Portable Bluetooth

I’m a good daughter. I call my mom almost every single day. It was important when I moved that we found a way to maintain the closeness in our relationship.

That means I wake her up at about 7:00am her time nearly every morning so that I can talk to her on my drive to work.

Because I’m a good daughter.

I am also, I have been told, a terrible driver.  I tend to disagree with that assessment (despite evidence to the contrary), but I do try to limit my distractions while driving to smoking, listening to music and pondering the meaning of life.

I tell you all that to tell you that I almost always use some type of bluetooth device while driving.  Because I am nothing if not succinct.

I’ve been using a Motorola Bluetooth Headset ever since my husband got it for Christmas a couple years ago.  It pairs easily with my phone and the sound quality is fine.  It does what it’s supposed to do.  I’d been asked to try other bluetooth headset models recently and have found that the Motorola was still my favorite.

A representative from Parrot.com contacted me recently and asked me to review their portable Bluetooth hands free kit.

My first thought was what the hell is a portable Bluetooth hands free kit?

I’d only ever used the headset version before.  You know, the little thing that sticks in your ear that makes people think you’re talking to yourself.  I didn’t even know portable Bluetooth hands free kits existed.

And yet, it seems, they do.

But what the hell are they?

It’s like a garage door opener that you stick on your car’s visor.  Except it doesn’t open your garage door or your neighbor’s garage door.  Instead, it connects to your cell phone and turns into a speaker/microphone thing.

I don’t know why companies don’t ask me to name their new products for them.  Clearly, I have a gift.

ANYway – so, I agreed to try this portable Bluetooth hands free kit thing out, but I was skeptical because the last Bluetooth headset I’d been sent was pretty crappy.  And nothing about the Parrot.com website screamed “WE ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN MOTOROLA!”

It arrived in the mail, I unpacked it from the box, and stuck it on my visor.

There were two buttons and a knob.  I pressed some buttons.

A woman’s voice said, “who do you want to call?” and the kids and I squeed like idiots.

“Uh… call Adam,” I told her.

“Adam Home… Adam Cellular… Adam -”

“Call Adam’s Cell Phone,” I clarified.

And she did.

Adam answered and I explained that I didn’t need anything but to hear his voice over my totally awesome new toy.  He said something about being able to hear me really well despite the fact that I had the windows rolled down in the car – which is usually a problem when I’m on my Motorola headset.  Adam hung up and the bluetooth thingie beeped at me.

I pushed some more buttons.

“Redialing last call,” the disembodied woman said.

“Shit! Wait! No!” I frantically pushed more buttons while my children giggled in the backseat.

“Who do you want to call?” she finally asked after a series of button pushing that I knew I’d never be able to replicate.

“Call Jared,” I told her.

“Calling Jeremy,” she said.

“Shit! Wait! No!”  I pushed more buttons until I heard the now familiar disconnection beep.

After three failed attempts to call my husband that resulted in me calling my brother in law at 7:00am, I gave up on the voice activated dialing.  I started pushing the dial and it said “Phonebook” and then “A” and then “J” and then, finally “Jared”.  I pushed some more buttons and finally managed to make a call to my husband.

He, too, commented on how clearly he could hear me.

A few days later, I tried to show off my new awesome toy to my friend Hilly.

I pushed the red and green buttons repeatedly until I finally got the voice call prompt.  I told her to “Call Jared”.

She proceed to call Jeremy.  And then Janet.  And then Terry.  And Tina.  And Janet again – except the last time I wasn’t sure who she’d called until a woman who was Janet and not Jared answered the phone.

Hilly was not impressed.

“Can’t you just use your phone to dial?” she asked.

I was not impressed with her suggestion and resolved to never call my husband again.

Several days later, I decided to read the 7 page owner’s manual.  Two minutes later, I figured out to press the red button to turn on the device and the green button to make a call.  And the red button once if I accidentally call the wrong person.

And?

To say “Ja. ReD.” to call my husband.

Turns out, the owner’s manual is kind of a big deal. And really easy reading.  And – well – this thing is stupidly easy to use if you actually read the instructions.

Why does no one ever tell you this stuff?

The final verdict on Parrot’s Minikit Chic Bluetooth Portable Handset thing is that I gave my husband back his Christmas present.  I’ll be using the MiniKit from now on.

You can buy your own MiniKit on the Parrot website here.

OR you can buy a Minikit Chic Portable Bluetooth on Amazon for about $25 less. (Why do companies do that??)

OR you can enter to win a FREE one from Parrot by leaving a comment on this entry before midnight on Thursday August 19th.

Because that’s how much I love you.

Posted in Things That Are Female Tech Geeky Tagged: amazon, bluetooth hands free kit, bluetooth hands free kits, cell phone, motorola bluetooth, parrot, portable, portable bluetooth