Headset 'assassinates' stray noise

Accessories
I don't know how they do it: people who talk on their mobile phones, despite the rudest noises around them.

I'm thinking of the cops on Blue Hill Avenue, engrossed in conversation, despite all the jackhammers and honking cabbies. Or the caregivers at one pricey Milton daycare center, nattering on pink Razr phones while kids run riot in the playground.

The latest Jawbone (jawbone.com) Bluetooth headset promises to reward such masochists with crystal-clear sound. Even the folks on the other end of that call will hear your voice, and not the airplane noises, or gunfire, in your world.

The new Jawbone uses a technology, NoiseAssassin, originally developed for DARPA. It is the kind of stuff war fighters might use to communicate from a carrier flight deck, or an Afghani battlefield. Simply put, NoiseAssassin senses your voice, and separates it from the noises around you, according to the Jawbone's maker, Aliph.

The Jawbone 2 is as much a fashion accessory as it is a headset, despite its not-so-delicate-sounding name. About half the size of the original, it weighs roughly 10 grams. It has two discreet control buttons and will soon be available in black, silver, and gold. (It's available only in black at the moment.)

The Jawbone 2 (about $130 through AT&T, and at the Jawbone website) comes with two stitched-leather ear loops and two slim ear loops that fit nicely under eyeglass frames.

It functions for about eight days between charges, or four hours of talk time.

Mobile Phones

Gorgeous device has more than a bit of iPhone-like quality

We Yanks can finally get our hands on the kind of gorgeous mobile phone that usually seems to be reserved for the rest of the world (save for the iPhone). The LG Vu is a broad, flat, iPhone-like device, with a haptic display (a touch screen that vibrates when you touch it). It's a beauty.

The Web, e-mail and chat, TV shows (or at least bits of them), and games all are a tap away.

And, thank the gods, the Vu's interface is so clear and simple you don't need a manual to learn how to make a phone call. (The Vu is also a one-touch speakerphone.) The buttons adjacent to one end of the screen toss you into phone mode, and will back you out of various menus.

As a music player, the Vu supports MP3, WMA, and AAC formats. It also includes a high-resolution 2-megapixel camera.

As I mentioned, the Vu is flat: about a half-inch thick, and weighing in a hair over three ounces.

It's available for about $250 after a rebate and with a two-year contract through AT&T (wireless.att.com) .

USB gadgets

Mouth-watering drives

I'm a sucker for cutesy gadgets, which is why I'm always showing you useless stuff I find at Firebox and ThinkGeek. I've got another cool vendor for you. But you might have to wait a bit longer for the goodies to arrive from Hong Kong.

The company, Vavolo.com, has some of the goofiest gadgets ever. The Vavolo site is a mess, but if you dig around a little, you'll find Freshly Baked USB drives, from fortune cookies and hamburgers to doughnuts and pizza.

But what about dessert? Vavolo has a Cake Royale lineup of drives, due out this month, which look like intricately detailed cake slices. They even come in tiny cake boxes.

My favorite is the French Mille-Feuille. But you might prefer the Black Forest Cake.

No word on pricing yet for the cake drives, but a 2GB Strawberry Donut USB drive costs about $50, plus $4 for shipping, worldwide.

Vavolo also sells spy gear, USB warming slippers, and those hard-to-find green laser pointers. The laser pointers start at about $40.

Innovative last week

A gyroscope to help steady your swing

I guess I was born too early for technology to make me a better golfer. For all the buckets of balls I knocked out at the driving range in Queens, where I grew up, my performance at the tee can be downright humiliating. I'm not talking about hooking and slicing. I mean topping the ball, repeatedly, and watching it dribble toward the ladies' tee.

A company called Sklz recently announced what sounds like a brilliant training tool for bringing any hack's swing into line. The Gyro Swing is a driver with a 20,000 r.p.m. gyroscope (battery operated) in the head, which forces your swing into a perfect plane - or so they say.

It's about $220 at Sklz.com.

Mark Baard can be reached at mark@baard.com