Bluetooth doyens Aliph have launched the third generation of their Jawbone bluetooth headset.

The sleek and discreet Jawbone Prime features refined ‘NoiseAssassin’ technology and comes in a variety of natty ‘earcandy’ colours as well as more sedate business colours.

Its ‘NoiseAssassin’ technology, developed initially with the military, and then refined by Aliph’s own in-house team of bods, works by comparing an audio signal to the vibration coming from the Voice Activity Sensor which rest on the user’s cheek, and banishes everything else. Apparently giving the user five times better call clarity with nine decibels more sound suppression than Jawbone 2.

The new headset can pair with up to eight devices and its multipoint feature allows it to connect to two devices simultaneously. And if the Prime works with Skype, as the previous headsets did, fielding calls from your phone or VoIP service of choice will be no bother.

The Prime will give you up to four and a half hours of talk time with a full charge taking less than an hour.

But at £89 and with only limited defence against microphone technology’s arch nemesis, the pesky wind, you’re going to have to be pretty serious about your need for hands-free to invest in one of these.

The Jawbone is doubtless an impressive product but can it do what countless bluetooth headsets have tried and failed to do? Make the headset socially acceptable? Beyond the legions of mini-cab drivers and hooded nerdowells who have so warmly embraced the technology.

Well they’re trying. If you watch closely you’ll see the Jawbone worn in American prime-time series from 24 to Gossip Girl and Heroes. And maybe that’ll help. Maybe then we’ll feel it’s okay to don a Jawbone in polite company. Or maybe we’ll wear them in our bedrooms and pretend we’re super-villains. Either would be a step forward.

The Jawbone Prime will be available from Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores from 1 June and for pre-order at jawbone.comtarget=”_blank”, look out for a full review in the days to come.