Wireless Headsets?

An anonymous reader asks: "My girlfriend has moved off to grad school on the opposite side of the country, and we've been video conferencing over GnomeMeeting instead of using the phone (we don't have landline phones, only cell phones, so we can't use the phone before 9pm w/o burning through minutes). GnomeMeeting works well, but we are tethered to our computers by our headsets (since headsets seem necessary to prevent echoing). Are there any inexpensive wireless computer headsets with microphones out there? I saw the DIY Bluetooth headset story, but I don't feel like scrounging for parts this time... I want to by a working headset right now. I've seen $200+ headsets out there. Are there headsets out there with roughly 20 meter range for less than $100?"

You mean like the Logitech Cordless Headset?

[toybuilder]

http://www.hellodirect.com/catalog/Product.jhtml?C ATID=2011&PRODID=13669

Fixed URL

[toybuilder]

Here's the corrected link. [hellodirect.com]
$99 from HelloDirect. Cheaper elsewhere, I'm sure.

Re:Fixed URL

[aminorex]

Dang straight it's cheaper elsewhere!
$24.99 after a $10 rebate at
http://www.compuvisor.com/logcorfreedh.html

Re:You mean like the Logitech Cordless Headset?

[pbulteel73]

Or you can get it from Logitech's website for $69. Here is one product's page [logitech.com] and here is their main wireless [logitech.com] headset page.

Not a headset, but cheap

[m_vand]

I got an AT&T model 6100 "VOIP Phone" off eBay for about $30. They usually go for under $50.

The base station plugs into the wall for regular calls, and into your sound card's mic and spkr jacks.

The handset has a "phone" button to use just like any other 900 MHz phone, and a "VOIP" button that connects to the sound card.

It is headset ready, but you're gonna have to carry the handset around with you.

so obvious...

[CySurflex]

Cliff - you obviously posted this story in expectance of comments like this: "If you really want to make your girlfriend and yourself 'happy', you should get the new bluetooth vibrating headset and the accompanying blow-up RF lotion-motion-transporter" but instead I'll take the higher road, and I'll just say HYFHOG??? (Haven't you fucking heard of Google?)

Hmm

[yasth]

I don't know exactly why you need to be free of your computer for video conferencing. A good microphone won't have echo though, really (or more properly can eliminate it). Most profesional systems use microphones, and echoing is not as much a problem as synching in my experience.

see the suprisingly general MS thing here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/ser ver/hel p/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/server/help/sag_ TAPIconcepts_202.htm

A good microphone should be a touch cheaper then a wireless headset at least anywhere I could find them.

Glad the distance thing is working out for you, may have to do it soon myself ( :( ), any tips?

Hmmm.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Girlfriend faraway? Videoconferencing? Calls after 9 p.m.? Yeah, wireless headset, that's the first thing that comes to my mind, too.

Joke.

[3-State Bit]

Hans and Gretel go mountain climbing with their mother. Hans falls off. So Gretel says: "Look Ma, no Hans!"
{GROAN! Blame the article's department.}

Dear Slashdot,

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Slashdot,
Please tell me how do I use Google.

Slashdot:
Dear Moron,
Here you go [google.com].

IBM..

[tongue]

IBM has a headset-phone which is wireless, and more importantly, which can be plugged into your computer as a microphone and speaker. its got great pickup, decent speaker, a speakerphone in the base, good battery life, and i paid 100 for one at sam's club, if i recall correctly. great deal, especially if you intend to get a landline at some point in the future. I'd give you a model # but i can't remember what it was, and i loaned mine to my brother.

the cheap solution

[seinman]

go to radio shack and pick up a pair of headphone extension cords... one for the speaker plug on the headset, one for the microphone. shouldn't cost you more than $15.

A driver problem

[skinfitz]

I have two Ericsson Bluetooth headsets - an old HBH-10 and the curvy HBH-30. They both support the bluetooth "audio" profile, and I have some bluetooth cards for my PC's. Does anyone know (yes, I've tried google!) if anyone has produced (or is working on) drivers so that these headsets can be used as an audio device in windows? It just seems so obvious to make something like that.

The alternative solution is to make something similar to that guy who made his own headset and make a headset that connects to something that connects to your soundcard - in this case one would be emulating the functionality of a traditional cabled headset.

Staples has Logitech

[mark*workfire]

The Staples store in my town (Kelowna, BC) has cordless Logitech's (must be clearing out?)

They're only $30-50 CDN (~20-35 US), and can be used with a landline too. Here's the URL from Logitech that I think are the one's:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/ de tails&CRID=103&CONTENTID=5051&countryid=2&language id=1

Hope this helps, as maybe Staples is clearing them in other stores.

Simple Solution

[Tha_Big_Guy23]

Why not just get a headphone extension? They're pretty cheap, 25' for $10...Here [bestbuy.com]

That should make you pretty mobile...