of Skype's functions using the headset buttons, and the bluetooth driver on my computer would only work half the time. When it did work, sound quality was lousy--callers complained that they heard an echo (the mic picking up the speaker)--and every ten minutes the connection would break in a staticy explosion and I'd have to turn the headset off and back on to resume speaking.

Needless to say I was skeptical when the US Skype Store sent me a Plantronics .Audio 910 Bluetooth Headset to try out. But I've been very pleasantly surprised. The major difference between the Plantronics and my previous bluetooth-Skype attempt is that the Plantronics is Skype certified, so it's actually designed to interact well with Skype. The difference is like night and day. Read on for my review.

Continue reading "Skypegear Roadtest: Plantronics .Audio 910 Bluetooth Headset" »