In honor of Jawbone releasing a new version, I thought that I’d finally post my thoughts on my favorite blue tooth headset ever.

As was noted last year by Christoph, I love my Jawbone Bluetooth Headset, it is quite possibly the best headset in the world! Seriously, it’s fantastic. The first time I tried it I was driving down the freeway with the AC on full and all of the windows rolled down. My wife couldn’t tell if I was in the car or not… “Have you left yet?”. Awesome. That’s a great headset.

Like most things, it could be better. Here is my list of 3 features that I would love to see in a future version of the Jawbone.

1. Real Volume Control. One of the “features” of the Jawbone is it’s simple form factor. For all of the functions (On / Off / Bluetooth Paring / Enable-Disable Noise suppression / Volume Up/Down) are completed with only 2 buttons. Well isn’t that special? Not really, it’s frustrating. There is no volume down control. That’s right. The volume “automatically” goes up if you are in a loud area and you can also manually turn the volume up as well. You turn the volume up by pushing the main button once. There are 6 levels up up, and then you cycle back around to the lowest volume. (like the way you would adjust a ceiling fan speed - without the pull chain). I happen to have pretty good hearing (for now) and more often than not I’m trying to turn that volume down - not up. It’s very frustrating.

2. Can you say “standard” mini-USB connection for charging? If I have to carry around just 1 more stupid cable for recharging one more thing I think that I’m going to puke (I’m talking to you Zune and iPod). Props to the Jawbone team for giving me a USB cable on one end, but come on! Would it be that hard to give me a standard cable on the other end?!
 

3. A better sound to turn you on. When you turn the Jawbone on you get a long beep in your ear (that kills my ear btw), and when you turn it off you get a short beep. Or maybe that’s backwards. I always forget which is which… which makes the whole beep pretty much useless. I’m no longer wearing my Jawbone when I turn it on/off. I hold it so that I can see the light flash (white = on; red = off).

The fine people over at Jawbone should go try out the Samsung WEP 410 Bluetooth headset (It would be my favorite headset.. if anyone could ever hear me on it.).

The Samsung has this nice rising chime when you turn it on, and a lowering chime when you turn it off. It’s elegant and obvious… and doesn’t hurt my ears to use it.

Ok. I think that’s it. Fix those three things, and the Jawbone will be truly perfect!

Now that I said all that, go check out the new Jawbone! It’s sleeker, lighter, and looks like a nicer ear piece (leather covered?).  That being said it still looks like a proprietary charger, minimal buttons… and probably the same turn on/off tones. Let me know if you’ve tried it!

Did I miss anything? What’s your favorite headset? Let me know in the comments!

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Improving… we’re getting better. Really we are.

Improving… not as bad as we used to be.

Improving… ’cause that’s how we role. yo.

Speaking of Improving: We are hiring! David O’Hara described what we are looking for:

"a pinch of architect, a splash of Castle, a little MVC goodness, a bunch of OO, and a good amount of humor. Viola!"

if that’s you, give us a call!

Improving… It’s what we do!

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Today I’ll be out at the Sabre Holdings Southlake, TX office for another Hack Day. It actually started yesterday at noon, and will not end until 1pm today. (24 hours of pure coding with whom ever and on what ever you want to hack out) I attended the last one and it was a lot of fun. This year, my friend and global Hack Day organizer extraordinair, Jay invite me to participate as a Judge! (I’ve heard that Giovanni Gallucci will be there as well!) This is a true honor and very exciting for me. I can’t wait to see all of the crazy hacks that come out of today!

From last year:

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This was referenced today on twitter. (I tried to go back and see who had referenced it, but alas… their twit was lost in the sea of ideas that is twitter. Here’s the crazy article referenced in the video.

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This week I’m in Seattle for the Microsoft Global MVP Summit. I’m having a great time up here meeting with the product teams and other MVPs from across the globe. Way too many incredible people to mention them all here.  It’s been fantastic and exhausting at the same time!

If you’re on twitter… you can follow along with the #mvp08 hashtags.

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(Looks good - Internet Explorer 7)

Then I opened it today in FireFox2

(Oh Noes! - FireFox2 - not so good on the eyes…)

Oh well… next I’ll have to go install FireFox3 and IE8.

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This is *very* exciting! I know that I talked about it the other day, but just to make things easier, here is one of the videos that I did for xTrain directly emended from Adobe.tv.

Direct Link

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This is actually from a while ago… but considering that I lived in Okinawa for 3 years in the 80’s… I couldn’t help but post this.

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Tuesday was the Official Microsoft Launch of Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 in Dallas. It was great. I got to hang out with many of my fellow MVP’s as well as people like Mark, Keith, Phil and Rachel (also Jason, Toi, Scott… and many more!) at the “ask the experts” table (which Microsoft *incorrectly* labeled the MVP - Microsoft Valued Partners booth - I guess even they have too many TLA’s!). I missed the Keynote, but I did get to see Chris Koenig present at another session on developing web applications with VS 2008 and he did a great job.

While walking through the halls I did run in to Keith Combs, a friend of mine from Microsoft - he presents all over the region at TechNet events. (think MSDN Event for MCSE’s - if that helps.) Keith has a very active blog and interviewed me for that. You can see the interview on Keith’s blog.

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xTrain is a super high quality, web based, training company focused on designers that I have created a “Developer Designer Zen” series with. Yesterday they launched a ton of content featured on Adobe’s new Adobe TV. Here’s a clip from the release:

“Adobe just announced Adobe TV and Adobe Media player today. Adobe TV is your on-line source for expert insight and inspiration. Feed your passion for Adobe products with insider tips, innovative techniques, and behind-the-scenes tours. Get to know Adobe personalities by tuning in to Russell Brown Photoshop Laboratory.”

I’m very excited to be a part of this launch and to be featured along side some of the best UX presenters and trainers in the industry! Here’s the “official” digg link

adobeTV | digg story

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