Lady Geek

As David Pogue said in the NY times, Bluetooth earpieces remove….

“any remaining visual distinction between a busy executive and a lunatic.”

I read this and laughed.

I love and hate my Jabra Bluetooth headphones. I love them because they allow me to do what women love to do: multitask. I can chat to a work colleague whilst changing a nappy. I can make a cup of tea and talk to my mother-in-law. Not to mention phone calls sound amazing.

Since having babies, my life has become just one long to do list which I never seem to get to the end of. So when I can get them to work, its amazing. I can forgive the odd stares I get from people along the street (I think I fall in the lunatic category not the busy executive).

But most of the time, I can’t get them to work. I struggle with tapping them once or twice to get them to connect, i struggle with getting them in pairing mode. They have far too many buttons and lights that flash mysterious, baffling codes.

Admittedly, I have not read the manual but like most women, who has the time or inclination? I want to plug and play. I want technology to be instinctive. I get so frustrated. Yesterday after re-pairing them for the hundreth time, I was ready to throw them in the bin. Thats how irriated I am by them.

The Flip camera has so few buttons you can’t fail but to understand what each one does. The ipod is so instinctive you can’t not learn how to use it. Bluetooth headphones are such a wonderful idea but why cant they be as simple and reliable as a wired headset?

My friend I was chatting to this morning, had to put the phone down half way through an important conversation as she couldn’t push the buggy and chat to me at the same time. Bluetooth headsets are a GREAT IDEA – it’s just that every bluetooth headset I’ve tried has been poorly implemented.

The opportunity for brands is to make their bluetooth products reliable and intuitive. If I technology-literate women like me struggles with these devices, what must it be like for other women? I know so many women who would love this product, but I won’t be a product advocate until companies like Jabra start undertsanding the need to make these things ‘just work’.