Determining whether someone speaking into the air is on the phone or just a little odd is becoming harder. Motorola’s H9 Miniblue headset, for use with cellphones equipped with Bluetooth wireless technology, is so small that it resembles a large hearing aid, with everything fitting inside the ear. It lacks the little boom microphone jutting mouthward that many Bluetooth headsets have, and it more easily hides under hair.
The H9, which just started arriving at stores and costs $149, goes directly into the ear canal, so the caller’s voice is channeled right into the user’s head, as with high-end stereo earphones. Three differently sized tips are included for a soundproof seal.
Unlike police SWAT team communicators that pick up voice through the ear canal, your words still have to travel all the way around the face to the device. This may yield more extraneous sound, so noise cancellation is cooked into the little package. The size means the H9 can hold enough charge for only 1.5 hours of talk. If you take it out now and then and put it into the mobile power dock, its life can extend to 7.5 hours. MARTY KATZ at
www.nytimes.com
