Bluetooth (Safer and Better Connection for Cell Use)

The Motorola H12 : A Stylish Nerd Worthy Bluetooth 

You have seen those funny little dongles in peoples ears right? You have observed someone having a conversation through one of these devices that appeared at first to be having a conversation with an imaginary friend.... :P It turns out that using one of these blue-tooth things can help you avoid dangerous levels of cell phone radiation ;) 


Back in late 2007 I became interested in bluetooth headsets because of their ability to liberate you from your phone while it is connecting to the tower, enhancing call quality and signal strength in the process.

Bluetooth operates with very low power: in practice it has a range of less than 50 feet, which in practice turns out to be perfect for most applications and situations.

The radiation from a cell phone to a tower is somewhat powerful (up to 1000 mW) and emerging science has shown that holding the phone against you head while it is broadcasting (while you are talking on it), introduced questionably dangerous radiation to the neck, brain and facial areas. The wireless industry has feverishly attempted to surpress this information as they see it as damning to their industry. Lets look at a positive albeit nerdy solution: bluetooth.

Blue-tooth headsets are up to ten times less powerful than the phone in terms of their wireless energy (radiation). Using the blue-tooth to connect to your phone, and allowing the phone away from your body to connect to the tower, turns out to be the best overall!

You can put your phone into a backpack, briefcase, purse or other external bag that you will have near you, and your little bluetooth will keep you connected. It will beep and notify of you of a text, voice message, or phone call. You can use it to voice dial too, just tap it and say a command out loud. I frequently press mine and say "call Megan Otto" and it then connects me to my lovely girlfriend Meg :)

In 2008 my generous sister Andrea gave me a limited edition Motorola H12.... this story is really sad, but the gist is that then new puppy Mocha Schwarz found my H12 charging on its dock, and chewed it into oblivion.... discouraged by its loss I stopped using bluetooth for several years.

In 2011 the screen of my dumbphone broke. Using an iFixIt guide I was able to carefully pry apart the phone and replace the screen module (1 hour of tedious nerd work and soldering). It works except that the outside speaker no longer functions, I can only use it in stereo (loud so everyone can hear) speaker phone mode..... bluetooth to the rescue.

A little while back Megan gave me her LG bluetooth dongle, and it sat on my self. One day it randomly occurred to me that I could use this blue-tooth to restore private calling functionality to my phone :)

I promptly looked online for a motorola H12 replacement and found one for $16 :) They originally sold for $129.99 ^^ the special edition one that I had was in some ways priceless as only 12 were made, signed by David Beckham, the famous guy wearing the H12 in the main picture of this blog. Oh well~ Naughty Mocha....

Yesterday my super discounted commodity H12 arrived! $19 with shipping. I charged it up and just tested it out (talking to Meg with it), and it works perfectly. I put my phone in another room; Using voice command through the H12, I then instructed the phone to call her, and was connected! It works great ;) 5.5 hours of talk time is the rated battery life, and 8 days of standby :) Meg can have her LG unit back now :)

I get better reception using the bluetooth as well. My body tends to dampen the phones signal if I hold the phone close to my body. If I place the phone on a surface 3 feet away from me, I get a much stronger connection between the phone and the tower. This means less radiation and better call clarity.

Phones throttle their radio power based on signal strength: so if the signal is weak they jack up the power in order to establish and maintain a connection. Keeping the phone away from me means the phone can throttle down its radio, exposing you to less radiation.

I use my phone through the bluetooth- with voice command new. Even dumb(feature) phones like mine from 2008 have decent voice control built in!

When I am driving I put my phone in the armrest, cup holder or a special spot on the dashboard (see picture), and it gets better reception. This is also a hands-free solution so it makes driving safer.

Port windows placement = great signal strength ;) Prius FTW

The H12 hanging nerdy!

Ref  "white and nerdy" (http://youtu.be/N9qYF9DZPdw) 

Smart-phones with voice control (Google Now on Android) (Siri on iPhone) can deliver an even better user experience through a blue-tooth piece. Tap the control button once and say "Send a text message to {who you choose} and then speak what you want in the text, it will ask you to confirm, and then send it: all automatically. "Check Voicemail" "Read out Time" "State battery charge" "Check Email" "Read Message" there is all kinds of cool functionality. Modern blue-tooths also support music streaming ^^ My vintage (circa 2008) Motorola H12 does not :) but thats ok: it sports two mic's with CrystalTalk(tm), a stainless grill and a multi-color smd LED behind the grill that gives me geek smirks for days!

So using a blue-tooth with your phones voice control can make a star-trek like experience possible! If the blue-tooth is connected to a decent recent smartphone, that makes the experience even better!

No power to it yet, just set up for a photo :) This dock is Slick! 

The New (old) Motorola H12 package arrives :) 

Nerd Stats 
USAGE TIME (CONTINUOUS)¹
Up to approximately 5.5 hours

STANDBY TIME
Up to approximately 8 days

QUICK BATTERY CHECK FeatureEASY PAIR Automatic Setup 
2-MIC CRYSTALTALK™ TECHNOLOGY
EASY MUTE
Active ECHO CANCELLATION
Active NOISE REDUCTION
BLUETOOTH® RANGE Class 2
BLUETOOTH® VERSION²2.0 with EDR
PROFILESHFP 1.2
WIRELESS RANGEUp to approximately 10m
DIMENSIONS
42 x 18 x12mm

WEIGHT
12 g