Tonight was one of those “WOW” nights where you just get to play with new technology and see what’s about to hit the retailers.  There is nothing like getting your hands on a really cool gadget and seeing how it could fit into everyday life.  One of the new gadgets that I saw at an HP training event tonight is HP’s new DreamScreen which offers a high resolution 16:9 screen.  Coming in 2 sizes, one sports a 10.2” screen while the other has a larger 13.3” screen.  So what does this little guy do?  Well, for starters, it can access web apps such as Snapfish, Facebook, Pandora, and more.  But of course there’s more, it can also access local weather, be a calendar, stream music, and play videos!  Did I mention it can also be an alarm clock?

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As announced earlier, the new Motorola H17 Flip Bluetooth Headset arrived here at JAMM, and I have had the opportunity to test it out for the last two weeks.

Motorola H17 Flip Bluetooth Headset

Overview

Once you take the headset out of its package, you will be pleasantly impressed by its size, which Motorola claims it is the smallest and lightest in its class. Moreover, I found it to be a classical-sexy device, in its black suit.

The main feature of this headset is the flip, which is a Motorola distinguishing feature seen before only on the Motorola Motopure H15, shown below for comparison.

Motorola Motopure H15 Flip Bluetooth Headset

Design comparison with the previous H15 starts and stops here, due to the different proportion of the H17 and of the lack of silver parts, which I liked.

Once you open the package you will find the headset, the power charger and multiple ear buds and hooks with rubber rings, in order to find the one that fits best for you. In my case (big ears!!) the one already mounted on the device fit very nicely.  I was able to wear it from 8:00 am until I took it off at 7:00 pm. I also used glasses with it, with minor annoyances. I tried the ear buds, but I ended using the hook, because I am (and always have been) paranoid about losing the headset.

The mounted hook is slightly more refined, giving you the ability to turn it for both left and right ear wearing. This is not possible with the additional hooks, which you have to unmount and mount again in order to change your ear. Obviously, this is not a problem at all.

Motorola H17 accessories: extra hooks and ear buds are in the package to find the one that fits best

Motorola H17 headset and its charger

The charger plug seems a standard micro USB, and allows you to fully charge your device in 1-1.5 hour.

Buttons

The headset has a rocker style silver button to increase and decrease volume. In the middle of the rocker a light will change its color to indicate a different headset status. An easy to use black button on the side of the headset allows to answer and drop calls, as well as to call the last contact of the call registry.

There is no button to switch on and off the device, and this should be no surprise, given that this is a flip headset. The power function is assigned to the flip which is something I really like!! Why? Just because it’s so damn simple to switch on and off and that frees you from another button on the headset and you don’t have to learn any special button combos. I like it. Period.

Using The Headset

When your phone rings just open the flip to answer a call on the fly, with no additional effort (just close it to end the call). This is what is called RapidConnect. In principle, once the H17 is paired to your phone,  you can leave the device off and answer an incoming call simply by opening the flip. In this way you will switch on the headset and answer in one move. However, I found it to be a bit strange to use the flip to answer a call.  In order to open it, I had to lift it away from my cheek, find the flip, and open it. Leaving the flip open and pushing the easy to find answer button was really more straightforward.

Motorola H17 side view, flip closed

Motorola H17 side view, flip open

Motorola H17 upper view, flip closed

H17 upper view, flip open

Voice Prompts

The headset also includes voice prompts, which proved to be very helpful at the beginning and have allowed me to take the full advantage from the headset. The first time you switch on the device (i.e. the first time you open the flip) a voice says:

• Ready to pair. Go to Bluetooth menu on phone to complete pairing. Enter 0000 if required.

This will  start the Bluetooth pairing procedure  with your phone.  The H17 will be ready to be used in seconds. This worked flawlessly for me and my Palm Centro.

Once paired, the next time you will open the flip you will be informed on the H17 battery and connection status:

• Battery level is high. Phone 1 connected.

Other voice messages will inform you on what’s going on with the headset:

• Phone call on phone 1
• Phone 1 connected
• Phone 1 disconnected
• Headset not connected

while a simple sound will notify you of signal drops due to poor coverage.

If you pair your H17 with two phones, the voice prompts will come handy. The headset will identify the different phones as “Phone 1″ and “Phone 2″, and the messages will be personalized with the additional phone information, as in “Phone call on phone 2″.

If you do not feel comfortable with voice prompts, the headset allows you to disable them, by pressing together volume up and volume down until you hear “Voice prompts off”. To activate them back, follow the same procedure until you hear “Voice prompts on”.

Call Quality

The H17 sports noise reduction, thanks to Motorola’s CrystalTalk dual-mic technology. This means that it should be able to make calls clear even in noisy environments.

I made several calls in different environments, from a quiet room to a car with a high volume stereo. In every case, no complaints were made from the other side of the call, and I have none either.

Battery

Motorola claims the H17 offers up to 5 hours of talk time and a standby time of up to seven days, with a quick-charge feature that will take 15 minutes to charge it up for 2 hours of talk time.

During the review, the headset was left switched on (flip open) at night, in order to check its standby time. After 90 hours of standby and approximately 1 hour of calls, the headset was still working, with the “Battery level is low” prompt.

Conclusions

I am more keen on stereo Bluetooth headset (I own myself the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970) and I have never been satisfied by mono headsets.

However, this one made me reconsider that choice.  Today, after I returned the unit Motorola loaned me, I found I was missed using it. I am seriuosly thinking I may give Motorola my $79.99 to keep the H17 with me at all times.

Pros: clean button arrangement thank to flip, voice prompts, RapidConnect to save battery, spare ear buds and hooks to fit your ear

Cons: flip action not suitable during wearing

I have to admit that I have never been a fan of Verizon.  When I subscribed to their service, it was just one problem after another for me…and don’t get me started on the “Can you hear me now…” ad campaign.  But tonight, while watching the baseball game, I have seen a couple of ads which just knocked my socks off.

The first is a direct attack on Apple’s, “There’s an app for that” ad campaign.  This commercial parodies Apple’s famous tagline with the line, “There’s a map for that,” as the image compares Verizon’s 3G coverage map with AT&T’s.  Absolutely brilliant marketing (are you listening, Microsoft?)

Hot on the heels of this one, though, is another clever assault on Apple’s iPhone, as Verizon follows up on their recent deal with Google, unleashing their Droid phones.  This clever campaign introduces the new phones while highlighting all the features the iPhone does not include (including multitasking).  No word yet on exactly what droid will look like, but we can tell you this much:

• It is coming soon
• It runs Android 2.0
• It has a 5.0 megapixel camera
• It has over 10,000 apps (including navigation, music, video, and more)
• It does multi-tasking

Check out the Droid website for more (though really not a whole lot more).  Apparently, the site is counting down to October 30, which is not too far away.  So, you can expect to see more information soon.  We’ll keep you posted on Verizon’s Droid as more information becomes available (and who knows, one of us might even be able to get our hands on one soon).

I think it is great to see someone directly taking on the behemoth that is the iPhone.  These ads really highlight Apple’s and AT&T’s vulnerabilities (and they do have vulnerabilities).  Of course, whether the Droid will actually take on the iPhone remains to be seen…but it is great to see someone trying this hard.

Until recently, for an iPhone app in the iTunes App Store to allow in-app purchases of content, the application itself had to be for sale.  Earlier this week, Apple reversed course on this and started allowing free applications to offer in-app content purchases.  Following on the heels of this announcement, comiXology has switched their Comics application’s price to free.  The free version of Comics includes over 60 free comics, along with their exclusive series Box 13.  Additional comics can be purchased directly through the application.

You can find out more about Comics by comiXology here.

The Boy Genius Report has come through again with a most magnificent post that tickles our fancies in two ways… one for the Android lover that exists (or is at least building) in all of us… and the other for those who claim that Verizon STILL has the worst smartphones out there.

They’ve just posted a fairly incredible Android 2.0 screenshot walkthrough that goes into great detail about all new features and capabilities for the new Eclair version of Android… and don’t think that we didn’t notice that it was on a Verizon phone, probably the Motorola Sholes/Tao/Droid/Whatchamacallit… can’t wait to hear more about the actual hardware as they hint at the end.

Enjoy!