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Motorola has announced a new Bluetooth headset called the H17txt, which has text-to-speech capabilities built in. The MotoSpeak system basically reads your texts messages to you when the headset is turned on, saving you from fiddling with your phone while, say, driving, but in order to work, you need to install a device-side application, which is currently available in the Android Market, and will work with BlackBerrys with OS 4.5 and up. The H17 txt will also read out turn-by-turn directions, and include battery level prompts and mute notifications. That little silver bit at the end flips shut and closed to start and end calls, which I have trouble imagining working especially well… Does that mean to start a call, I have to wedge my finger between my face and the headset to pop it out? Sounds awkward. As far as battery life goes, you’ll get 7 days standby or 5 hours of talk time, and it weighs a scant 9 G.
MotoSpeak sounds like a cool idea – it’ll be interesting to see Motorola include it in future Bluetooth headsets, and maybe even expand its capabilities to reading e-mails. You can pick up an H17txt from Verizon stores or online, but no mention of pricing. You can find more specs and pictures over at Motorola.
[via PRNewsWire]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
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