Aura Communications is coming out with a cheap wireless headset for cellphones called the foneGEAR that uses magnetic induction rather than Bluetooth or other radio frequency technology to connect to its base station (which then connects to the handset). The foneGEAR works at a different, lower, frequency than Bluetooth, which uses the same overcrowded 2.4GHz band as WiFi, cordless phones, etc., so it’s not subject to as much interference as a Bluetooth headset. When not in use, the foneGEAR pops into the base station to be recharged. Incredibly, a single AA battery in the base station can recharge the headset for up to 25 hours of talk time and three months of standby.
Of course, one of the benefits to having a phone with built-in Bluetooth is that you don’t have to have to plug in a separate adapter, so despite its advantages, unless manufacturers are going to start building this technology into the phones themselves (which seems unlikely), we suspect the foneGEAR will have difficult time displacing Bluetooth.
