Sharp Tech: Jawbone ICON

Aliph, makers of the Jawbone Bluetooth, have gotten consistent praise for innovation with their quality ear gear, and with the ICON, their newest headset, Aliph seeks to continue this tradition with what they’re calling “the first truly intelligent” Bluetooth. Is it truly intelligent? Probably not, but hey, that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

It may not be a sentient being, but the product’s “intelligent” design is really more a reference to its impressive customizability. Let’s start with style. The unit retains the sleek design of past models, while actually managing to reduce its size. It comes in six different colours, each with their own unique design attributes. For example, the Hero model has a dimpled exterior where the Catch has a polished smooth appearance. Furthermore, each model has its own unique and programmable voice or “personality”. The “Hero,” for instance, sounds like a beefy sports star where as the “Thinker” sounds like a stuffy university professor. The ability to change the voice of your Bluetooth is a feature of Aliph’s new MyTalk applications. The ICON is designed to work with a number of mini-applications that can do anything from customizing the headset’s voice, to dialing using voice-activated shortcuts for important numbers.

All of these gimmicks and gadgets are great, but when assessing any Bluetooth, the ability to actually communicate is paramount. Fortunately, this is were the ICON excels most, sounding markedly better than it’s predecessor, the Prime, with voices come out crystal clear on both ends. Each headset also comes ready with Aliph’s patented “Noise Assassin” voice isolation technology, which, though still not perfected, does an excellent job of eliminating unwanted environmental noise. So, not only did they add a whole slew of new bells and whistles, Aliph’s ICON successfully managed to shrink in size while improving in sound quality. No easy feat to say the least, even for an “intelligent” headset.