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CTIA Wireless: Jabra announces 'industry-first' Freeway speakerphone

By | March 23, 2011, 9:30am PDT

Summary: ORLANDO — Jabra introduced its latest speaker product at CTIA Wireless today. The Jabra Freeway is being touted as an “industry-first” speakerphone with a trio of speakers and HD ready voice technology.

ORLANDO — Jabra introduced its latest speaker product at CTIA Wireless today. The Jabra Freeway is being touted as an “industry-first” speakerphone with a trio of speakers and HD ready voice technology.

The hands-free device clips onto a car visor, automatically switching on when the door opens and pairs with the user’s mobile phone. That should come in handy in case of the need for a quick getaway. It also lets the driver focus on more important things such one obvious task: driving.

On paper, the Jabra Freeway looks like a very versatile gadget. It can be used inside or outside the car for making phone calls as well as listening to audio playback from “any device.” Such examples included the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, other MP3 players and video game consoles.

Already available in Europe and Asia, the Jabra Freeway will be ready to hit the open roads in North America this May for $129. One extra cost detail is that each unit will come with a free one-year subscription to the Voice Assist voice-controlled app, valued at $59.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: CTIA Wireless: Jabra announces 'industry-first' Freeway speakerphone
opcom 24th Mar 2011
Subscription? No thanks. What ever happened to buying something that just works?
Visor clip is not the way to go, i bought my wife one like this and for her to charge it from her cig lighter, the wire is right in front of her face and sound is not good so it ended up in the glove compt not being used
@mainard1@...

And batteries would suck arse... Unless... They were solar charged... Hmmmmm... Solar visors... almost as good as skinning a car in solar instead of paint (which is a big miss on behalf of all auto, boat, and RV makers today).
"...free one-year subscription to the Voice Assist voice-controlled app, valued at $59" means there's an ongoing annual charge. Does anyone really need another bill?
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the Voice Assist voice-controlled app
tangentjohn@... 23rd Mar 2011
No details given, but the Voice Assist migh just be an extra. I can't imagine why you would NEED any external subscription for a bluetooth device..?? Anybody know?
@tangentjohn@... greed. "the new normal" makes stable income being a fleeting concept, unless you can successfully game the system. Which reminds me, time to buy another Mighty Eagle...
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Cell phone accidents have more to do with
HypnoToad72 23rd Mar 2011
concentrating on the conversation than on the road.

As for texting, develop a voice-to-text device and those texting (or anything else with _exting as a suffix), and the core problem remains: Concentrating on what's being said and what's not in front of one's eyes.

Good luck.
Subscription? No thanks. What ever happened to buying something that just works?

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