All Headset, All The Time

I have to report total delight with my new Plantronics 590A headset (which I have been told is discontinued). I've been using it for two full weeks now - still on its first full battery charge - and with my Blackberry 8330 AND a new home office phone I bought for it that works with Bluetooth.

Everything works as advertised, but like I said in the first post on this topic, the real magic comes from having stereo sound on a regular-old-phone-call. The clarity with which I can hear and understand the other party is unmatched by any single-ear solution. So my experience has bewildered me further about why these binaural headsets aren't more popular.

Working with the included universal adapater attached to my iPod, I can listen to music and when the Blackberry rings, the headset beeps to let me know. Pressing the headset's call-answer button, er, answers the call. The iPod keeps playing (it can't pause the iPod).

The new office phone (Vtech Model LS5145) is a bit kludgey, and has no jack for a wired headset. If it didn't work with the Bluetooth headset I'd never own it. But mated with the Platronics, it is a news reporter's dream (or anyone's dream who spends hours on the phone every day). I paid a few dollars less for the phone than the Amazon price at the other end of that link, at a Best Buy RL store.

The picture above shows the whole setup on my desk - the weird-looking unergonomic Vtech, the Plantronics headset with the clear voice tube and the Blackberry. Oh, and the empty half bottle of Presecco that's been there for months to remind me to order up another!