Wanna answer that call? Shake Jawbone’s latest headset, the Era, twice. Want the thing to pair with your phone? Shake it four times and yell “pull yourself together, man!” Yelling’s optional – the built-in accelerometer is what gets the message.
Why make a headset that responds to motions instead of just good ol’ fashioned buttons (the Era, by the way, still retains a single multi-function button as well as a power switch)? Apps, baby. Both the Era and Jawbone’s previous-gen ear candy, the Icon already have downloadable voices (“You have… two hours… of talk time remaining”) and run lightweight apps like Jott. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to envision future apps that utilise the motion sensitivity.
For now, though, the Era is functionally still just an excellent headset – not the wearable computer that founder Hosain Rahman would like it to be. (Ball’s in your court, dude.) Like its predecessors, the Era fits well, effectively squashes background noise, and plays nice with A2DP so you can quietly rock out to Foreigner while pretending to be on an important call. This model even features an upgraded 10mm speaker that makes the music sound a little better. It’s available right now for $US129.