I have always wanted a Jawbone ever since I read about the company and their Bluetooth headset products. It could be simply because I was sucked into their strong marketing, but I like to think it is because of the design and technology. Jawbone has been creating revolutionary, high-end Bluetooth headsets for several years, and they have just come out with what I think could be a real winner, the Jawbone ICON. And, I’m giving one away as well!

For starters, the ICON comes in 6 different unique styles to match a lot of different types of people and they even have creative names lie: The Hero (the one I have), The Rogue, The Thinker, The Ace, The Catch and The Bombshell. I personally like the Hero because it is simple, techy and black. However, I think you would agree that there are quite a few innovative styles to choose from.

The Review

The Icon is very well engineered. It doesn’t feel cheap like other BT earpieces out there. And the engineering doesn’t stop on the outside, you also have full access to upgrade features, voices and firmware of the ICON itself via the MyTalk section of the Jawbone site. One of the new upgradeable features that just came out that you can install (and remove is you so desire) is A2DP which allows you to use the ICON as a headset for you music, get GPS directions piped directly to your ear or essentially get any of the audio from your BT device to the ICON. While I personally don’t recommend listening to music (since it is only through one ear), it is quite good for podcasts or hooking into a GPS application to have directions whispered in your ear.

The only functional items on the device itself are an on/off switch and an Action button that does a variety of things. I actually like the on/off slider toggle button better than that common click-hold to turn on or off the headset. The Action button can answer and hang up the call, as well as give you access to the estimated remaining talk time among other things.

Voice Customization is probably one of the coolest things about the ICON. Jawbone has enabled the ability to upload not only firmware updates and functionality (like the A2DP) but also various “personalities” in the form of voices. You can sample a variety of these on the ICON website. You can choose from an intellectual sounding guy to a “blonde bombshell” to a “super spy” ( which is the one that I ended up using) as well as few others. It makes me sort of feel like central command is relaying top secret information to me via whispers into my ear.

Installing the firmware updates or voices is all done via a software install and then logging into the ICON website. Do note that the install process is a bit finicky. First, I couldn’t use Chrome on the Mac as it was an unsupported browser. Then even the “supported” Firefox didn’t want to behave. Eventually I ended up with Safari and I was able to download the Jawbone app and then sync it to the ICON site. Once things were working, I was able to see what was installed on my ICON in terms of features and apps, but also the voices. It was a pretty exciting feature to play with since all of the other Bluetooth headphones that I have used and tested in the past don’t even allow for any of this. It’s a great point of differentiation, and the price point is pretty reasonable for this functionality.

The voice quality is pretty much on par with other noise canceling headsets out there. Jawbone calls it “NoiseAssassin”. Also if you are using an iPhone, you control the volume using the volume slider on your iPhone. I’m assuming that since there isn’t a volume button on the ICON itself, that this is true with other cell phones as well.

The Jawbone ICON retails for $99.99 and you can find it on Amazon for between $72.95 and $89.64 depending on the model.

The Giveaway

Given that Father’s Day is coming up, I thought that I would run another Twitter Giveaway so that you might have the possibility of getting a really cool gadget for your Dad! Hopefully you have read through all of the ICON’s details above.

Remember, you must READ and AGREE TO these RULES within the Giveaway section of my site (specifically the “Legal Stuff” section). The giveaway is limited to US Residents only (sorry). The Giveaway will run from 1 pm (Pacific) on 6/3/2010 until 1 pm (Pacific) on 6/10/10.

In order to enter the giveaway, head on over to the twtaway giveaway page and click on the Enter button or enter using the widget below:

You don’t have to follow me to win but it does help me to direct message you if you are chosen (randomly by twtaway) as the winner. There is only one winner. If the winner does not respond to the winner notification, I will select someone else. You only need to enter once but be sure that your name shows up on the twtaway page.

Also, DEPENDING ON AVAILABILITY, I got special permission to let you choose the style that you wish. I can’t guarantee that you will get the choice that you want but I will definitely try!

The Winner

Yes, we have a winner! Congrats to @victoria99999 for being randomly selected by twtaway.com as the winner of the ICON!

Disclosure Text : I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period. More information can be found in my About page as well as here.

HTD says: Whether you win or not, the Jawbone ICON is a great Bluetooth headset that will make just about anyone happy to have. So gift it to your dad for Father’s Day, get one for your significant other or just treat yourself to a nice Bluetooth headset.