April 24, 2009 Aliph has announced the latest addition to its sleek Jawbone line of Bluetooth headsets - the Jawbone PRIME. The new unit gets enhanced "NoiseAssassin" suppression technology compared with previous generations, delivering 6 to 9dB of improvement when holding conversations in noisy environments. Attention has also been paid to optimizing the headset's performance in windy conditions, with Digital Signal Processing techniques applied to reconstruct distorted low-end speech frequencies in winds up to 10 mph. In a market segment where aesthetics plays almost as big a role as functionality, Jawbone PRIME also ushers in a new range of colors and several earbud options designed to deliver a better fit.
For optimum performance, the NoiseAssassin 2.0 technology relies on a Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) which sits against the face and detects when the user is talking. As a back-up, the PRIME also includes an Acoustic Voice Activity Detector (AVAD) to enable the noise suppression technology to work, though not as effectively, in the event that the VAS isn't touching the face.
The 10 gram headset has a range of "at least" 33ft (10m), includes Multipoint functionality which enables it to be connected to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously and supports Bluetooth 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 2.1 + EDR. Talk time is slated at up to 4.5 hours with standby time of more than 8 days, while a 100% charge will take less than one hour.
The customization options consist of three round earbuds, three new Fit Earbuds and an optional earloop and the four new EARCANDY colors - red, yellow, green and lilac - join the matte black, satin brown and platinum.
The Jawbone PRIME hits shelves on May 2 for USD$129.99.