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I hate Bluetooth headsets. They all have two problems: they’re uncomfortable and battery life sucks. Considering that making phone calls more comfortable is the whole point of a wireless headset, Bluetooth sets are generally garbage. But recently I’ve seen a positive change, thanks mostly to two recent headsets. One of those is the Plantronics Marque M155.

Unsurprisingly, the Marque is sleek and small, measuring at 2” long and a quarter inch wide and thick. It has one “home” button on the outside, an on/off switch on the bottom, and a volume rocker on the top. A microUSB connector fits snugly on the back. A glossy black finish with silver rims gives the Marque a very clean design, even though the glossy surface picks up fingerprints all too easily. On a device this small, that’s barely noticeable, if ever. I have to say that it looks very similar to the iPhone 4/4S. Or at least the black model.

While I wouldn’t call it an innovation, the key ingredient to the Marque’s success as a BT headset is the lightweight build. It’s tiny, and after wearing it for several hours on my admittedly sensitive ears, I wasn’t bothered by it whatsoever. No other on-ear headset I’ve tested has worked so successfully like the Marque. Plantronics offers a number of different wear styles, including a speaker cover (designed to stay in the ear without pressing against it tightly), which can be worn with or without the plastic ear claw. In any case, users have four major choices of how to wear the Marque. My personal preference has been to use the claw, which delegates the Marque’s weight between the top and inside ear.

Battery life is spectacular. Claiming just five hours of talk time, I’m impressed by the idle time. I left the Marque on for several days while making calls on and off and it lasted – on the original charge – for four days. That is to say, without even charging it once myself. Straight out of the box, it lasted four days with moderate use. After fully charging it for the first time, the Marque can last up to a week with conservative use, and easily several days (anywhere from 4-6 hours of consecutive talk time per charge).

Another long-time problem with Bluetooth is the difficulty in setting it up. Pairing devices is cumbersome, even for seasoned technophiles. Plantronics solves this with two methods. The first is a voiced step-by-step walkthrough when first turning on the device, which is exceptional. The second, specific to iOS and Android devices, is an app that helps users pair the Marque (or any Bluetooth device) to the phone. The app may seem overkill for just a pairing process, but Plantronics includes a number of additional features in the app to make it worth keeping.

When first testing the Marque with my iPhone, I was surprised to find that immediately after pairing an icon of a Bluetooth headset with a gauge sat beside the battery life percentage. I don’t know how Plantronics managed it (and will update with an answer when I get one), but that gauge actually shows battery life of the headset. To my knowledge the Marque is the only headset to do this, and it only works on the iPhone. Android devices did not display any icon specific to the Marque.

Because the Marque is capable of voice commands (internally, not the phone’s voice command functions), there are a number of useful features found only on this headset. Every time the Marque is powered on, it states how much battery life it has left, for talk time. Users can answer calls by simply saying “answer”, or “ignore” to ignore the call. This feature isn’t perfect; I’ve found that about 25% of the time the Marque failed to answer the call because it either didn’t hear what I said or didn’t understand the command. When it does work, it makes for a really hands-free device. Users don’t even have to press the talk button on the headset.

The aforementioned app, MyHeadset(which is different on iOS and Android, with far more options on iOS), includes a pairing guide and walkthrough, a sound-check (so you can confirm that the headset is working properly before making a call), two (dumb) games, and even product support. For confirming that the audio works alone the app is invaluable…I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve made calls with BT not activating for some reason. Or how many times I’ve made test calls just to confirm that the headset is indeed active

I made it clear that Bluetooth headsets have been a pain in the ass for the majority of the technology’s existence. The Marque, as the lightest and most convenient Bluetooth headset I’ve ever tested, would with nothing else already be a great headset. Combined with simple voice commands and gestures and a strikingly useful app, the Marque M155 is the best on-ear Bluetooth headset, period. Nothing else compares. If you have hated using Bluetooth headsets and have stuck with wired sets that come with the phone, the Marque will convert you.

What’s it gonna take to get everyone board with an iPhone? I ponder this question and then I get a shiver of fear wavering through my body as imagine a hoard of drones wandering the Earth in need of a 30-pin dock to charge their handset. That said, thank god for Android phones, which aren’t excluded from working with Altec Lansing’s portable speaker dock for the iPhone, the iMT630.

This battery powered iMT630 portable speaker is an understated pleasure that no doubt has passed over, or perhaps even under the gaze of a many consumer. It’s too bad, because its sonic abilities and feature set warrants a look by anyone in the market for a portable speaker for their smartphone.

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Hidden on the face of the iMT630 is an ever so small spring loaded 30-pin dock. Push it and it ejects from the speaker’s grill allowing you to dock your iPhone and pump its tunes through the 2-inch neodymium driven speakers. For those of the non-iOS ilk, there is also a 3.5mm headphone jack in the rear, though once plugged you’ll need to hit the input button, switching from iPod to Aux input. That button is further complemented by a volume rocker, power button and LED light to indicate the input of choice. But the feature set isn’t complete until you look to the rear of this battery powered speaker dock. Flipping up the stand automatically powers down the iMT630, which means you won’t waste precious battery life when it’s stowed away. Flip it down and you’ll reveal the magnetically adhered remote, enabling you to pause, play, skip tracks and adjust volume from afar. And while this may seem like a rather benign feature, consider that most portable speaker docks, if any, don’t include a remote control.

The Altec Lansing’s iMT630′s battery is rated for up to 7 hours of playback on a single charge. And while your mileage will of course vary with how much you prefer to crank your tunes, we found it to be on spec. Charging the device to full capacity takes about 3-4 hours and receives its juice via a micro USB slot. Not the universal standard, but close enough in our book.

Sonically the Altec Lansing iMT630 is very capable, especially considering it’s rather diminutive size, which is measures 12.5″ (W) x 1.5″ (D) x 5.125″ (H) and weighs less than 4 pounds. As with most portable speaker docks, bass was a bit tinny, but nothing below a speaker of a similar class and cost. Amplitude wise the iMT630 is impressive and managed to fill my 8×12 bathroom with enough sound to be enjoyed from up 10-feet away.

While docking an iPad is feasible it’s most certainly not intended, but that’s largely a reflection of this speaker docks size and portability; it would block the speakers and perhaps even fall over from the iPad’s weight. When you run out of juice you can plug it in the wall and use it as a speaker and charger for your iPhone, which means it could play well as a bed side companion. That said, I really can’t find anything negative to say about this dock (Bluetooth would be a nice but unnecessary addition), other than its design leaves something to the imagination and if anything shows that you shouldn’t judge a book, or in this case a speaker, by its cover.

Bottom line: Solid sound quality and amplitude for a battery powered speaker with a magnetically stowed remote and accommodations for non-iOS devices (AUX inputs).

Editor’s Rating:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Pros:

• Battery powered speaker with a excellent amplitude for its size
• Hidden magnetic remote
• Chargers your iPhone when plugged in and their is an AUX input

Cons:

• Won’t work with stand flipped up
• Design leaves something to be desired
• Battery life could be better

Teens these days are finding interesting ways to occupy their time. Two 17-year-old Canadian teens use a home-stitched parachute and some equipment they found on Craigslist to send a LEGO man 80,000-feet into the air. Two weeks ago, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad attached the small LEGO plastic figurine sporting the Canadian flag to a helium balloon (launched by a football pitch) and sent it into space.  The two captured the entire journey of its decent, which lasted 97 minutes using four cameras. They also attached a GPS receiver to the Styrofoam box that carried the cameras and LEGO man. The entire project took about four months to prepare, where the boys spend every Saturday working on building everything. LEGO even sent the boys a note of congratulations, stating how amazed they are by “the creative ways in which Lego fans” use their products.