Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Outdoor Tech ADAPT Bluetooth Adapter for 3.5mm Devices (Black)

Outdoor Tech ADAPT Bluetooth Adapter for 3.5mm Devices
  • Bluetooth adapter for 3.5mm devices
  • Wirelessly connects headphones and stereos to Bluetooth-enabled devices
  • Includes a built-in mic
  • 9 hours of talk/listen time; 30-Feet distance
  • Measures 1.25 x 0.63 x 1.75 Inches

I've been considering a pair of bluetooth headphones for a while. My iPhone is my work phone, and I was tired of having to pause my music in my Grados to answer a call on speakerphone because my iPhone was docked. (I was listening to audio via the Mac, not the iPhone.

Now, I'm listening to audio from the phone via bluetooth, and when a call comes in, I tap the button on the ADAPT and answer the call. Much cheaper than buying a new pair of dedicated bluetooth headphones.

My one concern is how the battery holds up over time.

-----

Update: Still think the audio quality is great and that this is a good product. My only issue after a few weeks with it is that sometimes callers complain about audio quality of my voice when I'm using it.

Buy Outdoor Tech ADAPT Bluetooth Adapter for 3.5mm Devices (Black) Now

Just got it yesterday and tried it for 7 hours non-stop on 3 different devices. So far, I'm very happy with it. The OT Adaptor does exactly what it said on paper. Suddenly, all my old speakers and headsets became alive again.

The package only contain the adaptor, USB power cable and instruction manual. There's no power charger but that's not a problem since the USB cable can be used with any standard charger that came with phones, tablets or other bluetooth devices. If there's nothing available, you still can plug it into a computer's standard USB ports.

The instruction is very straight forward and in English only. But this is a very simple device. The forward, backward, volume+/are very basic. The only thing to learn is how to use the center button (they called it multi functional button which is quite accurate). Hold it for couple seconds to turn on/off with blue/red light indicators (blue is on, red is off). Hold it longer than that and the adaptor will go into pairing mode with blue/red indicators flashing simultaneously. To take calls/hang up, tab the center button once. To pause music/movie, tab the same button once while the music/movie was playing. Very very simple to the point of no learning curve at all.

The design of the device is ok. It doesn't get all futuristic or head turner gorgeous but It feels really nice and solid in the hand despise the very compact size. However, it would be better to have more color to choose from.

My only complains are 1. There's no way to check battery level. Most of my bluetooth devices has a way or two to check the battery level either by pressing a button on the device or use another software to show battery level on my phones. This problem can be fix via software upgrade so I hope OT will come up with a solution in the future. 2. What's with a proprietary USB power cable. All my other devices including phones, headsets, tablets, speakers even my portable router use micro USB so I only need to carry one cable and a charger. I was very disappointed when I saw the OT adaptor came with their own design USB cable. Shouldn't be that hard to replace the port on the device and use micro USB instead. I saw other companies did this before but finally realize their mistake and switch to micro USB. Hopefully OT would do the same.

The battery last long. much longer than my bluetooth headsets. I was wondering at first if I had to clip the adaptor on my shirt when making a call so the microphone will pickup my voice better but designed to clip it on my pants' pocket like they did on their website and it still works great.

Hopes this help

More: After been using it for about a week, I still found new ways to use this adaptor. First, I connected it to my car's aux port using an aux cable. The adaptor turned the car stereo into a bluetooth which was nice. Second, I connected the adaptor to my office stereo and control all the musics using my phone. The battery actually last 7 hours.

Two more complain is that it's a little hard to turn it on. Sometime I had to hold the center button a little longer and it still wasn't turn on. Another complain is the microphone quality. I've got complain from the other end said that my voice wasn't clear. Still happy with overall performance.

Read Best Reviews of Outdoor Tech ADAPT Bluetooth Adapter for 3.5mm Devices (Black) Here

It is an awsome concept. I love being able to have this free me from direct connection to the handset, plus to be able to use my own high quality buds! with that said Outdoor Tech please note:

-The device has volume limitations so you cannot truly 'jam'

-takes a loooong time to pair even after initial paring...

-there are consistent 'breaks' in songs/video sound even though the iphone/ipad is right next to the ADAPT and fully charged as is the iphone/iPad

-people on calls were consistently complaining that the reception on my end was poor. again the phone was 3 feet away on my desk

Have others had similar experiences?

Want Outdoor Tech ADAPT Bluetooth Adapter for 3.5mm Devices (Black) Discount?

For its tiny size and weight, this adapter is amazing. Clip it to your pocket or shirt and use any set of headphones or ear buds you wish. Use the supplied audio cable to connect to your nearby stereo system from your smart phone, and do other flexible things with it. Easy, fast charge (2 hours or so) from any USB port, and the charge has so far lasted about 12 hours of intermittent play time for me through the last few weeks, and still going strong. Read the brief instruction sheet carefully regarding on/off, pairing, answering a phone call (if you're using a smart phone), etc. All of it is done with the one multi-function button in the middle (and its little green and red lights). That is not a criticism, but a comment that reflects today's trend toward master control buttons that have to do "everything" to save space. You just have to get used to it. I have already recommended this thing to others. It's great, and the price is cheap for all its capabilities.

I've just tested this bluetooth gadget for two days on my ski helmet. It works great. The challenge with getting tunes into your helmet is finding a good set of earphone inserts AND a good way to control the music device, while also allowing you to get to the controller easily. The earphone inserts aren't that hard to locate. I used both the Skullcandy dropins and the Red_Phones from Burton. They have essentially the same audio quality in the helmet, and also have standard 3.5mm jacks and cables to connect to your device.

Controlling your music device, in my case an iPhone 4s, is a little more difficult. The Red_Phones only allow you to control volume and have a simple mute button, so you can't move tracks forward or back, and can't pause a song. The Skullcandy controller lets you change volume and tracks, but the button on the controller is very sensitive, and I found it a real pain to use accurately. And with both units you still have a wire from your helmet snaking somewhere inside your coat to the player. Not a big problem, but I'd rather have nothing connecting the helmet to the jacket.

So after way too much research, I began looking into bluetooth devices that would be small enough to attach to my helmet, and still allow easy controls for the phone. I stumbled across the ADAPT adapter, and for $40 thought I'd give it a try.

I spent two full days with the adapter, and clipped it to a variety of places on my jacket collar, goggle headband, and finally on the earpad of the helmet itself. Mounted there, the unit is always easy to find. The buttons are still a bit too small to operate when I have gloves on, but it was really easy to slip off my glove and adjust volume, tracks, even answer my phone with the built-in microphone.

The real beauty, in my opinion, is how clean the connection between the headphone inserts and the adapter becomes. The thing weighs practically nothing, and now I'm free of wires. I'm very happy.

The sound quality seems the same as when I had the wired versions working, perhaps a bit less loud at full volume. The adapter paired with the iPhone pretty easily, and the connection didn't drop once in my weekend of use. Also, I had read that the buttons might freeze up in the cold, but today was 8 degrees and windy. No problem with the buttons at all.

I'll try to post photographs of this elegant hookup on the product page somewhere. It's a simple and lovely installation.

No comments:

Post a Comment