Blueant Q2 headset and my Evo

[Cubfan]

First test of the T1 reveals that it has nearly all the features of the Q2 (don't notice anything significant missing), BUT...

1. Absolutely NO interferance from wifi. No stuttering, nothing. I drove through the parts of the neighborhood that would cause the Q2 to disconnect and reconnect, and my podcast played perfectly. The Jabra Extreme would stutter but keep playing.

2. Would have a big disconnect problem driving away from my home wifi on the Q2, and the Jabra Extreme would stutter for a few seconds. No problem with the T1.

3. The big test is walking from my car to the major wifi signal at work. The Jabra would stutter until it would settle into the strong signal, the Q2 would just fail and disconnect and wouldn't reconnect until I was in the building. The T1 worked flawlessly.

No testing yet on what people on the other end of the call think, and how well noise cancellation works in noisy places like my convertible, but looking promising for now!

 

[ericpd]

Well, a trip to Wrigley Field yesterday and received too many complaints about the sound from my Jabra Extreme for the people I called. Was at the last day of my return policy to Best Buy, so my search now moves to something else.

Was tempted to go with the Icon with the strong recommend by Eric and my brother who has one and really likes it. However, I'm giving the Blueant T1 a try because I liked the features of the Q2 but couldn't get over the flakey connection. I've paired it, and listened to a bit of a podcast. It's good and loud and the sound is similar to the Q2, if not exactly the same to my ears... maybe a little more treble, which is good for voice communication.

It's charging now. We'll see later about disconnects and range. I can always take it back and go to the Icon.

Hey Cubfan, I found myself in almost the exact same environment last Thursday at Raven's Stadium (I refuse to refer to it as M&T Stadium), when we pounded New York. I was also interested finding out how I would sound while in a loud stadium. Everyone I called said they though I was either in my car or walking around somewhere, but not at Raven's Stadium. When Jawbone says Noise Assassination,... they damn well mean it. The only thing that got in my way was the wide back of the fat lady who sits in front of me every single season (think of Lewis Black while reading that). I swear, because of her, I hate my season ticket package. And she committed to wearing that same blue t-shirt that she no doubt believes is a purple jersey,... slug! If you don't believe me about this wide-body blue shirt wearing slug,... I've attached a few shots. Talk about a broad back right in your line of sight,... geez! I could barely see my cheerleader ladies. Just look at how she's spilling and oozing out of the seat and filling up the lens of my Evo. Same story every season,... and I paid top dollar for this inzone package. Three seasons is simply enough of this woman.

But I digress,... I had more trouble hearing the people I was talking to than the folks had hearing me. I now see why incoming audio quality is important,... and this is where the Q2 shines. I've been underestimating the value on incoming quality,... sorry guys.

All the shots were taken with the Evo. Didn't turn out as good as I'd hope an 8MP camera would deliver,... but hey it's a phone! I've been reading that the 5MP Epic does better.

Interesting choice,... the T1. I was under the impression the Q2 is more of an updated T1 and a new and improved Q1. I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of it.

Thanks for letting me vent!

 

[Cubfan]

I can safely say that the T1 is even louder than the Q2 I had, and no Bluetooth reception problems. I just called my brother while driving in my convertible with the top down at 70mph and he couldn't believe the quality. He accused me of lying (he has the icon). I think I've found my keeper.

Wow, she's a winner. I have Bears season tickets, but don't have losers like that in front of me... but I do have dumb and dumber sitting to my left.

 

[bclinger#IM]

My T1 has no interference problem. No stuttering. Clarity is an issue in a noisy environment for the other party and that's it. Connects very fast and just hates to recognize 'voice commands' or whatever every single times. There are times I have to press the dang button bunches of times before it recognizes a command. Would not get rid of it, but would not buy another one.

First test of the T1 reveals that it has nearly all the features of the Q2 (don't notice anything significant missing), BUT...

1. Absolutely NO interferance from wifi. No stuttering, nothing. I drove through the parts of the neighborhood that would cause the Q2 to disconnect and reconnect, and my podcast played perfectly. The Jabra Extreme would stutter but keep playing.

2. Would have a big disconnect problem driving away from my home wifi on the Q2, and the Jabra Extreme would stutter for a few seconds. No problem with the T1.

3. The big test is walking from my car to the major wifi signal at work. The Jabra would stutter until it would settle into the strong signal, the Q2 would just fail and disconnect and wouldn't reconnect until I was in the building. The T1 worked flawlessly.

No testing yet on what people on the other end of the call think, and how well noise cancellation works in noisy places like my convertible, but looking promising for now!

 

[ericpd]

I can safely say that the T1 is even louder than the Q2 I had, and no Bluetooth reception problems. I just called my brother while driving in my convertible with the top down at 70mph and he couldn't believe the quality. He accused me of lying (he has the icon). I think I've found my keeper.

Wow, she's a winner. I have Bears season tickets, but don't have losers like that in front of me... but I do have dumb and dumber sitting to my left.

LOL! Nice!

You know just as I finished reading you post, I stopped over at NewEgg to look up the specs and reviews,... that T1 is way out in front of the Q1. And it's only 49 bucks. I'm thinking I might make this my spare. My buddy Ron bought one, and I had his Q2 on my ear for about 20 minutes the other day,... really wasn't that impressed beyond the audio quality. I have seen the T1 in stores but paid no attention to it, think I'll take another look tomorrow. Dumb and Dumber,... that's precious! LOL!

Here's a pic of Ron in his Ray Lewis Jersey, with his son and I guess, a girlfriend. He's likes his Q1 big time,... think he's gonna keep it. The second pic was taken with the Evo while talking with a another co-worker thru the Icon at the very moment the shot was taken. Way to go Evo! Sadly though, the Evo's shutter speed is quite slow,... not very good with motion. Haven't checked to see if it can be adjusted. Again,... it's a camera phone!

 

[ericpd]

Quick question Cubfan: Does your T1 work with the same BlueAnt app as the Q1 and Q2? Or is that app just for the Q family of devices? Thanks.

 

[Cubfan]

There's an app for the T1, actually. Just reads your text messages and a few tips.

 

[ericpd]

Ok,... so it's a dif app than that aimed at the Q2. Ok,... got it. I'm downtown now, and I think I'm about to follow your lead, but...

 

[Cubfan]

I keep meaning to give Vlingo a try now that it's free. Perhaps today is the day I'll try it. If only it could be configured to respond to the MFB on the bluetooth headset!

 

[Cubfan]

Just tried Vlingo, and it isn't as good as the Blueant app that reads my SMS messages. I know vlingo does other things, too... but I don't need it to read emails and such.

The best part about the T1 app is that it only reads messages if the bluetooth device is turned on. Safereader on Vlingo is on no matter what... and I don't want text messages read through the speaker of my phone if I forget to shut it off.

Best combination for me is Choice Dialer free and the Blueant T1 app. My next test is to try Choice Dialer Pro to see if it works even better. Don't get the best results from the free version.

 

[ericpd]

As I understand it,... you won't have the same problem I'm having with the Icon. BlueAnt has a much more robust approach to triggering voice command. On the Icon it just shoots a generic signal to fire up an app residing in the phone ONLY! That signal can only be redirected by whatever dial app you DL to the Icon via MyTalk. The default Icon dial app is pointed at Android's default voice dialer,... and that's it. Now you can DL a few other dial apps from Jawbone's MyTalk site, but the free ones are rather vanilla in features and the semi robust apps are subscriber based. Very restrictive if you ask me. BlueAnt puts more of the chores on their device allowing a bit more BlueAnt specific features. I like!

Yeah,... it gave the wife and I a slight scare when my Evo started talking thru the speaker in the middle of the night. Being in a stupor state, we momentarily thought someone unauthorized was in the house. When the wife gathered herselve, she screamed, "?Por favor que mierda fuera?" Oh,... I might not have mentioned, my wife is a hot head Panamanian. So to stay alive, I listen when she screams in Spanish. I turned off the Evo!

But Vlingo has some features you're gonna miss if you switch to CD Plus. Vlingo lets you dictate to FB and Twitter but speaking FB and Twits is a bit beyond SafeReader,... just TM's and Emails. Vlingo also comes with it's own keyboard that give voice command suggestions as you type. But I've been spoiled by Swype, so I didn't use it much.

What I like about Vlingo is that it gets deep into Google's search-n-mapping abilities. Speak a location or query into Vlingo and it'll take you to either Google's Navigation or Telenav. I used it the other night. Tapped the Vlingo widget, yelled "Call Sonic" into Vlingo's dialer, and a list of Sonics came up on the Evo's screen. A few more taps and Telenav was blurting out turn-by-turns to me through the Icon. Does the BlueAnt app partner up the T1 with the search-n-point strengths of Google? I really like Vlingo, just was expecting to fire it up without touching the phone. You have that option with Choice Dialer. Let us know your final impressions. I'm hoping to find the feature set I'm looking for in a free app.

 

[Cubfan]

Nothing I've found can fire up Vlingo without me touching the phone and unlocking it. Can't fire it up with the button on the headset. And there's no way to turn on voice reading by just firing up the headset. Both of these together meant I uninstalled.

I'm too scared to try to update FB with my voice. I could just see me saying "I love hotdogs" to be something much worse. No thanks. After the experience of texting "Amber" to my wife earlier this week, I'm done with that.

So, if I have to unlock and touch the phone, I'd rather use Google Voice Commands, which works well and is much better at firing up the navigation than Vlingo.

For Choice Dialer Free, I push my headset, say "voice commands" then say, "Call so-and-so" and it does quite well. I'm going to try the full version this weekend to see if it does better than the free version. It's only 4 or 5 bucks.

 

[Cubfan]

I must say that the Choice Dialer Plus ($4) is so much of an improvement over the free version that it's going to stay. WELL WORTH the small cost. Right up there with my favorite purchased apps... a short list that includes Smart Keyboard Pro, Radiotime, Tapatalk. Vignette, Act 1 Video Player, and Doggcatcher (all must-haves, IMO).

 

[wase4711]

does choice dialer plus come up when you push the button on your Blueant headset, or do you have to start it by touching the phone somewhere, or do you have to say "voice commands" to get it started when using a Blueant headset?

thanks

 

[Cubfan]

For most headsets, it comes up with the button... for Blueant, you have to say "voice commands" or "phone commands" or simply "call." Works perfectly.

 

[ericpd]

Just to let you guys know,... I went ahead and purchased a Q2 late last night/early this morning. Started out with all intentions of landing on a T1 like Cubfan, but something happened on the way,... don't know what it was. It just happened. Anyway, I ended up pounding the Enter Key on a refurb unit off of Frys.com,... free shipping. Got 14 days to return it,... but hey, I'm having real good luck with the OEM Icon The Eggs sent me. So I figure,... what da hell! Unlike The Egg, the Q2 from Frys.com comes with BlueAnts full 2 year manufacturer's warranty. So for a little over $110.00, I'll end up with the Icon and the Q2,... just about what you early Q2 adopters sank into the Q2 alone. Oh yeah,... a long prayer comes with the $110. A prayer that whoever returned it did so out of buyer's remorse and not because of a major defect. I mean C'mon,... how many of us honestly believe that these devices have been torn apart, rebuilt, then sent back out again. After all I've been reading, "Open Box" is a more accurate description, and the one these vendors should be using. Refurbished is a bit mis-leading if you ask me. Anyway,... I got my fingers crossed. My expectations? Well, to first have a backup, but I expect the Q2 to be behind the Icon when it comes to Noise Management, but way out in front when it comes to features and flexibility.

Cubfan,... how's that T1 workin' out? And, tapatalk,... isn't that the same basic app and thread engine used by XDA? Judging from the screen shots, I'm thinking it is. I use the XDA app and it's not bad at all. I wish this forum would issue an app for Android, it has for the iPhone I think.

BTW,... I could use a little help with all this prayin' I gotta do!

 

[wase4711]

For most headsets, it comes up with the button... for Blueant, you have to say "voice commands" or "phone commands" or simply "call." Works perfectly.

can you vlingo and Choice dialer plus installed at the same time, or should vlingo come off? I like having my text messages automatically read to me, but I am curious as to if Choice dialer plus will work better than Vlingo for voice dialing, and, being able to recognize commands better than the stock Android BT dialer

 

[Cubfan]

I don't use Vlingo. Never made it more than an hour on my device after several tries with it. For reading text messages, I found Drivesafe.ly much better, because it would turn itself on when your bluetooth headset is connected. Of course the Blueant T1 app works even better.

Yes, both can be used together. No problem.

 

[Cubfan]

Cubfan,... how's that T1 workin' out? And, tapatalk,... isn't that the same basic app and thread engine used by XDA? Judging from the screen shots, I'm thinking it is. I use the XDA app and it's not bad at all. I wish this forum would issue an app for Android, it has for the iPhone I think.

I'm sticking with the T1. First reason is that I got it at Best Buy using gift cards. Ha! Second reason is that it just works flawlessly. No reception problems or cutouts, and is comfortable... more so than any I've used so far.

Not aware of the XDA forum app. I'll look it over, but I've already paid for Tapatalk. So, oh well...

Good luck with the Q2. I promise not to say I told you so if/when you see the issues I saw.

 

[ericpd]

can you vlingo and Choice dialer plus installed at the same time, or should vlingo come off? I like having my text messages automatically read to me, but I am curious as to if Choice dialer plus will work better than Vlingo for voice dialing, and, being able to recognize commands better than the stock Android BT dialer

Hey Wase,... when I first started experimenting with these two, my experience was that they do step on each other from time to time. A few comments in other threads over a SU and XDA comfirmed this for me. Here's one example I remember well, the normal path Vlingo uses to get you to either Google Navigation or Telemav is interrupted when CD is loaded. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting turn-by-turns any more after speaking a location or business. Took Un-installed CD, and Vlingo resumed getting me to the nav apps.

As for one working better with voice dailing, they both use Googles engine. CD however has an option in its settings menu which allows you to select the level of confidence before acting on one of your commands without comformation. That was nice to see. Vlingo's settings are rather bland compared to CD's. CD lets you get a little deeper into the apps behavior. Me likes!

You two keep talkin' while I look under the sofa cushions for 16 quarters!