Unless they have changed the design of the Jawbone since my purchase, there *is* a blue blinky light that blinks on standby, as well as a red one that blinks during the pairing process....

Aw, come on. Who doesn't want to look like Lt. Uhura? She's always in the back of my mind when I wear my BT headset. Anyway, I don't like wires dangling when I'm trying to drive, which is why I bought the thing in the first place. (Some sort of headset will be required in CA starting next summer.)

I've seen so many types of people wear BT headsets -- not just guys in suits -- that I really didn't realize that there was a stigma about them. Oh well. Stigma, schmigma, I'm still wearing mine.

Thanks for the very interesting article and FINALLY a tech columnist admitting that the use of BT headsets induces violence!! I consider myself a perfectly rational peace loving person who isn't prone to acts of violence in any way. But the moment I see a person with a BT headset and they're blathering loudly about "we've got to get the specs to St. Louis next Tuesday for the upcoming conference" it just make me want to punch the person in the face. I have no idea why. But now thanks to your article, I think I understand my negative reaction.

You're right -- there is a small blinky light. I corrected the article.

And when I saw a picture someone took of me with it on, I thought, "What a douche." Of course, a lot of people think that about me whether I'm wearing a Bluetooth headset or not.

For all the same reasons the people shouting their conversations on their cells phone make me crazy. But add into the fact that you can't tell they are talking on the phone and you aren't sure who exactly they are shouting their life story at. Yep, they provoke feelings close to violence in me.

On the off-chance that you're not being rhetorical and you actually do want to know why people react badly to those...things...here's the thing. It's not the headset design or lack of that makes people react badly. It's the fact that the wearer is walking around having conversations to thin air in public places. This is considered either batshit insane or just plain rude by most people. Y'all look ridiculous, plain and simple, and you seem to forget one of the primary rules of public co-existence, which is that nobody wants to hear your phone conversations. We're not interested in your business transactions, or what your SO wants to watch tonight, or the details of your wife's latest operation.

Besides which, anyone talking on a headset just plain looks like a loony. Deal with it.

I talk in my BT the same way I talk in my cell, with a subdued voice, not shouting out loud like the whole cosmos has to hear me. It doesn't really matter if the loud-talker is on a BT headset or just the cell itself: it's still annoying.

I'm reminded of a "Weekend Update" joke from Saturday Night Live. It was sometime around 1992/1993.

A new study shows a possible link between use of cellular telephones and cancer. Congress is not expected to regulate the use of cell phones, because no one cares if cell phone users get cancer.

Of course, this was in the early '90s, when very few people had cell phones. Today, substitute bluetooth for cell phone and the attitude is the same.

I think the reason people find bluetoothers and cell phone talkers annoying is because we feel they are disconnected from us. That they don't care about the other people around them, and they would rather talk to someone on the phone than interact with the rest of the world in person. At least, that's how I feel. I feel that the cell phone talker is happily ignoring the rest of the world. It bothers me that someone could be that self-absorbed.

I've actually been complimented a couple of times on mine: the Bang & Olufsen Earset 2. It was a Valentine's Day gift and I had no idea how ridiculously expensive it was until I lost the carrying case, which doubles as the charge base, and had to contact the B&O store to get a replacement. I do feel a little like a Borg wearing it, but it *is* more comfortable than any other I've tried. Also the blinky light faces inside so no one can see it blinking while I'm wearing it...and it is kinda cool and design-y looking, compared to the clunky Motorola and the painful Jabra that preceded it...

I think I've figured out why I hate those things....the people who wear them remind me of the Borg.

Govinda

Walton OR

I have one that I use at home since dropping the landline. Never use it in public though, and would just as soon the stigma remains attached to them.

We are already living in a fairly "cocooned" society, which I understand being amongst the first generation with "don't talk to strangers" drilled into their brain. However, at least in much of the USA, people do still converse briefly with each other in public surroundings. Within an office, conversing is not only useful it is expected. If BT headsets are suddenly socially acceptable, not only do we have to decide if we should bother someone, and figure out what exactly we want to say, we have to figure out often in a few moments if they are conversing with someone wirelessly? I might not have an opinion on it, except that I work with someone who uses one at work sometimes, wears it in the ear that generally prevents it being seen, and as in any conversation is often listening rather than talking. As social animals many of us don't react well when the person we talk to either responds to someone other than us or raises a finger to signal we should stop speaking. At least a person talking into a cell phone is far more obvious.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. As more locales ban using the cell phone itself while driving and the costs continue to fall, BT headsets will become more common. Will we adapt new social habits to cope, as with cell phone themselves will many remain irritated with others who use them publicly even though they do the same, or will a design for the devices be found that helps?

I have a design in mind that would solve the whole "crazy person / are they on the phone" issue, but somehow don't see it being fashionable. Since people tend to be looking at our face when engaging us or noticing that we're talking to "air", a solution would be a stereo headset that rather than connecting at the back of the head connects with a band under the chin, on the forehead, or maybe on the tip of the nose. At the center of the band, or maybe the entire width of the band, would be one or many of those super-bright power-efficient LEDs. It shouldn't blink periodically when active, it should glow steadily. Then everyone will know for sure when you are on the phone.

No matter the style, whether or not we'll ever stop ridiculing people wearing them... Eyeglasses have been around for several centuries. Unless someone picks out awful frames most people think nothing of glasses, but there are some people who still feel a stigma about wearing them.