Perhaps one of the more unique companies attending the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show has to be YUBZ. While other designers are looking for ways to make our Bluetooth headsets smaller and more efficient, the guys at YUBZ decided to totally kick it old school by producing possibly one of the largest headsets you will ever find for your mobile phone.
YUBZ is clearly positioning itself in the marketplace as a premium fashion brand, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t pay attention to innovation. In addition to the flagship product that gets all of the attention, YUBZ also has a handful of other items that are quite noteworthy.
Kicking it Old School with YUBZ Talk
Is that a super stylized version of the telephone at your grandma’s house? Not exactly. What you see here is the YUBZ Talk, a headset that is designed to work in tandem with your mobile phone. Instead of pairing with something smaller like the Aliph Jawbone, you can physically connect your cell phone to this giant headset handset.
The YUBZ Talk is the same size as a conventional home telephone. The corded version helps to minimize brain-zapping radiation whereas the Bluetooth version is probably a little more convenient. Both can then be further accessorized using special hip-bound holsters. In addition to its less expensive solid color variants, YUBZ also has some premium versions of the YUBZ Talk that feature special artwork. These come at an added price, of course, bumping the MSRP into the $150 range.
Bluetooth Headset with Built-in Flash Drive
Moving for a moment away from the “fashion before function” school of thought, we see a concept product from YUBZ that actually appears to be quite useful and innovative. The Stix Bluetooth headset shown here may not look like anything particularly special on the surface, but it packs something quite unique under the hood.
Inside that slim body happens to be some flash memory. You can take the Bluetooth headset apart by simply sliding the earpiece portion away from the microphone boom. This reveals a USB connector, so what once appeared as the microphone boom effectively becomes a USB flash drive.
The YUBZ rep said that this will be sold with 8GB of integrated memory, comply with Bluetooth 2.0, and feature background noise cancellation. It’ll also get an ear loop, unlike the engineering sample shown here.
For people who are constantly on the road and who use their Bluetooth headsets on a regular basis will find a fair bit of value and convenience here. If you’re going to carry a headset around with you anyway, you may as well push the convergence agenda a little further by adding a flash drive. Priced right and with decent voice quality, YUBZ could have a serious winner here.
This Headset is Clipo-Tastic!
In California, it is illegal to use a handset while behind the wheel. For this reason, sales of Bluetooth headsets, speakerphones, and other similar solutions have been on the rise. Similar laws are being enacted across the United States and in several jurisdictions around the world.
If you’re the kind of person who needs to be hands-free but you don’t like having something in or on your ear all the time, the YUBZ Clip just might be for you. The main body clips to your shirt and this is where the microphone is located. When you get an incoming call (or you need to make an outgoing call), you simply pull on the retractable cord for the earpiece. The YUBZ Clipo is available in a wide range of colors and works over a standard Bluetooth connection.
Unleashing a Musical Barrel of Monkeys
As I am sure you’ve noticed, cell phones are not just for voice conversations anymore. We’ve come to use them as our watches, our cameras, our appointment books, and so on. Integrated music players come in really handy too.
Listening to your MP3 collection through a set of headphones is a rather private experience, but what if you want to share tunes with those around you? The barrel-shaped Bluetooth speaker from YUBZ just might be the ticket. Despite its relatively small size, this speaker actually pumps out some pretty good audio quality, especially in the bass department. It’s certainly not the first of its kind, but this YUBZ Bluetooth speaker has more thump to it than many of its direct competitors. Look for it in black and gray.
Bling Bling for Paris Hilton?
Remember how I said that YUBZ is largely positioning itself as a premium fashion brand in the cell phone accessory market? The products are certainly eccentric in their approach and nowhere is this approach more apparent than with the item shown above. It’s just like the YUBZ Talk headsets that I described earlier, except it has been covered in thousands of Swarovski crystals. Yes, those are real. I don’t even want to know how much it costs.
Somehow, I’m thinking that something like this might fly in Beverly Hills, but it’s definitely out of reach for more budget-conscious fashionistas. Check back with us again as we begin our brain dump of the show that was called CES 2009. More pictures from our visit with YUBZ are available on the next page.
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CES 2009 Spotlight – YUBZ Photo Gallery
