The Conservative Cat

The first thing you need to know is that the Jabra is actually a miniature computer. When you press a button, there will be a tiny delay before the internal chip set processes your request. So, when you press a button and the Jabra doesn't react, wait about a second before you start pressing the other buttons like crazy.

The Jabra is more user-friendly than other bluetooth earpieces because it has a built-in display. All you do is press when button and it will tell you what mode it's in, what devices it's paired with, and how much battery you have left. The display shows lines of text, so to configure the Jabra you use a menu, just like you would on a standard cell phone. This proved to be a tremendous asset when Bruce was configuring the thing.

Okay, without further ado, it's glitch time.

• Jabra wants you to register the product on their web site, but if you search for "BT8010", it will tell you no such product exists. Go to this page and proceed from there. The registration page only works with Internet Explorer. If you're not using Internet Explorer, you have to wait until they fix the page.
• The Jabra requires the A2DP and AVCRP profiles from your bluetooth device in order to play music. Some bluetooth phones have built-in music players that support this protocol, but most don't. You can, however, also use bluetooth audio on your PC. Some PCs have a built-in bluetooth chip; others require buying a USB bluetooth dongle (also called a bluetooth radio). This, however, is a bit tricky. There are three major Bluetooth drivers out there-- the built-in Microsoft driver, Broadcom/Widcomm, and IVT Bluesoleil. Bruce tried all three of these drivers with four different bluetooth radios, and only IVT Bluesoleil works. The downside here is that the driver is only sold with the actual bluetooth dongles themselves. The IVT driver works absolutely fine on Bruce's Broadcomm bluetooth chipset, but IVT won't let you buy their driver if you're using a Broadcomm device, and the free version has a built-in time limit. A highly abridged list of Bluesoleil-compatible dongles can be found here. Bruce has this one.

• IVT Bluesoliel has a flaw not present in the other two drivers: it assumes you have only one Bluetooth radio on your PC. If you have a Broadcom bluetooth chipset in your PC and try to install the IVT drivers, they will get stuck on the idea of the built-in radio and ignore the new one.
• The firmware in most BT8010 units has an annoying feature: it polls the phone every 8 to 10 minutes. You'll be sitting there listening to music, and suddenly the music will fade out and your phone will light up. To fix this, you need the latest firmware from the Jabra web site. Jabra has a free program that help you update your firmware. It's called the Jabra Control Center. Before you try to update the firmware, turn off your PC's bluetooth device. Otherwise, the Jabra driver (csrbcxp.sys from Cambridge Silicon Radio) will not work. The Control Center will put your Jabra into firmware update mode, but it won't download the data.
• When a call comes in on the phone, it will take a couple of rings before the Jabra is ready to process it. You'll know when the Jabra is ready because the earpiece will play a tune and then start vibrating. If you have problems with your sense of balance, I suggest you use the built-in configuration menus to turn off the vibrate. We had to peel Bruce off the ceiling.
• If you're playing music on your PC and also connected to your phone, set up the PC as your primary device and the phone as your secondary device. This allows you to control the music from the headset. After you hang up from a call, you can switch the music back on by pressing the mode button (which switches from phone mode to music mode), then the answer/end button once to switch back to the primary device, and again to restart the music. This is much better than Bruce's previous headphones, which required you to close and restart Windows Media Player to get the music back.

So, I hope this has been helpful to all of you who are thinking of buying a Jabra BT8010 or have already bought one. If that's the case, just remember that nothing says "thank you" better than Sargento's Fancy Shred.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat