The Jawbone is a line of Bluetooth mobile phone headsets produced by Aliph, a privately held San Francisco-based consumer technology company founded by Alex Asseily and Hosain Rahman.[1] Since the introduction of the line in December 2006, it has been widely regarded as one of the best Bluetooth headsets available.[2][3][4][5][6] The current model in the line is the Jawbone Era, which, like other models, sports a skin contact microphone that comes in contact with the wearer's face and gives the line its name. A defining feature of the Jawbone line is the integration of Aliph's NoiseAssassin adaptive signal processing technology, which was originally developed for DARPA to reduce communication background noise in military environments.[7]
The original Jawbone headset was designed by Yves Behar of fuseproject[8] for which it received significant attention, even being shown in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as part of an industrial design exhibit.[7] Both its design and technological innovations were recognized by the Consumer Electronics Show in 2007 when it won an Innovations Design and Engineering Award.[3]
In May 2008, Aliph launched an updated version of the headset called the "New" Jawbone, but often referred to as Jawbone 2, which was again designed by Yves Behar.[2] In addition to a 50% smaller form-factor, this model also incorporated a faster processor for better digital signal processing by the NoiseAssassin technology and a voice activity sensor to further mitigate interference from environmental noise.[9] The Jawbone 2 continued to receive high praise, including winning the 2008 Readers' Choice Engadget Awards in the "Wearable Device of the Year" category.[10] The growing popularity of the headset can be partially attributed to a marketing campaign in which Aliph offered a US$20 discount to drivers that were cited in California for using a mobile phone while driving.[11]
The following year, Aliph again launched an update to the Jawbone line, calling this model the Jawbone Prime.[12] For this model, a new version of the company's audio processing technology, NoiseAssassin 2.0, was incorporated into the design, as well as an upgrade to Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and support for multiple devices. The overall form factor of the device received only minor adjustments for an improved fit, but the line was expanded to include 3 standard colors and 4 additional colors offered by the "EARCANDY" sub-models.[13][14]
In January 2010, the line saw another refresh with the release of the Jawbone Icon (Jawbone 4). This version featured a completely redesigned form-factor which shortened the overall length of the body while widening it slightly. The Jawbone Icon is available in 6 different styles (exterior casings). The status indicator was moved to the inside of the headset and a physical on-off switch was added.[15] The NoiseAssassin noise canceling algorithms were also updated to V2.5. Unlike any other Bluetooth headset on the market, the Jawbone Icon incorporates a new software platform that allows users to synchronize applications with the earpiece via Aliph's new MyTalk website.[16] Aliph continued to receive accolades for this model, with Wired News calling it "the best thought-out product [they] saw at CES this year" (2010).[17]
On January 20, 2011, the Jawbone Era headset was released. The headset was the first bluetooth headset to contain an accelerometer sensor. MotionX technology allows the Era to be controlled by gestures such as TapTap and ShakeShake. Other improvements include a 25% larger speaker than the previous Jawbone Icon, improved noise reduction, and longer talk time.[18]
As of Sept, 2011, the newest Jawbone model Icon HD was released boasting a 25% increased speaker size and true HD audio. This new model includes a small adapter called "the nerd" which plugs into a pc or several mobile devices to pair with the Icon HD for a2d2 bluetooth connection essentially allowing a user to speak on skype or any other audio application while at the same time remaining connected to their mobile phone and switching between the two. The Icon HD is not currently sold without "the nerd" which increases the price for those that have no use for "the nerd" but still want the improved speaker and audio quality.