Sony's bluetooth wireless earphones would be great if they worked with iPods
$150 for a pair of earphones is very expensive. For some, it may be even more than their MP3 player is worth, so it’s certainly a big purchase. The quality of Sony earphones is undoubted, however, and the Sony DR-BT140QP earphones have one big difference from most others.
There’s something quite attractive about wireless earphones. No-one really needs them – a wire going between your ear and your pocket isn’t a particular inconvenience, but to go without it would be a nice luxury. You could turn your head sharply without one falling out, you could reach for something in your pocket without accidentally pulling the lead out, and missing that one bit of the song you really like. Actually, you could even put your MP3 player in your bag, while continuing to listen. The Bluetooth range is 10m, so there are surely exciting possibilites I’ve yet to imagine.
It’s a surefire purchase for one group of people – long-haired goths who want to sneakily listen to Metallica whilst sitting at the back of science classes. These earphones are small enough that the teacher wouldn’t notice, and the kid will only get caught once he starts headbanging too obviously.
For the rest of us, it’s a tempting purchase. But be warned – despite Sony’s claim that they support most devices, they actually only work with devices with a A2DP bluetooth profile. So this excludes products made by Apple, which is rather unfortunate considering half the world has an iPod these days. They boast twelve hours’ playback time, and play, pause and stop buttons on the earphones. But no ‘skip’ button, presumably, which is a bit disappointing.
They come in black, pink or white. You probably can’t mix and match though.
(via CoolestGadgets)
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2 comments
I agree as above that the fault if any lies with the Apple set up .However the ipod adapter that came with my DR-BT21G kit that i bought seems to control volume and track change on my daughter’s ipod i tried it with .So don’t rule it out for ipod use.
Personally i have a Walkman Sony unit and bought the separate adapter/dongle that plugs into the socket of that and it works beautifully.It can also be paired to receive music streamed from most phones and even interrupts when calls come in and acts as a headset with its built-in mic.
All round a fantastic bit of kit and i see the future with all of us wearing some sort of version of these
1/ The lack of A2DP standard support on the iPhone/iPod is entirely Apples oversight, and not as you incinuate, Sonys; and *only* working with devices that support A2DP is actually compatability with the vast majority of handsets… since there is no other wireless standard for stereo audio broadcast in mobile devices as yet.
2/ The ‘skip’ functionality is a rocker built into the same play/pause/stop button on the right ear piece. A similar mechanism is likely in place for volume control as seen on prior Sony headsets along with a mic for handsfree calling.
3/ If these are, as they appear, similar to the DR-BT30Q’s they’ll feature a button that automatically winds the tethering cable connecting both earpieces together for convenient transport.
4/ The DR-BT21G’s offer a classic, collapsable frame, are cheaper, available in granite/black or white and unlike the featured model and the BT30Q’s distribute the weight evenly around the head and neck instead of hanging it all directly off of the ears which can become uncomfortable after a time.
Unless this new model is offering a newer version of the Bluetooth specification, I wouldn’t recommend paying the excess for what otherwise amounts to little more than a design change in the existing Sony range.
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