That's why we've been testing wireless cell phone headsets, such as the Jabra Freespeak Bluetooth headset, the Siemens PTT Bluetooth HHB-500, and the Plantronics M3000, which connect to the increasing number of phones available with integrated Bluetooth wireless technology.

CTIA 2004, the big cell phone show in Atlanta this year, served up several new wireless Bluetooth headsets that promise a number of improvements, including a significant increase in talk time.

For example, take the Logitech Mobile Bluetooth Headset, slated to hit stores in April at a suggested retail price of $99.95. Although we haven't confirmed it with our own tests, Logitech claims the headset provides up to seven hours of talk time. That's one of the main reasons we picked the Logitech Mobile Bluetooth Headset as one of the five "cream of the crop" selections for our overall CTIA show coverage this year.

Logitech, a company with a knack for creating stylish mice, keyboards, and other peripherals, has also designed its Mobile Bluetooth Headset with a novel ear clip that allows you to put it on a little more quickly than some of the earlier wireless Bluetooth headsets we've tried.

We also got a glimpse at a new model from Plantronics: the M2500 Bluetooth headset, scheduled to appear in stores this summer for a suggested price of $89.95. We paid particular attention to it because Plantronics has long specialized in creating headsets widely used for regular office and home phones. While compact and fairly unobtrusive, the M2500 also packs, the company claims, up to five hours of talk time.

Cell phone maker Sony Ericsson has been far more aggressive than other handset manufacturers in equipping its line of phones with Bluetooth. We liked the Akono HBH-600 headset, which comes with five different colored changeable covers and will cost between $100 and $150. The company says an upgrade, due in the second quarter of this year, will increase talk time to four hours.

Compared to wired headsets, wireless Bluetooth headsets tend to be expensive. For that much money, it'd be great if you could use the headset with, say, your office phone, where wires get in the way and keep you tethered to your desk. That's why the DuoLink GN 6110 ($299) from GN Netcom caught our eye. Up until now, wireless Bluetooth headsets were capable of pairing up with only a single phone at any one time. But GN Netcom has developed new software that allows its DuoLink headset to concurrently connect to a cell phone and a desk phone. When the phone rings--whether it's your mobile or your desk phone--simply touch a button on the headset and you're connected, or so GN says.

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CNET editor in chief Patrick Houston loves his Sony Ericsson T616.