Hands on with the Jawbone ICON
I found the packaging extraordinarily hard to grapple with. There are an insane number of tiny plastic pieces in the box, which has been designed to be eco-friendly rather than to provide a Jonathan Ive-like unboxing experience. All those pieces, however, easily fit into the rigid plastic portion of the package. Once you manage to get the thing open, it's pretty easy to keep track of all the parts.
Before you do anything else, you'll want to charge the unit overnight. It comes with a small USB adapter that recharges the built-in battery. Then, before you do anything further, you'll need to call into Jawbone tech support and have them walk you through the initial set-up procedure. You'll need a computer with a free USB slot (a hub really won't work), an administrator password, and about 30 minutes to an hour of time to devote to the set-up.
Until you do the set-up, your unit will not work with A2DP (advanced audio distribution profile), the technology that allows your iPhone to connect its normal (non-phone) audio stream to the earpiece. When you play music, it will play on the iPhone speakers. Once installed, that music redirects to your jawbone.
The installation process provides both the A2DP set-up and your choice of native voice. Jawbone offers 6 custom voices in English plus a few from other languages. I ended up going with the "Hero" voice, a rugged he-man, and one of the 3 male English-language choices. There are 3 female voices, described as "Sexy", "Flirty", and "Foxy". Ah, well.
I very much appreciate that the ICON uses a hardware switch rather than a button to be powered on and off. It's hard to change that state by accident with casual brushes, unlike the way that some other earpieces work. The cheap BT earpiece that I bought at Tuesday Morning is like that -- and when placed in a pocket can easily power on and lose power over time without me noticing.
The audio quality was fine. It's mono, of course -- listening with only one ear, no stereo is possible. I tested it with both phone calls and music and found it easy to listen to. I did not find the experience particularly "tinny", apparently a complaint among some users. Its default playback volume did not blast out my ears -- another plus, but also a negative at the same time.
I took the unit out to the street. Despite the ICON's noise elimination technology for improving your listening experience, it was easily defeated by common busy street noise. Audio books were incomprehensible. Music fared better, but only just a bit. That's part of the design to keep your ears in good shape by not blasting them with high volume. But unless you're jogging on quiet roads and paths, the ICON may not suit your running and walking audio listening needs. Instead, you may want to limit its use to hands-free calls in the car, or calls and music in the office.
For phone calls, incoming audio was excellent. Outgoing audio proved more problematic. When placing outgoing calls, the receiving parties complained of slight voice distortion at their end. To compare, I also placed calls to the same parties using the iPhone directly, without going through the ICON. The distortion did not happen on direct handset use.
The strengths of the ICON lie in its quality design, easy recharging, and A2DP support. Negatives include outgoing voice distortion, the extended set-up process to use A2DP, and the many easy-to-misplace tiny pieces that accompany the unit. All in all, I can recommend the product to anyone looking for a streamlined easy-to-use A2DP earpiece. Just make sure to use some kind of case when the ICON is not in use, so you won't lose track of it. It's really small and easy to misplace.
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Source: http://www.jawbone.com/
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I recently tested out the new Jawbone ICON Bluetooth earpiece. It's a small hands-free earbud device that you wear in your ear, and talk...
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I've been considering this headset for a while because of the a2dp feature. I have a couple of questions for readers that have an ICON...
Has anyone used the a2dp feature to place calls over the skype app on an iphone (wifi or 3g)? If so, what was your experience - good, bad or indifferent?
Regarding your voice sounding distorted to the person on the other end of a call, does voice quality improve if noise assassin is disabled?
did you seriously call tech support to setup your ICON?
July 06 2010 at 1:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBluetoothdouchebag.com
July 04 2010 at 10:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'd like a Jawbone ICON because...wait. This isn't a contest giveaway is it �
July 04 2010 at 3:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySorry Erica I completely disagree with you, you seem to give wrong information and wrong impression. I own an icon but I share none of your experience.
As a start you do not need to setup a2dp for standard use and for sure you need not to call in to set it up. Your lack of understanding of this pproduct is very obvious here. The a2dp is not required and setting it up needs you to sign into their and all the rest is done automatically for me it took about 7-8 minutes only.
When you do not put the sensor on your cheek the unit will not filter your voice very well so redo you test and make sure that the sensor touches your cheek.
Regarding the sound outpu for voice it is great but music is not best heard on a mono headphone, even if it is available does not justify it to be used and i think the idea was not for music but rather for navigation instructions to be heard vila your BT headset.
I write this with all due respect to you Erica and no malintent is meant at any point.
Quote "I took the unit out to the street. Despite the ICON's noise elimination technology for improving your listening experience, it was easily defeated by common busy street noise. Audio books were incomprehensible."
You do realize that Noise Assassin is meant for the people you are talking to. They will not hear all the back ground noise. How could you possibly think it would drown out the noise that you hear?
Having purchased the Icon about a month ago, Erica's experience with the Icon was a very different one than mine. The Icon didn't come with lots of little pieces. I don't know what Erica received, but it didn't come with very much at all: the short USB charging cable and wall plug, the ear loop, a couple of buds, two small instruction fold outs and the Icon itself. Unless she was using a solar charger during a full moon, it shouldn't have taken all night to charge the Icon. The battery is tiny. The instructions state that the Icon comes partially charged:
"Note: It takes 40 minutes to get your jawbone 80% charged. A full charge takes 90 minutes."
Like most people I am guessing, I have multiple cables for charging using the microUSB port that are all over a foot long. I love the "inch worm" USB cable! It fits into my keyboard's USB port and I don't have to figure a way to hide all of the excess cable like with the others. I loved the Jawbone Prime and the Plantronics 975, but neither of them would stay in my ear. The ear loop is a cheap piece of plastic, but it keeps the phone from dropping out of my ear.
@Microdot: Noise Assassin is always on by default. The instruction card says, "However, if you want to turn it off to demonstrate the effect to a friend while on a call, hold the TALK BUTTON for 2 seconds."
DO NOT use a micro-USB that does not come with the Jawbone Icon. It will fit, and it will fry your Icon. This is a proprietary pinout on a standard adapter, which I think is a huge mistake. If you read the product manual, they allude to this.
I have owned every Jawbone and this is the best one yet. It's not perfect, but it is better than any other. BT headset I have tried to live with.
@TimPiazza: From JB's site, "Jawbone ICON uses standard micro-USB charging technology, so you don’t have to carry more cables!".
If yours fried, something was defective (and not necessarily the headset).
@Caribou: From JB's Important Safety Information booklet that comes with the Icon, ""Use only the charger supplied by the Jawbone headset's original manufacturer to charge your Jawbone headset. Other chargers may look similar but using them could be dangerous and could damage the Jawbone headset."
I don't have a convenient way to trace the pins on my other micro-usb adapters to see whether or not Aliph followed the micro-usb standards, so you might be correct--anyone could have a bad USB adapter, but how would you know, and would it be covered under warranty? I don't think so.
I am aware of at least one instance where plugging a Jawbone Icon into a micro-USB adapter that did not come with the Icon caused the unit to become dangerously hot. You are welcome to refute this, but please do not cite marketing literature--the people who write the marketing copy are not always completely informed about a product's limitations.
I came away from this article as though I had just read a piece on technology written by my grandmother... and she died 20 years ago.
While I am steadfastly against reviews and instruction manuals written "by engineers FOR engineers", it seems as though this review was written by someone who had never before touched anything with a battery.
I was taught in the 4th grade one simple rule of writing: know your audience. I seriously doubt that the intended audience (people who read a daily blog on technology) were even considered with this review.
Dribble... senseless dribble. I expect more.
It is like the Beverly Hillbillies' review of their BelAir mansion... "and maw... you just won't even believe they got them a CEMENT pond over yonder!"
This was the most misleading review I have ever come across. I think the reviewer must have a grudge with Aliph. I own an Icon and if there's a problem it's that when I'm not actually speaking people on the other end ask if I'm still there because the noise canceling works so well. I've also had none of the problems mentioned and recharging takes at mist two hours.
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