A blog about food, wine, photography, travel, tech, pop culture, and social media...with a little geek thrown in for flavor.
I love to cook, collect and try new recipes. I'm always in search of the perfect meal, the perfect glass of wine, the perfect cup of coffee. Some people eat to live...but I live to eat.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Do you have a MacBook, as well as an iPhone, iPad or iPod? You need one of these.
REVIEW: Jabra Freeway Bluetooth Speakerphone
In short: A major upgrade from the old Bluetooth speakerphones.
I recently gave this to my wife as an upgrade from her previous Jabra speakerphone. While the SP200 did the job, at times I had a hard time understanding her due to road noise. She would also forget to turn on the Speakerphone when getting in the car, and would rush to turn it on, hoping it would connect in time to receive an incoming call.
The Jabra Freeway solves both of those problems.
At first glance, the Freeway is much larger than the SP200 - it has 3 speakers boasting Virtual Surround Sound, dual noise-cancelling microphones, and Voice Commands (with a 1-Year subscription to VoiceAssist). Also supported is A2DP - it can play music from a Bluetooth-enabled phone, and download your phone’s address book for voice identification of incoming callers, as well as voice commands. It also has a built-in FM transmitter, which can route your caller’s audio through your car’s stereo system.
Pairing the device was a breeze. After charging the first time for the recommended 2 hours, I simply turned the Freeway on, and the clear voice prompts guided me through pairing it with my wife’s iPhone 4.
The Freeway is also HD Voice-ready, for supported devices and carriers. To my knowledge, no US carrier supports HD Voice, while a handful of international carriers do.
Besides the major sound quality upgrade from the SP200, the feature that convinced me to get the Freeway was the built-in motion sensor. The device will sense when you get in or out of your car, and will turn itself on or off automatically. My wife will no longer have to rush to turn on the speakerphone when a call comes in!
Battery life is claimed to be up to 14 hours talk time and 40 days standby. I’d say it’s pretty close.
Jabra also releases regular firmware updates to the Freeway, which are installed by downloading the update, connecting the Freeway to your computer via the supplied USB cable, and running the update.
I definitely recommend getting the Freeway if you’re in the market for a new Bluetooth Speakerphone. The enhanced audio quality, combined with the added convenience of auto powering on or off via the built-in motion sensor, made it an easy sell for me.
After buying the Freeway on Amazon last week, the price has dropped by $10, to $90 with free shipping. Go get it!
Disclosure: This is an unsolicited review, and I purchased the device with my own money.
If you’re getting an iPhone, make sure to get it covered with a SquareTrade Warranty!
paper mail: What's wrong with Android
In the recent months, I have spent a lot of time using an HTC ThunderBolt after selling my iPhone 4 because AT&T’s service was terrible where I lived. It’s been nice having 4G LTE and all, but the actual Android OS is a joke. Don’t get me wrong here, I do like Google when it comes to some…
(Source: pendr)
The @withings Blood Pressure Monitor for iOS. Love that it sends my BP data to @ClevelandClinic MyChart via @HealthVault! http://amzn.to/reMZz8 (Taken with instagram)
“When I listened to lossless tracks back-to-back with the C5 followed by a pair of commonly-available $100 in-ears, there was no comparison. It was like being in a symphony hall versus standing outside of one.” —Gizmodo
Hey, Buy My iPhone!
I upgraded to an iPhone 4, so my 3GS is for sale.
