Headsets

[Caher]

Whilst cycling to work this morning it occurred to me that I could do some of the routine tasks like paying my bills etc using a phone headset – has anyone tried to use one while cycling?
I should also say that the majority of my journey is off-road along a river which is virtually free from other humans. I wouldn’t use it on the road.

 

[Tony Raven]

Caher wrote:
> Whilst cycling to work this morning it occurred to me that I could do
> some of the routine tasks like paying my bills etc using a phone
> headset – has anyone tried to use one while cycling?

IME wind noise tends to be a problem with most mobile phone mikes when
on the move

Tony

 

[Kennedy Fraser]

Tony Raven wrote:
> Caher wrote:
>
>> Whilst cycling to work this morning it occurred to me that I could do
>> some of the routine tasks like paying my bills etc using a phone
>> headset – has anyone tried to use one while cycling?
>
>
> IME wind noise tends to be a problem with most mobile phone mikes when
> on the move
>

Not to mention the heavy breathing down the phone.

Kennedy

 

[Arthur Clune]

Tony Raven <[email protected]> wrote:

: IME wind noise tends to be a problem with most mobile phone mikes when
: on the move

I'll second this. I've answered my mobile while riding at 20mph (with
both hands off the bars to fiddle with it [1]), and it was very hard to
have a sensible conversation.

Arthur

[1] Don't try this at home, kids.

--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
Don't get me wrong, perl is an OK operating system, but it lacks a
lightweight scripting language -- Walter Dnes

 

[Brian G]

Arthur Clune wrote:
I've answered my mobile while riding at 20mph (with
> both hands off the bars to fiddle with it [1]), and it was very hard to
> have a sensible conversation.
>

> [1] Don't try this at home, kids.

Why not? Seems much safer than trying it on the road.

--
Brian G

 

[Ross Hamilton]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:07:36 +1100, Caher wrote in
<[email protected]>, seen in uk.rec.cycling:

> Whilst cycling to work this morning it occurred to me that I could do
> some of the routine tasks like paying my bills etc using a phone
> headset – has anyone tried to use one while cycling?

The wind noise makes them unusable, even if you're on a route (such as
your riverside one) with no motor traffic.

I thought it would be a good idea too...

--
Ross, in Lincoln
Reply-to address will bounce; replace "junk-trap" with "me" for e-mail

 

[Richard Goodman]

Ross Hamilton wrote:

>The wind noise makes them unusable, even if you're on a route (such as
>your riverside one) with no motor traffic.
>
>I thought it would be a good idea too...
>
>

Unusable? Well, not totally. I've held quite long conversations in
this way, but it does require a certain amount of patience on both sides
- you have to be prepared to repeat yourself and not travel too fast,
and the other party has to be prepared to put up with a 'bad line'
(wind/traffic noise) and perhaps be attuned to your voice - just about
ok for talking to someone you know well when you have to do it and don't
want to stop. But I agree that if you were trying to deal with banks
and utility co. call centres etc they'd probably just tell you to call
back on a better line - or you'd have to stop to deal with the call,
which defeats the idea.

Rich

 

[Zog The Undeniable]

Tony Raven wrote:

> IME wind noise tends to be a problem with most mobile phone mikes when
> on the move

We use voice recognition for the internal phone book at work. It
doesn't cope with external noise very well, even from a caller inside a car.

Amusingly, during trials someone started swearing at it. "Did you want
Phil Luck?", it replied...

 

[Ross Hamilton]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 16:52:54 +0000, Richard Goodman wrote in
<1110819189.142c7e97a79d2ac38a21e6eb3b70ef6f@teranews>, seen in
uk.rec.cycling:
> Ross Hamilton wrote:
>
> >The wind noise makes them unusable, even if you're on a route (such as
> >your riverside one) with no motor traffic.
> >
> >I thought it would be a good idea too...
>
> Unusable? Well, not totally.

I found that mine was. But then I'm in Windsville UK here... ;-)


> I've held quite long conversations in
> this way, but it does require a certain amount of patience on both sides
> - you have to be prepared to repeat yourself and not travel too fast,
> and the other party has to be prepared to put up with a 'bad line' [...]

Unfortunately at the time the other party (or at least the one whose
calls were most important) was liable to be on a line that was not
merely bad but downright awful at the best of times.


--
Ross, in Lincoln
Reply-to address will bounce; replace "junk-trap" with "me" for e-mail

 

[Tony Raven]

Kennedy Fraser wrote:
>
> Not to mention the heavy breathing down the phone.
>

Well don't phone those sorts of phone numbers then ;-)

Tony