Perhaps one of the more unique companies attending the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show has to be YUBZ. While other designers are looking for ways to make our Bluetooth headsets smaller and more efficient, the guys at YUBZ decided to totally kick it old school by producing possibly one of the largest headsets you will ever find for your mobile phone.
YUBZ is clearly positioning itself in the marketplace as a premium fashion brand, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t pay attention to innovation. In addition to the flagship product that gets all of the attention, YUBZ also has a handful of other items that are quite noteworthy.
Kicking it Old School with YUBZ Talk
Is that a super stylized version of the telephone at your grandma’s house? Not exactly. What you see here is the YUBZ Talk, a headset that is designed to work in tandem with your mobile phone. Instead of pairing with something smaller like the Aliph Jawbone, you can physically connect your cell phone to this giant headset handset.
The YUBZ Talk is the same size as a conventional home telephone. The corded version helps to minimize brain-zapping radiation whereas the Bluetooth version is probably a little more convenient. Both can then be further accessorized using special hip-bound holsters. In addition to its less expensive solid color variants, YUBZ also has some premium versions of the YUBZ Talk that feature special artwork. These come at an added price, of course, bumping the MSRP into the $150 range.
Bluetooth Headset with Built-in Flash Drive
Moving for a moment away from the “fashion before function” school of thought, we see a concept product from YUBZ that actually appears to be quite useful and innovative. The Stix Bluetooth headset shown here may not look like anything particularly special on the surface, but it packs something quite unique under the hood.
Inside that slim body happens to be some flash memory. You can take the Bluetooth headset apart by simply sliding the earpiece portion away from the microphone boom. This reveals a USB connector, so what once appeared as the microphone boom effectively becomes a USB flash drive.
The YUBZ rep said that this will be sold with 8GB of integrated memory, comply with Bluetooth 2.0, and feature background noise cancellation. It’ll also get an ear loop, unlike the engineering sample shown here.
For people who are constantly on the road and who use their Bluetooth headsets on a regular basis will find a fair bit of value and convenience here. If you’re going to carry a headset around with you anyway, you may as well push the convergence agenda a little further by adding a flash drive. Priced right and with decent voice quality, YUBZ could have a serious winner here.