blueant

LAS VEGAS -- BlueAnt has partnered with Vlingo to come up with a new BlueAnt app that will let BlueAnt owners use their headset or speakerphone for voice commands like voice search, voice dialing, replying to texts and emails, updating Facebook or Twitter, and even leaving yourself "note to self" messages via voice to text. You can launch certain apps with your voice as well. Feature availability depends on the platform, as the app will be available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. The app will support English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian at launch in Q1 2011.

LAS VEGAS--Shocker. BlueAnt is branching out from its wireless Bluetooth roots and going, well, wired.

The company's officially unveiled a new premium stereo "headset" that's really a set of stylishly designed over-ear headphones that include an integrated mic and controls for the iPhone that allow you to make hands-free calls and play, pause, and track-forward audio selections.

The new BlueAnt stereo headset, which seems to have drawn some inspiration from B&W's P5 headphones, folds flat and comes with an extended-length (69 inch) stereo audio cable, a 3.5mm-to-6.3mm adapter, and a protective … Read more

We liked the BlueAnt Q1, as well as the more recent T1, but it seems BlueAnt isn't content to stop there. It just introduced the BlueAnt Q2, which promises to have even better sound quality than before.

Like the other BlueAnt headsets, the Q2 has an excellent voice control interface, an integrated text-to-speech feature that will announce incoming caller names if they're in your phone book, wind resistance of up to 22 mph, integration with BING 411, A2DP audio, and multipoint connectivity. Interestingly, the Q2 is also compatible with a free Android app that'll read out SMS … Read more

As more and more U.S. states enact hands-free mobile phone laws (we're at six so far, mostly in the Northeast), it's not a bad idea to buy a Bluetooth accessory for your phone.

I've never been a fan of Bluetooth headsets--though they're great for conference calls while telecommuting, I'm not a big walk-and-talk guy--but I've always thought car speakers were a different story.

On Monday, BlueAnt introduced the S4, which it calls the "first true hands-free, voice-controlled Bluetooth car speakerphone." At first glance, the claim seems silly--the point of a car … Read more

Darrell Huff, a 51-year-old automotive technician from Centreville, Md., wanted his quadriplegic son, Joshua, to be able to make calls on a cell phone. Unfortunately, all cell phones require button pushes, so Huff quickly thought of Bluetooth headsets as a solution.

He was especially intrigued by the BlueAnt V1, which has a unique voice-control interface that lets you make and answer calls with voice alone--there's even a voice-guided tutorial if you need some guidance. (The V1 is the predecessor to BlueAnt's more recent BlueAnt Q1).

But even the BlueAnt V1 wasn't 100 percent hands-free; you still needed to press the button to activate it. So Huff set out to find a way to activate the switch without the need for hands.

"I tried different things," Huff said. "It occurred to me a mercury switch might work, but my research soon showed that mercury is all but banned in the U.S. and I also began to worry about the user's perception... I tried using a roller ball-type tilt switch, but it is difficult to find one small enough and my experiments showed the connection with this type of switch was erratic."

After a lot of trial and error, Huff finally decided to use a magnetic switch.

"I opened the headset and replaced the push button switch with a magnetically controlled switch," Huff explained. "The modified version of the headset has a switch that is closed when in the presence of a magnetic field. So when the headset is not near a magnet, the switch is open...If you move the headset near a magnet, then the switch closes--this is like pushing the button."

In case you need to push and hold the button, you would just keep the headset near the magnet for a few more seconds. Huff is careful to note that the switch itself is not magnetized; it just responds to a magnetic field.

Now all Huff had to do was mount a magnet so his son could move his head conveniently to activate the headset. He created one that is on the end of a 29-inch long and flexible rod that can be mounted to a wheelchair. At last, Huff had created a genuinely "hands-free" Bluetooth headset. … Read more

BlueAnt is no stranger to Bluetooth speakerphones. The BlueAnt Supertooth 3 and the Supertooth Light from years past were favorably reviewed, and for good reason. The Supertooth 3 especially impressed us due to its ability to translate text to speech, which meant it could read out incoming caller IDs to us.

The latest BlueAnt S1 is not quite so advanced (it is meant to be a lower-end and more affordable model), but it does add a couple of cool new features the others lacked. The S1 has multipoint technology, which means it can connect up to two devices simultaneously, and … Read more

BlueAnt introduced a new visor-mount speakerphone at CTIA 2009, called the BlueAnt S1. Designed to work in the car, it has pretty much the same features as the Supertooth 3, except it has support for A2DP. That means you can stream music wirelessly to it from a device that has stereo Bluetooth. It's not really meant as a stereo speaker system though, so don't expect it to replace your expensive car stereo.

Like the other BlueAnt devices, the S1 lets you use your voice to make and answer calls. It also has multipoint, which means it can connect … Read more

One of our favorite Bluetooth headsets for 2008 was the BlueAnt V1, the world's first voice-controlled Bluetooth headset. Well, BlueAnt is certainly not resting on its laurels. It just announced the BlueAnt Q1, a brand-new headset that combines the voice interface technology from the V1 with a stylish gunmetal design.

The new design promises to "virtually eliminate" wind and road noise, handling wind speeds up to 10 miles per hour. It also boasts dual microphone wind noise reduction, echo cancellation, and digital signal processing software for clearer voices. Other features include automatic pairing and reconnection to the … Read more

Since most people wearing Bluetooth headsets already look like they're talking to themselves, it won't seem that much odder when they start talking to their actual headsets.

They'll now be able to do that (and get something out of it) with BlueAnt Wireless' new V1. The device, which the company calls the first voice-controlled Bluetooth headset, lets users sidestep the buttons and instead control functionality with phrases like "pair me," "call home," "call favorite," "call Goog-411," and "accept or ignore call."

But this is no passive Bluetooth … Read more