Although they launched back in April in the US, they’ve just hit Australian shores for the asking price of $165. They performed fairly well in the A2DP Battlemodo back in September, so if you’re after a pair of reasonably priced, funky looking Bluetooth headphones, these might be a good option for you.

[Jabra]

The Problem

Honestly, there are plenty of reasons to be uneasy about Bluetooth headphones: They run off battery power, so you need to be mindful of keeping them charged; they’re often styled strangely to accommodate the necessary wireless hardware; they’re more expensive than equivalent wired headphones; and most of all, they sound like crap. Or, so you’ve heard. You know, from other people, not with your ears. The colloquial “heard.” Er, you know what I mean.

Perhaps even more than choosing the best Bluetooth headphones, the point of this little exercise is to figure out if A2DP, the technology, is even worth your time. After all, it isn’t really worth going to the trouble and expense of untethering your headphones if they barely qualify as headphones. So first, some background:

The Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, or A2DP, is an umbrella term for the modern Bluetooth audio profile, meaning the standards by which Bluetooth devices send a receive audio. It complements the Headset Profile (HSP), which takes care of low-quality mono transmissions, like those to single-ear Bluetooth headsets, to provide the capability to listen to music without too much distortion. And that’s the crux of the A2DP problem, both real and perceived: It’s better than mono Bluetooth, to be sure, but is it as good as a wired headset? Or more realistically, is it close enough that it doesn’t really matter?

Since A2DP audio is encoded and recompressed at the source, leading to (sometimes drastically) differing audio quality betwen devices, I paired a number of sources—an iPhone 3G, an HTC Hero, a unibody Macbook Pro—with a veritable stack of headphones to see if the end result, the sound that actually hits your ears, is worth the trouble. Here are the best five:

The Headphones

(Click the chart to enlarge)

Sony DR-BT50: The only cup-style headphones included in this roundup, the Sonys serve as a sort of reference for sound quality, features, fit and comfort. Also: impracticality. If you’re planning on using a Bluetooth headphones as they’re generally understood to be intended, you’re probably not looking for bulbous headhuggers like this.

That said! They’ve got by far the bassiest, clearest sound of the lot, and the included controls, though they can take a while for your fingers to map out, are more complete than any others. Using these headphones is a joy compared to most others, but only in a situations where they’re appropriate: Sitting on a sofa? At a PC? I don’t really know. Whatever they’re meant for, the lack of a USB charger corroborates the theory that they’re not really intended to be that portable.

Far and away the best, most balanced sound; moderate noise isolation

Wider set of controls than any other headphones, but probably more than you need, or your handset even supports

They’re too big to exercise or travel with

Motorola Motorokr s305: Something about this headset is immediately alarming. It feels cheap, it comes with very few accessories, it even looks a bit dated — it sort of feels like you’ve accidentally been handed a stray accessory, dropped out of a Motorola Rokr box, yearning to be reconnected to its parent phone. But seriously, give it a minute.

You could find plenty of things to complain about with the s305s, but hell, I just don’t want to: With these cheap, stripped-down headphones, Motorola shows that they understand the draw of A2DP better than anyone else. They sound fine—solid mids, relatively clear highs, adequate bass — without sounding overequalised; their fixed fit works well enough on most heads, without sacrificing weight or durability; they connect with ease and offer minimal, though adequate, controls; they charge quickly via USB, for a playback period that’ll outlast any workout session. And most of all, they’re very, very cheap.

Minimalist: easy to use and set up

They’re gloriously cheap

It feels light in the hand and on the head; it also feels a bit flimsy

Jabra Halo: Nobody’s going to dispute the Halo’s stylishness, especially in this company — most of these headphones looks like they were designed in the late 90s (Why? No really — this doesn’t make any sense) and many come in form-factors I haven’t seen since I carried a Discman. For what it’s worth, the Jabra’s matte black, ultra-thin headband take on Bluetoothery is eye-catching, and there’s nothing expressly wrong with it.

Nor is there anything terribly wrong with the sound: It’s abundantly clear, though not very bassy — something that could be pegged as much on the sometimes awkward fit of the Halo’s earpads as on their actual drivers. I had the most pairing issues with the Halo, but they all mysteriously resolved themselves eventually — par for the course with Bluetooth, and less of a concern than you might think, since one they’re paired to a device, they’re paired to a device. Controls, aside from volume, which relies on a jumpy touchpad on the earpiece, were simple and intuitive. The price, I guess, is the only real kick in the balls from Jabra’s headphones: The street price is a hefty $US120.

HEADPHONES FROM SPAAAAAAAAACE

They’re comfortable, and it’s easy to forget you’re wearing them

Too expensive for what you get

Logitech Freepulse: Logitech’s gone all-out with the Freepulse, and you’d be hard pressed to find a hardware feature—aside from USB charging—that these things don’t list on their spec sheet. They’ve got by far the most versatile Bluetooth transmitter, meaning that they can be paired with just about any device comfortably. Controls are subtly built into the earpieces, but once they’ve been explored, they’re easy to reach and utilise during exercise.

I found the fit to be a bit strange, since these particular headphones, despite looking like a traditional wraparound headset, actually hang on your ears by means of floppy little rubber loops. They’re secure enough, sure, but they don’t exactly cram the drivers against your ear holes; hence lack of great bass. Oh and hey, no mic! These things aren’t cheap, so, uh, what the hell?

Best Bluetooth transmitter of the bunch—fits just about any device

They fit everyone fine, but nobody particularly well

At this price, where’s the mic?

iLuv i222: In a lot of ways, the i222 is a cheaper, newer equivalent to the Freepulse: Its design looks newer, albeit a little Bluetooth-headset-y, its feature set matches the Logitech’s almost point for point, and, crucially, it has a mic, because almost every A2DP-enabled playback device is, let’s face it, a phone.

Interestingly, the iLuv’s battery life trumped even the most expensive headphones in my limited testing. My main cause for concern is a generally plasticky feeling: I can already see multiple areas of concern on the headset, and online reports go some way to confirming my worries about durability.

Tons of features for the price, including a Bluetooth transmitter

Build quality is a concern

Post-Game

If all these evaluations sound a little bit tentative, that’s because they are. Each headset evaluation was underscored by a fundamental discomfort with A2DP because, well, it’s not that good.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s better than I expected, and a far sight better than you might predict if you were weaned on Bluetooth earpieces. But the sound is flat, lacking in bass range and sacrificing detail on higher tones. And even if these headphones are specifically tuned for playing back Bluetooth streams, the few that include direct line-in support, like the Jabra Halo, give you a ready-made comparison between wireless and wired sound. Spoiler: It isn’t all that flattering for the ol’ toof.

This casts A2DP headphones in a different light, not as a viable, wireless, futuristic alternative to regular headphones, but as a degraded, battery-hungry, expensive compromise. You buy them because you need something wireless — that’s it. There’s no other reason.

The Winner

As such, the headset I’m most comfortable telling people to buy is also the cheapest. There will be people who’ll want something else—the Sonys are the best bet for, say, a PC gamer, and the iLuvs are an obvious choice if your music-listening devices don’t actually support Bluetooth. But more than anything, I see A2DP headsets as a way to listen to music during a run, or on cable-averse exercise machines, as a way to listen to a charging device while you wander around a room, or as a way to merge your everpresent Bluetooth headset with your earbuds.
For this, the Motorola s305s fit the bill: They’re light, functional and simple. They sound fine. They look OK. They sync with almost anything. They win because they do as much as you can ask of Bluetooth headphones, and they do it on the cheap.

The Warthog, which is essentially a Nissan Patrol combined with some fancy hydraulics, is a one of a kind wonder that was constructed by Weta back when Peter Jackson was supposed to be making a Halo movie. It has three different driving modes: normal, four wheel steering and crab mode, and it’s as easy as pressing a button to switch between them.

The hydraulic system inside lets you raise and lower the body of the Warthog over any wheel, making it great for real off-road action (even if I didn’t get to enjoy it off-road). Because of the monster tyres, driving over small things like gutters is barely noticeable though. As one of the PR people at the event said to me, it’s just like driving the Warthog in the Halo games.

Apparently the guys from Weta have had about 20 or so requests from wealthy Americans wanting a Warthog of their very own. The problem is that it was a custom build – they don’t have any casts to rebuild the vehicle, so to really rebuild one it would take about $200,000, and really need a new company to do the building.

Another interesting fact worth mentioning is that the turret on the back of the Warthog isn’t the actual turret the Weta guys built – apparently the insurance company wasn’t willing to cover the chance of Australian customs confiscating the replica weapon, so they got some Aussie dude to build one locally. He did the job in about a week, and the only thing letting it down is the short barrel. Aussie FTW!

The attention to detail is breathtaking, from the bullet holes tracking across the back of the car, to the body count on the front window. There are even fake registration stickers on the side to fit the Halo universe.

You can check out the Warthog for yourself this weekend, as well as having a bit of a play with the upcoming Halo: ODST game. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I’d highly recommend it.

Still, that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from announcing a new Halo Xbox 360 bundle, which includes a Pro console with 60GB HDD, a copy of Halo 3 and a copy of Halo Wars. The price? $449, a $50 markup on the console’s standalone price.

It sounds like a weird offer to those of us who have been playing these games for years on our second or third 360s, but I bet this sells like hotcakes.

[Kotaku]

On August 8th and 9th, the Warthog is open to public viewing. You’ll need to get over to Cockatoo Island for it, but hardcore Halo fans won’t mind that journey. And “public viewing” doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get to ride it, I guess, but I’ll be sure to tell you all about that experience next week.

The big question now is: If you cry out “shotgun” before hopping in a Warthog, are you sitting next to the driver or up the back with the big ass gun?

[Xbox via Kotaku]

The desktop is made from a string of custom Rainmeter configurations on a Halo 3 background image. Rykennedyan’s list of features:

• Grenades – Each grenade launches a specific application. I currently have them set to, from left to right, Pidgin, Steam, Foobar, and Firefox.
• Power Drainer – Opens a Shutdown menu. You can choose Shutdown, Restart, and Sleep
• Health Bar – Displays current track progress, with artist and title above it.
• Battle Rifle and Ammo Count – Displays current unread message count from Gmail and the Battlerifle opens Gmail.
• Ammo Clip – Top clip is download traffic; bottom clip is upload traffic.
• Radar – As of now, all this does is download and save an image for the local radar from Weather Underground. I’m currently editing a GIMP script which will automatically crop and edit the picture to display properly upon download. What you see here is the intended look. It also displays the current temperature.
• Time and Game Type – Display current time and date.
• Blue Score and Red Score – Display current CPU and RAM usage.
• Player Callsigns – These behave just like my TweetScanner skin.
• Battlerifle Ammo Count – Displays current battery status; it displays 0 in this picture because I’m using my desktop which is not on a battery.
• Also, the visor outline is done in Rainmeter as well.

At one point today, Mordacil will also probably claim he’s not a virgin in the comments. [Deviant Art via Hawty McBloggyvia Technablog]

There’s not much difference in thickness from the earphones to the headband and there’s only one noticeable button (the volume uses a capacitive touch strip. They don’t foldup in the most graceful manner, but they don’t feel like they’ll break either. As for sound quality, Jabra wasn’t demoing the tech, but being as small as they are, I wouldn’t expect Sennheiser quality here.