Wandering bluetooths
I want to get one thing straight at the outset: the plural of “bluetooth” is “bluetooths,” not “blueteeth.”
And don’t be misled by all those nitpicky claims (this, for example) that there is no plural of “bluetooth” because it’s an adjective modifying “headset” or “speaker” or “connective device” or the like. Yes, it is. But that’s not the way people use the word – they say “bluetooth” to mean the thing itself. And so I have arbitrarily chosen “bluetooths” as my plural, because “blueteeth” sounds too much like – well, like blue teeth.
I have a great many bluetooths. That’s because I have an arm disability that means that holding a phone up to my ear for any longer than a minute or so can spark various kinds of pain. And, since I like to talk on the phone for lengthy periods – at least, with certain people – I have an assortment of the finest bluetooths in the land, about four of them.
But one is my very favorite. It has best sound, both outgoing and incoming, and a near-perfect fit in my ear. Therein lies another idiosyncrasy – my ear is quite small and over-the-ear devices don’t work, although full headsets do. So with a small bluetooth I have to use the in-ear sorts with the rubber tips, and it’s necessary to have the tips that come in several sizes because I need a small size.
Have I succeeded in boring you sufficiently yet? And I haven’t even come to the meat of the post – which is that bluetooths are very easy to lose and once lost they are hard to find. Most are black or white; maybe I should get one in shocking pink, but I haven’t seen any.
However, all bluetooths are small, and they lack those gizmos that make it possible to call them and have them beep back. So when they’re lost in some crevice or other – and many of these crevices seem to lie in wait in my purses – they sometimes stay lost for quite a while.
I had a whole stable of my favorite type, but over the years, one by one they’ve bitten the dust. One even committed suicide by having its “on/off” switch break in a way that made it non-repairable.
And you probably can guess the rest – which is that now they’ve stopped making that model, and a lot of people online say that its supposed replacement is much much worse. I can buy ones from China for a song that are supposedly new and purport to be the type I’m looking for, but I don’t believe they’re new at all, and in the US people are selling used ones (ugh – a used earpiece!) for many hundreds of dollars.
I don’t even necessarily want to find one of the old ones, and that’s why I haven’t named what brand and model it is. I recently lost my last one and found it again, so the need isn’t all that pressing at the moment. But for the future I’d actually like to break my dependence on this type and would prefer to branch out to something new and readily available – readily available, that is, until they stop making that one, too.
[NOTE: It occurs to me that maybe I should start a new blog category called something like, “me and my war with gadgets, or gadgets’ war with me.”]
NEO: “However, all bluetooths are small, and they lack those gizmos that make it possible to call them and have them beep back”
Actually….. they do…
Samsung: The “Find my earbuds” feature connects to the earbuds through an IR sensor. If external nearby sources interfere with the signal, the connection may be interrupted and the beeping may not be heard properly.r buds can let out a find me beep
Apple: You can easily find your AirPods using the Find My app on your iPhone..
Given i do not know what you have, and what app you have, i could not help beyond this… so sorry.
Oh.. i forgot..
Since they are bluetooth… you can download a bluetooth scanner app and kind of play hot and cold… ie… move over here, signal weaker.. move over there signal stronger… etc…
Find My Bluetooth Device
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.findmybluetooth.headset.headphones.devices
There are no impossible missions for this bluetooth device finder. Wireless headphones, ‘earbuds’, ‘speakers’, bluetooth wearable, bluetooth phone – track down any kind of device. You can freely toss your headphones anywhere you like because the bluetooth headset locator will make sure you find them the next time you need them. This bluetooth device finder app works with headphones from all famous brands. Turn on the ‘bluetooth device radar’ and keep walking around the room! When you get near the missing item, the meter will enter the red hot zone, and your search will be over. Hurry up before your batteries run out!
They are after all sending out a beacon till the batteries die out…
Artfldgr:
Thanks! I have a Samsung phone. However, I usually turn my bluetooth off when not in use. But I’ll try your suggestion with it on.
you should try aftershoks. They do not fit in the ear, but rather over the ear and are bone technology. Very nice units.
I use Bluetooth as a verb as in my iPhone Bluetooths to my hearing aids. My iPhone Bluetooths to my truck. My mouse Bluetooths to my computer and so on.
Edward Hines:
Thanks. I just looked up “bone technology” and I’m amazed that such a thing exists. However, I’m not at all sure the over-the-ear design will work for me. As I said, my ears are small – really small – and when I’ve tried to use over-the-ear bluetooths in the past, they just fall off after a moment, or when I move.
Neo, nail polish or craft acrylic paint is something I use to mark items. You might try a little paint to help you find a missing item.
Would recommend ear transplants. Two very large ones with full electronic capabilities. Called cochlear digitalic elephantiasis . To cover, wear a 1950s blonde big-hair wig. Move to Cleveland. Cha, cha, change your mind and start a new blog. Form follows function.
“when I’ve tried to use over-the-ear bluetooths in the past, they just fall off after a moment, or when I move.”
Duck tape to the rescue! 😉
“But that’s not the way people use the word – they say “bluetooth” to mean the thing itself. ”
Useless but true data point: I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used that way, as in “a bluetooth.” In my experience “Bluetooth” is always followed by the name of the device–“speaker” or whatever. Or maybe that’s avoided by making it a reference to the technology, not to a specific device, as in “connect it with Bluetooth.”
Mac:
I’m not talking about how it’s officially referred to in the trade or by people writing about the devices in order to sell them or repair them. I’m just talking about when non-tech people speak to each other – as in “I lost my bluetooth!” or “Are you using your bluetooth?” or “Why don’t you get a bluetooth rather than holding the phone for so long?”
I never heard of the bone conduction thing! I might even consider getting a set. What I really hate is the earbuds, inside the ear.
Maybe a blog called “Wonderful things, I’ve loved for years, that disappeared.”
That keeps happening to me more and more it seems.
I have some Costco hearing aids that transmit at BlueTooth frequency if there is a BT source around the room, e.g. smart phone. The fidelity is astonishing. I think there are several Apple apps that will find lost devices.
Cornflour:
I’ll take it under advisement 🙂 .
Ok, having established the proper form, how do you pronounce “Bluetooths”? Is it a hard TH, or a soft TH?
Personally, I’m hearing it in a Joe Pesci from My Cousin Vinny pronouncing “yooooouuuuttthhhs” sort of sound.
Bored? Heck no. About every 3 months, I feel the need to buy a new bluetooth device. I agree with artfldgr, but I too have a Samsung phone and I can’t use their earbuds. I have some sort of allergic reaction to them, and just a minute of use can cause swelling and other unpleasant things. Yet I love them and just wish they made them some other way that didn’t cause a reaction.
My daily are Sony WF-1000XM3. Not as quiet as the over the ear WH-1000XM3, but better than anything else I’ve used. I like my Bose QC2 for travelling. The Bose also utilize Bluetooth mutlipoint capability to connect two devices simultaneously, so I can listen to music on my phone while being able to hear my computer IP phone ring for a conference call and easily switch to a call. I’d like a quality earbud that could do this.
I like my Jabra 65t and 75t for talking but not so much for music. Ultimately, I prefer the Jabra Evolve65 for conference calls on the computer over any other device.
I have a few sets of inexpensive IPX8 earbuds for swimming. They work well for their purpose.
The aftershokz look very interesting. I’ve have blockage in one ear that has reduced hearing despite a fully healthy cochlear nerve. I also want something open ear, so seems like a win win.
Neo: “I’m just talking about when non-tech people speak to each other….”
Right, that’s what I’m talking about, too. I wonder if maybe people just don’t use those earpieces as much where I live. I hadn’t thought about it but I hardly ever see anyone out and about using one, though I frequently see people talking on their phones in public in the usual not-hands-free way.
Re bone conduction: Back in the ’70s there was a “headset” called the Bone Fone. I remember seeing kids with them once or twice, and tried on a set once and it was pretty good sound. I think they flopped because they were too heavy for regular wear and obviously didn’t shut out other sounds.
https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/Screen%20Shot%202013-09-09%20at%2012.35.06%20PM.png
and the paywalled article: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/bone-fone-the-terror/279474/
(The name made me giggle because Mad Magazine cartoonist Don Martin regularly used “Mr. Fonebone” as a character name.)
Plurals can be funny. If you’re talking about the things on a tree, you’d say “one leaf, many leaves”, but if you’re talking about electric cars, you’d say “one Leaf, many Leafs”.
(Which is why Tolkien was right and the plural of dwarf is “dwarves”. Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!)
geoffb:
Exactly. When products are too good, that’s when the manufacturer “improves” them out of existence.
Right, that’s what I’m talking about, too. I wonder if maybe people just don’t use those earpieces as much where I live. I hadn’t thought about it but I hardly ever see anyone out and about using one, though I frequently see people talking on their phones in public in the usual not-hands-free way.
People in Greater Mobile don’t wish to be mistaken for schizophrenics chatting with their auditory hallucinations. It’s not status-neutral the way it is in New York.
There may be something to that, AD. I do have a vague impression that it’s considered a little uncool.
Out of curiosity, I asked my wife what she’d think was meant if she heard someone refer to “a bluetooth.” She just looked puzzled.
What he said above.
https://aftershokz.com/
Get the Aeropex model. Absolutely brilliant bone conduction headset. They’re the perfect headset for around the house and also in environments where you need to maintain situational awareness. I bought a pair after the Z Man (pbuh) recommended them. Living in Lagos by the Chesapeake, you simply cannot walk around with noise cancelling headphones and expect to survive long.
Bit harder to lose because larger than regular earbuds (although featherweight).
They’re good for listening to podcasts in nature during walks. You can still enjoy birdsong and the sound of bubbling brooks.
Neo, I don’t know how up-to-date your phone is, but if it’s of similar vintage to your laptop, you might also consider springing for something new and top-of-the-line: latest and greatest phones have amazingly good speakerphone performance. Nothing like what you’re probably used to. Modern flagship phones have so much processing power that they can easily do a bunch of digital signal processing on the fly to get rid of feedback, echoes, wind noise, etc. I think in the past more people were anti-speakerphone because the poor audio implied subliminally a certain detachment from and discourtesy to the other caller. I find this less so now that quality is much improved.
@Bryan Lovely:
I remember the Bone Phone… used to be advertised in magazines along with magical super tough digital watches you could freeze or boil. Those were the days.
Since we’re talking headphones, in iPhoneOS 15 just out, it’s trivial to do your own audio testing via an app and store each ear’s frequency response profiles in Apple Health. Then you can have it adjust response of each headphone channel to compensate for any chunks of the spectrum you’re deficient in. Have yet to try this, so YMMV.
@ Bryan > “Which is why Tolkien was right and the plural of dwarf is “dwarves”.”
I would never dispute with Tolkien about anything linguistic (and that is my preferred plural anyway); however, Wikipedia’s list shows that English-speakers long ago started simplifying some of the irregularities — but that doesn’t mean we have to fall into line.
It’s interesting to see that some doubles are still viable, and some have definitively swung to the new form (–fs).
I wonder what the psychological or linguistic driver is for the morphing?
These have kept the old form, and so far as I know, the -fs or -fes is not in common use, although I bet you can find some blogger or even reputable media author using them.
But:
Other exceptions, which I don’t think have ever used the -ves form:
Here’s a handy list, in case you want to check your spell-checker:
https://www.thoughtco.com/irregular-plural-nouns-in-english-1692634
Trivia answer to the question no one is asking: in Welsh, “f” is pronounced “v” in all words, so there might be some etymological connection between the -ves plurals and Wales.
@ Neo > “When products are too good, that’s when the manufacturer “improves” them out of existence.”
When I find something I really like, I tend to buy several of them, because they are guaranteed to be “improved” past all recognition (happened to my favorite pair of shoes when I went back for replacements) or discontinued (too many items to count, mostly foods).
Other than those China made gadgets sent everything from here to there and a Chinese security operator is recording everything sad.
OK, I’m kidding, I think.
@Skip:
Neo’s Android phone is more likely sending everything she says and does to the NSA.
You’d all be better off if only the Inscrutable Chinese alone had all your online activities.
Near Enemy vs. Far Enemy.
Think.
Widex in-ear hearing aids.
Excellent blue tooth capability w/ an accessory pendant worn around your neck. Best phone quality (both directions) I have ever had.
Expensive. And the size of pistachio nuts, so easy to lose.
I recommend them highly. I do NOT recommend losing them (they are PRICEY).
}}} bone technology
Lolz, it’s actually been around for decades.
At one point — back in the early 90s, I’m pretty sure — there was a “headphone” that you wore over your shoulders… Think of two fairly small bricks… About 3″×2″×1″… Connected by a 1.5″ rubber cable… And covered with velvet. All nice and soft, though i never wore one, just demo’d it… The weight was possibly an issue.
It rested on your collar bones, worked quite well, by sending the vibration of the music through your skeleton. You literally perceived it as in your ears, and you posdef felt the bass. :-p
My biggest complaint about independent ear buds is SYNCing them. That’s always an extra step fraught w/irritation…
FWIW, Bluetooth is a communications technology standard, the mechanism, akin to “WiFi” which carries the comms. As opposed to wifi, it is more limited to range and very limited as to security.
The devices are usually called “headphones” or “earbuds”, depending on how they work. Headphones are generally one unit, and usually fit over the ear.
I have a pair that is connected, but the “earbud part”, separates with a long thin wire and fits into the ear. Seems to be the best of both worlds, as it’s harder to lose them, and no Syncing issues. Plus range and battery life is much better, thanks to the main body.
At one point — back in the early 90s, I’m pretty sure — there was a “headphone” that you wore over your shoulders… Think of two fairly small bricks… About 3?×2?×1?… Connected by a 1.5? rubber cable… And covered with velvet. All nice and soft, though i never wore one, just demo’d it… The weight was possibly an issue.
OBloodyHell:
That would be the “Bone Fone”! a tech friend was always up on stuff like that. He had a pair in the 80s.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NUudOVHAFlI/U_J0tkV7JfI/AAAAAAABbgY/t2gUbEGaIh4/s1600/bone_phone.jpg
I notice he didn’t wear it much beyond a few times.
“But that’s not the way people use the word – they say “bluetooth” to mean the thing itself. ”
Bluetooth® Is a registered trademark (duh). Has been since about the time it was adopted as a standard. I was peripherally involved with it’s early adoption by the dominant cell phone maker at that time. One of the things that they teach you in an IP (intellectual property) class in law school is about Genericide. It’s when a specific, typically registered, trademark (or service mark) becomes the generic description of something. The classic example is the “Xerox” mark, which ultimately grew to encompass photocopying in general. And since the power of a mark is the extent that it uniquely identify a product or service in the minds of their target market, the owner of the mark essentially loses its exclusivity. It takes a lot of high priced legal work to maintain marks as they become ubiquitous. Coke, Kodak, IBM, and many other companies have fought this battle, and. So far, mostly won. Xerox, among others, lost.
Legally, what you should still be doing is using is using Bluetooth® as an adjective, instead of as a noun or verb. Thus “Bluetooth® headsets” might have been better – except that everyone here knew that was what you meant with “bluetooths”. And that means that the mark has essentially become generic, and the owners of the mark have lost control over it. Which in turn means that either “bluetooths” or “blueteeth” is probably acceptable, but the consensus seems to be towards the former.
Of course, being a contrarian, who likes playing with words, I prefer “blueteeth”. But then I also use Lexae as the plural for Lexus.
Keep something else in mind though. There is really nothing in the mark Bluetooth® that inherently ties the product (the Bluetooth® standard) to the mark, except for usage. That is because fanciful marks (line Bluetooth®) are typically the easiest to develop and protect. There is almost assuredly no real inherent tie between the mark and the product, since if there were, it could be exploited to weaken the mark. It is fairly difficult to get trademark protection over any mark that could be described as merely descriptive. It is far easier to get such with fanciful or otherwise unique marks. Which suggests that you treat “bluetooth” generically as just a group of characters, instead of looking for and deeper meaning.
BTW, this wasn’t legal advice, though at one point earlier in my life, I used to dispense such in this area of the law. Mostly patents, but enough C/R and TM to be dangerous.
For those curious, Bluetooth is named after the King of Denmark and Norway way back when. I knew that, but not this explanation from wiki:
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The Bluetooth wireless specification design was named after the king in 1997,[26] based on an analogy that the technology would unite devices the way Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. The Bluetooth logo consists of a Younger Futhark bind rune for his initials, H (?) and B (?).
_________________________________________
I hated Bluetooth for a long time. It was classic bleeding-edge technology and I don’t know how many hours I lost trying to get various BT connections to work.
It seems like it’s finally ready for prime time.
I agree with huxley in my feelings about Bluetooth until recently. I find it most useful to me for wandering about the house doing chores listening to music play loudly on headphones while my wife can watch her TV in peace. Phones, nah, I’ve hated phones my entire life. All they did was wake this 2nd shift guy up for some telemarketer’s stupid pitch. Mine are always on mute with voicemail going to my email.
EBay Neo. EBay is your friend.
Buy a stockpile of these favorites and keep them in a safe place.
So… As long as we’re on the plurals thing…
Would more than one Melmackian be ALFs or ALVes… ?
😛
AManOfTheWest:
EBay only has the Chinese ripoffs that are being sold for almost nothing, take about 4 months to arrive, and which I suspect are either not the real thing and/or are “pre-owned.” I don’t want used ones to put in my ear.
Bruce Hayden: ‘ everyone here knew that was what you meant with “bluetooths”’
Not everyone. 🙂 Seriously, I had never heard the word “bluetooth” used that way, or for matter in that plural form, and was puzzled by the title of the post. Seems I’m the only one here, though.
I use wired earphones. $10 and they stay with me and the phone.
One day i was talking to my brother. He was wearing his fancy $160 Apple ear buds. He was out walking his dog. i had snowed. He bent over to take care of the dog and one bud fell into a snow bank. Gone forever. I laughed at him.
Have you tried the bone conduction headphones?
I see I’m not the first to suggest it.
I don’t think the size of the ear matters, since the target is the bone in front of the ear where the mandible attaches. That’s a matter of the size of your head.
I really like my bone conduction headphones because the sound quality is great, and it leaves my ear canals open. This means I can hear environmental sounds (beep, beep; hey you), and moisture is NOT trapped in the ear canal.
Wonderful gadget.
What Karl Lembke said:
I’ll also add that the Aeropex bone conduction headsets behave fairly well with spectacles despite having a thin loop going over each ear.
For listening to stuff around the house whilst doing chores, I also like these cheap ass bluetooth speakers:
https://www.amazon.com/Enhanced-Splashproof-Portable-Bluetooth-Radiator/dp/B010OYASRG
Can use them as a speakerphone too, but I’ve never bothered.
small ears or not, the aftershokz fit everyone. The design provides snug fit. Try them. If they dont fit they will accept the return. Dont think you are special cause you have small ears.
Bruce Hayden —
But then I also use Lexae as the plural for Lexus.
Shouldn’t that be “Lexi”?
(Analogizing from alumnus/alumni vs. alumna/alumnae.)
Bryan Lovely:
Correct. If Lexus were a Latin regular second declension masculine noun and not an imaginary word Honda came up with.
There are benefits to a Catholic school education.
Wiki is interesting:
___________________________________
In 1986, Toyota’s longtime advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi formed a specialized unit, Team One, to handle marketing for the new brand. Image consulting firm Lippincott & Margulies was hired to develop a list of 219 prospective names; Vectre, Verone, Chaparel, Calibre and Alexis were chosen as top candidates. While Alexis quickly became the front runner, concerns were raised that the name applied to people more than cars (being associated with the Alexis Carrington character on the popular 1980s prime time drama Dynasty). As a result, the first letter was removed and the “i” replaced with a “u” to morph the name to Lexus.
I have a set of the Aftershokz bone conduction headphones – one of the older models, the Trekz Titanium. The sound quality is…okay, good for spoken word material like podcasts, but not what I’d call acceptable for music. In fairness, the newer models might be better, I just haven’t had a chance to try them. The bigger problem that I ran into was that the sound quality of the microphone was fairly poor; it seemed to pick up background noise better than it picked up my voice. It does appear that there’s a new version that has a boom-style microphone (the Opencomm) which I haven’t tried yet. After starting to work from home due to COVID last year, I gave up on Bluetooth headsets and switched to a set of Plantronics Blackwire C725 USB wired headphones for teleconferences. They work decently for music, but more importantly, voice quality of the microphone is excellent with much better rejection of background noise than almost anything else I’ve tried…and I don’t have to worry about flaky Bluetooth connections or the battery dying. 🙂 My wife uses the Jabra Evolve 40, which has the option to use a 1/8″ headphone plug, with a wired adaptor for her iPhone for the same reason – when you’re on the phone 4-6 hours a day, Bluetooth still doesn’t cut it.
Like others in this discussion, I’ve probably had a dozen or more Bluetooth headsets over the years, and for the most part, they were junk. Crummy audio, terrible microphones, short battery life, iffy connections. About the only ones that I’ve found to be repeatably reliable and good for all-around use are the Apple AirPods. Others sound better for music, others have better battery life, but none have better microphones and none are as convenient or reliable.