Headsets
Apart from the supplied headset, I personally use a boom-mic headset like this from Plantronics. I use this because people don't tend to think you're mad when you wander down the road talking to yourself (as they tend to when you have the older mono-personal handsfree kits). It's not too bad with the Orange-supplied silver stereo handsfree / headphone combination, because people think you're singing to some music or something.. :) Hehehe.. Anyway, this section is a bit slim as I'm mentioning the boom-mic and nothing else, so if you've got a headset / personal hands-free or car kit that works with the SPV or if you've used an adapter etc to convert it, please email me so we can add it in here to review.
I've had some feedback already - some headsets work fine WITHOUT an adapter. As a rule of thumb, if it works - that's cool! If not, read on... for example, Ghufran has emailed in to say that his Jabra Universal "EarWrap" hands free headset works fine without any special connector. He was using this with his old T68 - Just plug it into the SPV and go !
Adapters
The headset supplied with the SPV is fine, but you may have noticed that perhaps your old headset (like mine below) doesn't work. Why? Well, in my case it was because I have a mono headset (meant for most Nokia phones etc) which doesn't work when you plug it into the whizzy stereo 2.5mm plug on the SPV.
For anyone interested, Bob Tetstall recently emailed me with the SPV pin-outs for the connector.
2.5mm 4-pole jack plug ....
| 1 2 3 4
|----|--|--|-\
|----|--|--|-/
|
1) Ground
2) Mic / Switch
3) Right Audio
4) Left Audio (tip)
I have to thank the guys at pocketpctechs.com for passing these adapters onto Dale Coffing (of pocketpcpassion.com fame - check it out!) and many thanks to Dale for passing them onto me! These are all excellent adapters and come complete with the answer-mute button too. Expansys.com are the official reseller of pocketpctechs.com stuff here in the UK, but if you're based elsewhere in the world just click here and choose from the "Resellers" drop-down.
You may notice that these were designed for the PocketPC / PocketPC Phone Edition. Don't worry though, they work brilliantly with the SmartPhone (SPV / SPVx etc). First up, I tried the PPCPADPT03 adapter with my Plantronics headset. I wanted to use this headset because I'm used to it and I only bought it about a month or two before I got my SPV. It's a standard mono headset with boom-microphone and goes into a 2.5mm mono headphone / microphone jack.
The PPCPADPT03 adapter describes itself as "2.5mm Standard Mono Headset Adapter". It works perfectly, and I'll be using this daily. My boom-microphone works fine and the sound is crystal clear through the ear-piece. The build quality of the adapter is faultless, I'd definitely recommend this if you've got a mono-headset / microphone combination that you want to use with your SPV.
To buy it direct within the UK click here to go straight to the relevant product page.
Next up I decided to get a bit serious. I'm sure you've seen those guys walking down the street with their huge closed-back headphones attached to CD players. Well, I figured we should try it with a Smartphone playing some MP3's. :) The adapter below, again from pocketpctechs.com is PPCPADPT01 and describes itself as "2.5mm Headset / 3.5mm Audio Headset Adapter". It's a little hard to see on the picture below, but you can just see that on the end of the adapter there is the two outputs - one for your headset and one for your headphones - or amplifier if you want! :) If you still can't see it too well, click here for a bigger version.
I tried this just with my big-ass headphones and it worked fantastically well. The MP3 playing on the Tanager/SPVx (below) came out very well - crystal clear, excellent bass response and no distortion at all. Again, the build-quality of the connector is spot-on. If I wanted I could now go out and walk down the street with my big closed-back headphones listening to some pumping house music on my phone - but I think I'll give that a miss right now.. :)
If you want this and you're in the UK - click here to go directly to the PPCPADPT01 page at expansys.com. If you're outside the UK - click here to go to pocketpctechs.com and select your region from the "Resellers" drop-down.
Note - It doesn't seem possible to have both the headphones and headset adaptor plugged in at the same time (listening to the caller on the headphones and using headset as the microphone) - some people have tried this to make a simple DIY Car kit (having headphone jack plugged directly into car stereo. Unfortunately the interference on the stereo makes too much noise. It may be possible with different headsets ?
I didn't test PPCPADPT02, which is a 3.5mm stereo and 3.5mm mono output adapter, but from the results of the above adapters it'll probably be just as excellent!!
You can also buy some accessories from...
The Orange Shop
PDA Add Ons
