Though this happened early this week, I guess I would put it down here anyway. If you remembered my previous post of the rather laughingly funny experience of me accidentally drowning my v3 bluetooth headset, (by forgetting to take it out in the wash). I have some rather interesting yet scary news as an update. Yes it was confirmed dead like weeks ago after the event, but just when I was about to send it in for repair early this week, mum tested the headset with one of her colleague’s phones first… & it paired strange! Initially I took it lightly & thought mum was pulling my leg… like it was a joke or something as I remembered tried turning it on before, but to no avail.

Later do I know back in my hands is the very same bluetooth headset (which went through the washing machine, detergent, dryer, clothes line, sun & only to be discovered after ironing), which flashed its leds when I TURNED IT ON. No gimmicks here, its the same headset, same serial number, neither did mum secretly brought it for any instant repairs or so, & there it is – working! Amazing! Maybe it didn’t dry up completely or so few weeks back… so I can’t turn it on.. but won’t the circuity be fried the moment I do that? & why it choose to work all of a sudden? But who cares its working perfectly, everyday now. Now I not only have a working & flashing bluetooth headset, but a rather clean one as well!

Got some spare time to cook up a new review on the Motorola HT820, a new toy I’ve been “toyin” with this week. Its in the articles section. Check it out!

Ok, todays stuffs
Lunch was at yummy Ang Mo Kio for the super popu-licous Loh mee & Laksa. I haven’t eaten from that store like in ages & I just have to down one bowl of each… haha. A short teabreak at the nearby coffeeshops followed thereafter where Sheena showed me her rather impressive skills at 7-eleven into “packing the most amount of Mr Soffee into the soffee mini papercup”. Mr soffee prices are down to $1 a cup from $1.20 islandwide, maybe in response to Mac’s 25c cones. Furthermore they had chocolate favours up today.. sweet! Overall, just think an oversized orange tree/bush growing out of a small pot, so thats the icecream – cup ratio. The cashier just stared at the ice cream cup eyes wide-opened briefly & then kindly replied: “$1 please”.

Dropped granny’s for a short visit where as usual, grans couldn’t get enough of serving fruits & food to us in-house as guests, even to the extent of emptying her own fridge! We left early for orchard next as Sheena wanted to buy some stationary at popular & a screen filter for her Motorola Razr V3. So its off to PK where they ran out of the Japan-invented USB powered air ioniser I wanted to purchase.. dang, no ionised air in my room for the time being. Met my NS friend, Choo on the streets too. Also this was also a chance for me to test out how many heads can I turn today along orchard by wearing my loud Oakley persimmon half-jackets combi together with my Motorola HT820 headphones all coupled with a very casual dressing, topped with sloppy sandals. Umm say it was 4/5 head turner ratio (yea I am getting better everyday!) You knoe the thing about me is that I don’t follow trends, I set them… oh man I am good!

Review of Motorola HT820 Bluetooth Stereo Headset/Headphone

Introduction
I guess the main reason why people are pulling back on BT headphones currently are compatiblity problems & price. Personally I brought this headphone because of its build & looks, not to mention at a bargain price too. The decision is very much uncharted as theres no searchable review of this on the net &/or news on yet & whether its compatible with the devices I intended to pair it with, particularly my PC & my Dell Axim X50v. Well, I guess someone got to test it out 1st right? & hey why not be the first to write a review too!

Its a moto so we can expect some quality over lower-profile brands such as sonorix, iphono, blueant or even icombi. My unit is made in china (I think so for most motorola accessories). The headphones (speaker unit) are very well constructed & soild (no shaky & lose parts), with a reflective plastic on the face. Personally speaking, I love the comfort of the removable ear sponges, soft & spongy. But getting replacement sponges may may abit of a problem when they start to wear out – An inevitable problem usually faced by headphone users. Currently, motorola is not offering replacement sponges as spare parts in shops, so the only way to get hold of them presently is through service centers.

The back-band is made out of smooth gray flexible plastic. Theres a thin wire running along inside it, which can be seem from a gap below -the bluetooth aerial I presume, a smartmove for maximum reception by moto. Reception is good & I can easy walk anywhere from 8-9m from my axim before getting radio distortions/or audio cutoffs.

The only cosmetic problem is a thin plastic edge running on the back-band, giving it an unfinished cheap look which kinda goes against it overall looks. But understandably this is pretty much a manufacturing problem & the nature of molding of plastics.

Expected store retail prices range from $150-$210 SGD (Singapore dollars), converting to USD, prices roughly range from $85-$120 USD. A $100 SGD price tag (which I paid for) is the actually very close to the cost price of the product itself, so as a friend in the business at that point of time told me (& provided me with this review piece).

The standard package includes the headphones in a proudly labelled “STEREOMOTO” box, manual w/warranty & an AC charger similarly used in the Moto Razr V3 & E680i phones. You can charge the unit through USB as well (USB cable not suppiled) too as the charging port is actually a mini usb port.

Function
Multi-function (MFB) buttons are located on both sides of the headphone, identified by the large round buttons with a Motorola’s M insignia placed prominently on it. The buttons are also where the blue LED lights are located as well. The left MFB is used for the headset & handsfree control, as well as the pairing button. The right MFB is dedcicated to music controls (play/pause/stop). Universal volume controls are located on the top edge of the left headphone unit & the music skip & buttons are on the right respectively. All buttons provide a good statisfying feedback when pressed.

As mentioned, there are leds on both sides of the headphones. The left LED will only blink every 8 seconds when taking calls & on standby. Both LEDs will slowly glow on & off in alternate every 8 seconds when paired & streaming high quality stereo music in A2DP from a music source, giving it a very cool overal look, not to mention turning heads while communting in public transport. Contray to the rather irritating LED flashes seen in most bluetooth headsets.

Streaming Tests
I was expecting a depreciation in audio quality given the fact that bluetooth A2DP audio is actually a further compressed audio format streamed through wireless formats. On the contrary, I could not detect any depreciation in audio quality after test streaming a few MP3s (bitrates 128-192kps) & wav files on my PC played through my stereo speakers. In relation, sound quality is comparable to a pair of $60 Sony street styled headphones for benchmark. The same is tested using streamed through my Pocket PC, an Axim X50V & the audio quality is good with the exception or no skips, no hiss, no distortions.

The HT820 right play controls works with all mainstream programs I tested it on, namely Media Player 10 & Winamp 5.0. The microphone/voice commands works flawlessly too (tested on MS recorder/creative media recorder) The PC will recognise the headset as a bluetooth headset so the possiblities are very much endless given what voice activated software you have on your PC can do with it at your disposal.

The cool thing about the play controls is that you can have full access to your player’s controls + volume without ever taking out your device. You can have you laptop/PDA streaming music from your bag/haversack (or even from another’s person’s bag in a group). Totally cool!

Range
In concrete built up areas, I can get at least 8m through rooms from the source before I get cut off from music. In clear open areas, I’ve tried distances up to 18m & music still plays! But I guess doing so will adversely affect battery life & usually results in music skips. Generally, maintain a clear line of sight for maximum range. (Now try that with wired headphones for size!) Interestingly, if you ever get out of range, jumping back into range immediately usually resumes music (which will show some preliminary signs of skipping), only if you stay out of range for an extended period where you will get disconnected.

Headset Test
Amazingly, despite its small profile on the right headphone unit, the headset microphone has very good feedback, calls are loud & clear. And I guess we have motorola’s reasonably long experience in the bluetooth headset arena to back on the quality of the headset. A single press on the MFB will bring up the voice dialling/command menu in my Siemens SX1. The same button is used to hang-up (short-press), hold & answer incoming calls (long-press), hold a 3-way call (volume button long-press). If you phone supports voice dailing, holding the MFB for 3 seconds will sound a beep for you to speak (activating “speak now” voice dailing on my series 60 Siemens SX1). All calls are broadcasted in stereo.

Sound quality
Out of the box, treble was excessively dominating over the mid & lows frequency sounds. Unless you are a classical or treble fanatic, this can be easily fixed with some equaliser adjustments in your given music player software. Base is reasonablity deep though it’s often largely overwhelmed by the low-mid frequency sounds. As mentioned sound quality is comparable to an average Sony $50-$60 street-style headphones.

Battery life
Battery life is claimed by Motorola to be at 17 hours talktime, 14 hours of continous hi-quality music streaming & 500 hours of standby time. Firstly, I would like to highlight that the battery for the headphones are in-built, so the only way to go about a dead battery is through the service center. Furthermore, there’s no battery meter or whatsoever & its only programmed to chime at you every 20 seconds once it needs more juice.

On tests, the headphones will go roughly 10-12 hours of continous audio playing before the low battery chime comes on, then it would go on for another 20-30mins before going completely dead. So the maximum achievable realistic battery life would be approximately 12 hours. On talktime tests, on an approximately 1-2 hours usage of the headset function a day, I only need to charge my headphones roughly once a week- reasonably good compared to my other bluetooth headsets with offering only 8 hours of talktime. Charging from flat to full usually takes approx 2 hours, which will increase as the battery ages.

Misc Addtional Features
There is a 2.5mm inline jack on the right speaker unit. It is used to play music from a wired source, (e.g CD player, iPod, non Bluetooth equiped PC or Home stereo. The good thing is that you can still maintain connection between yout bluetooth devices (up to 5) while listening music off the inline jack & music will automatically be muted to take calls & auto-resume thereafter

A 2.5mm – 3.5mm audio plug converter would be required for the inline to function though, as most audio devices in the market uses the more conventional 3.5mm jacks. It would be better it if motorola were to swap the 2.5mm inline for a 3.5mm one to rid this compatibility problem.

Final words
Overall, this is headset is definitely value for money. A good mix of features, built & price, whats more it’s not a E680i only accessory & works with almost any device I’ve tested which supports the AV & headset profile. I would definitely recommend this headphone to anyone who yearns quality wireless music without the hassle of tangled/messy headphone wires, dying turn heads in crowds or just simply out of the plain love of technology.

Bottomline
An affordable medium-high quality build device providing wireless solution for stereo music with the ease of music controls & headset functions all integrated into one.

Will I recommend it to others? – Yes!

Pros

• Price & quality build
• Long battery life
• Fast USB charging
• Reasonably good audio quality
• Excellent headset function
• Addtional 2.5mm inline jack
• Side blue leds providing real cool factor

Cons

• No spare ear sponges
• No charger included as standard
• Visible mold lines on headband
• Built-in non-removable battery
• Large footprint, Bulky & non-foldable
• 2.5mm inline quite redundant (3.5mm inline)

Devices I tested working with:

• Intel Pentium 4 Desktop with BTv1.1 (A2DP Profile & Headset Profile)
• Fujitsu T4020 Tablet PC with BTv1.6 (A2DP Profile & Headset Profile)
• Dell Axim X50v (A2DP Profile & Headset Profile)
• Siemens SX1 (Headset Profile/Voice Dialing only)

Motorola HT820 FAQ Answers

What charger do you use on the HT820 headphones?

My review set comes with an additional Motorola V3 charger, which is not found in the standard package. What you get depends greatly on what the store bundles for you for your needs. Optionally, you can charge your HT820 through your computer’s USB port, as the charging port is actually a mini-USB port (normally found in digital cameras, portable harddisks, card readers, etc). You just have to get hold one of those full USB port -> mini USB converters & wollia you are done.

Frankly speaking I seldom use the Motorola V3 charger, preferring USB as a primary means of charging due to convenience from my computer

Back to FAQs

Where can I get your Headphones at such a price? Can you get it for me?

I am sorry, I got the review package courtesy from a friend who happens to work in the industry They were kind of them to provide me a personal unit I can use for the review. Such intentions are non-profit & I have my friend’s interest at stake to protect, I wish you will understand. With this, I DON’T take orders neither do I sell the headphone to anyone who approach me on the matter.

As a gauge, for $100SGD I got the HT820 together with a Motorola V3 Charger. I’ve seen stores selling the headphones from $150-$230SGD. $100SGD + charger is a break even at cost-price. So hope this will be a good gauge & useful info for what you are paying when purchasing your own unit.

Back to FAQs

Can you give more details on the microphone & how it works? I don’t seem to be able to see it!

The microphone is actually a small 1mm diameter hole facing the front of the right speaker. Nothing much, nothing less, but its does catch your voice real well.

Back to FAQs

Will my bluetooth-enabled laptop able to use voice recognition & other audio recording programs while simultaneously connected with A2DP stereo music? So I don’t have to go into my bluetooth utility & switch between profiles every time.

That very much depends on your Bluetooth stack capabilities. Personally, I’ve used the HT820 paired to 2 devices simultaneously (A2DP music from my PDA & take headset profile to take calls from my handphone). So technically wise the HT820 can support simultaneous connections.

However, as mentioned given most current PC Bluetooth stacks, the system will usually recognize a single device to be able to use one function at once. Pairing the HT820 with your laptop will allow you to activate either of Bluetooth services only at one go:

1) A2DP High quality profile (together with AVRCP profile, for remote control)
2) Headset profile.

Unless you get the stack to run 2 separate COM ports for each service & fool the system to see the device as 2 devices with either service each, you can only run either of each.

But why would you want to be able to listen to music & VOIP chat/give voice commands simultaneously? Even if you get that working, the HT820 will automatically cut off A2DP music if the headset profile is being used & only return when the headset session has ended.

Back to FAQs

The package I’ve recieved came in opened and some of my things were stolen! So the only thing that turned up was the headphones. Please help me out!

Actually, I don’t think your package items were stolen in transit. The standard retail box only contains the headphones & manual. Though it’s said to be included in the manual, the additional 2.5mm wire & charger actually comes separately. Not in the box.

Some background info: The HT820 actually comes bundled initially as planned by Motorola with the E680 music phone, so they removed the charger, etc from the HT820 package as not to duplicate items.

Back to FAQs

Do you happen to know the frequency range for the headphone? Is it stated on the manual for it?

I do not know the audible range the headphone offers nor it’s stated in the manual. What I can say the quality of the sound reproduced is comparable to that of a standard $40-$50 Sony street style headphones. Personally speaking, paper frequency ratings are nothing compared to testing & hearing the music yourself, so your best bet is maybe doing so at a local computer or mobile shop where you can really make your decision.

Bass is reasonably good, but treble is excessively high sometimes, all these can be fixed with equalizer settings in your music player though, so not much of a problem.

Back to FAQs

Do you feel uncomfortable after wearing the headphones after a long period of time? If it does get uncomfortable, approximately how long does it takes before it gets uncomfortable?

Wearing it was quite uncomfortable for me at first, but not now at all. I guess I am more or less used to it now. After using it for about 2 weeks, it is as a matter of fact, quite comfortable to wear now for extended periods. Well, unless you have very big ears, I don’t see a problem. Its feels like music on air (totally unreal with no wires!)

The HT820 has the build of a medium-high quality headphones, & the ear sponges adds the very nice comfy touch, more comfortable & spongy than my old, average Sony headphones.

Back to FAQs

I am curious how you had them setup for the x50v. I’ve read alot of people having problems with the A2DP setup but you mentioned having it stream without any problems. Can you explain your setup with the x50v?

The X50v standard bluetooth firmware for the x50v do not support A2DP. You need to obtain & manually installing wildcomm’s Bluetooth 1.6 stack over the existing ones. From there, you will have access to the A2DP function. If I am not wrong early versions of the x51v running windows mobile 5.0 has a very primitive Microsoft Bluetooth stack installed as well, not supporting A2DP, this can be remedied using the method mentioned above.

Back to FAQs

I can’t get hold/purchase the Wildcomm stack, can you ‘help’ me with it?

Firstly, I will encourage users to purchase the stack as credit for developers & not download hacks & cracks off the net to do so.

If broadcomm/wildcomm is out of the question, altenatively I’ve found a nice neat freeware Bluetooth stack, called Bluesoleil (BS), its one of the most user friendly & feature packed Bluetooth client software I ever used, & it supports A2DP like a charm.

[Click here to access the Bluesoleil Site]
Download the trail & see whether it will work for your PC/Notebook. There is also a PDA version which you can install for use. A subset of A2DP I the AVRCP profile (for remote control), It worked for me & all windows media/winamp play/pause/>> skip/< < skip controls. There is only a 5MB transfer limit if your bluetooth device is not recognized by Bluesoleil for the trail version.

Moreover the BS stack is quite affordable as well, I personally purchased my fully functional copy of the Bluesoleil stack with a Bluetooth v1.6 USB dongle at an affordable $20SGD (Approx $12USD) so I guess that’s quite in the budget range for most people who want good & affordable Bluetooth, my recommendations.

Back to FAQs

Help! Is my XXX phone, XXX PDA or XXX notebook model compatible with the HT820?

Sorry, I’ve only tested the HT820 on a few devices I own & I can’t confirm whether your device is compatible. The best bet is any Bluetooth capable handphone released late 2005 – early 2006 should be able to support A2DP. Otherwise, usually it can be through a firmware upgrade. For PC/Notebooks just make sure you obtain the latest Bluetooth stack upgrade from your manufacturer.

I’ve found a site featuring a very comprehensive list of devices which supports A2DP, feel free to check it out Through this link.

Back to FAQs

A call came from a rather excited John (aka yohn) early this week telling me that the “remaining” oakleys we’ve ordered are in already from shipment. Finally! so as I thought. We actually intended to drop by yesterday, but Lt Jason, our “sales rep cum oakley order slave” was on leave, so it was called off. We were crazy enough to think of collecting it next week, but as all crazy people we are, its like aRgH can’t survive without oakleys! MusT get oakleys! So, the sooner the better & we decided to drop by at 6pm (today) to camp to collect it, not do I know at the last minute that yohn’s free for the afternoon, bringing the appointment forward. A trip down to camp at 1pm was planned thereafter. Yohn drove into camp in his dad’s Lexus RX300 which sadly was running out of gas too, due to yohn’s heavy foot/flooring tendencies… We got a free ATC aniversary alarm clock cum raido from cheah who was distributing them to the troopers in the ops room. Caught up with few of the troopers who were rather amazed to meet us again. Not to mention our own troopers too, a show-stopper you may say. We had “lunch” at the AHQ canteen, savoring & remembering our old days in camp eating canteen food – Unhealthy chicken cutlet rice…. yum!

Looking at the pile back at home, this must be the biggest purchase I’ve ever got from Oakleys. With 3 pairs at-a-go (M-frame, Half-jacket, Half-wires) plus a D3 watch & extra M-frame/Half-jacket lenses, not to mention array ballistic cases as well. Though you may think that I’ve spent a fortune on these, on the contray by purchasing this through the Oakley- Military, Government & Law enforcement agency scheme, (which my whole company did) you can get the original goods at 1/2 to 1/3 the retail prices outside with full warranties, support & packaging. The only limitations are the colours offered: tactical black ones only – my favorite! So you can say that I got all these for the average price of one oakley sunglass in-shop, or how can you put it? Say…. call it 3-for-1? or like how Canadian Pizza like to put it: 2-for-1.

& a flip! it was, haha met with my class at about 9am this morning at habourfront MRT, where breakfast at Macs followed thereafter. Spent an awful 5 bucks plus there on a big breakfast not knowing about the $2 breakfast deal.. DANG! Anyway, at least I gotta the try big breakfast with maple syrup, a totally new sweet experience I say. After some planning & carefully calculation, we decided to take a cab into Sentosa, considering it being the most convenient & economical option that point of time, not to mention minus the hassle here & there. Next thing there we was straight at siloso from habourfront Mac Donalds at only an additional 30 cents per person compared to taking a bus there.

We played Frisbee, volleyball & soccer, not to mention captain’s ball in the water & the “sustain the volleyball” challenge, the record was held my Andre, Luke & Me at 123 independent continuous sustained passes of the volleyball in the water. Cool!

The outing ended with dinner at habour front hawker center & lots of sore red skin… *ouch sunburn!*

Well, this is so funny I guess I have to get it down here & share it with you guys. I was on my usual shopping trips around orchard when I came across this Kodak instant digital print station at the Paragon basement just outside the supermarket. & man its loaded with cardreaders, wireless & infra-red, it literally eats anything you feed it, except money of course, haha. So what I did, I whipped out my phone, took a dumb picture, conveniently uploaded it to the machine, enhanced it & wollia a digital art piece proudly displayed on the screen for all passerbys to see, for god knows when! The funny thing is that the machine is programmed to be “very patient” with customers, to the extent that it will keep displaying the edited image the whole day till someone comes & manually cancel the edit function, lol . The final picture of the deed is that on the left, kinda dumb but otherwise a message to “tamper proof such kiosks”. The original uploaded picture is this one here- a rather clean picture of my half- bitten yummy apple toffee I was eating along the way. Personally, I think such kiosks are getting more common around Singapore, & I guess the possibility of misuse may be quite high, not to mention a free form of public advertising & display of apple toffees!

Yea, thats right 2 lifts down in one day. Thats what happened on tuesday at school. & no we weren’t pretty much the victims… Umm, how can I put it? say, maybe you can call us a class who goes around destroying lifts in campus? So how do we go about doing that? Simple, just fill the lift full (about 15-18 of us) & once the door closes, everybody start going amock! stomping, jumping & pushing against all surfaces… on all fours! That includes the door, walls, etc.. You can just feel the lift ExpandinG… The mob was so bad on one lift, we started wrecking it even before the door closed, & we dunno how we did it, we not only managed to jam the lift & cause it to emit a soft ringing wail at the controls, but the door even came loose, was dangling at a 45 degree angle just enough for us to squeeze & make our quick escape. We almost got 3 lifts in one day on, that includes T18, T14 & almost got T15. Haha hope they don’t ban our class from taking lifts in the future!

I was wondering where was my bluetooth headset the past few days. Till mum approached me today morning during breakfast saying, “Shaun I found this in the laundry, its in the pants you wore early this week” & there she passed me my V3 bluetooth headset, though still in one piece, its just as good a an extra large ear fashion accessory for my ear… DANG! Yes I tried turning it on, as expected theres no lights, no noise, just dead… plain dead. I can’t really expect much of life though, considering that it went through like loads of water/rinsing & detergent, not to mention the fun spins in the dryer too. I guess the thing about headsets is that they are just so small (which is not a bad thing, mind you) & you tend to lose track of where & when you last left it. Especially an object so small & light can’t really be felt under the fabric of your clothing. Overall, its one of the best headsets I’ve used, small factor with good voice feedback, bluetooth v1.2, 200 hours standby & 8 hours talktime. Luckily its still under warranty & the best thing is that umm… I haven’t mailed it in yet.. heheh.

Colours of life, wall of heroes, school’s collaboration paintings – An exhibition by Ben Phua. Thats the highlight of the night, held at the AGF Theatre this evening, the exhibition showcases various paintings done by hundreds of students from various schools in Singapore. The guest of honour for the event was Mr S R Nathan & Mrs Nathan. The event kicked off with a dance performance followed by various introductions & a speech by Ben himself. An artpiece, titled “I love the world peace” was presented to the president at the end of the performances as token of appreciation. The Art gallery was opened for public viewing shortly after, together with a short reception where snacks, champagne & red wine were served free flow. A phototaking session with the Mr & Mrs Nathan, the VIPs, together with students & teachers from the various schools followed thereafter. The event ended shortly after the phototaking session where the president sent his regards before leaving the event.

You can view the event photos here.

Gift for SR Nathan	The Gallery	Meet the stars!

Overall the event was a success. On a sidenote, Ben is a close cousin of mine & we grew up together together with cousin Gordon, his younger brother. Partly because his mum used to badysit me & my sis while we were in primary school when my parents are working. We were a pesky bunch back then, always messing & ewing at his works of art while Ben’s still in Secondary school. I didn’t know my Cousin Ben had been so aggressive with his art, going full time into his art passion as an artist. Whoa! he have even those customised namecards with rats on them… neat.