Ah, some headlines write themselves.
Industrial designers talk about “honest” materials. Alas, I felt deceived when I first felt the Bluetooth Aliph Jawbone. From the glamour shot on Aliph’s Web site, I thought its modern grated surface was metal, but it is plastic, and not especially smooth around the talk button.
Nonetheless, I’d been using it for the past few weeks and throughout CTIA where it performed really well. Today, though, I took it out of my pocket to discover the earpiece had separated from the rest of the unit. The cable is still attached, though, so maybe the folks at Aliph can help me out. I can’t blindly fault them for this as, when I first opened the product, I didn’t read the instructions on how to remove the rubber earpiece covering and heard a cracking sound as I did so I may have well loosened the connection. Otherwise, a Bluetooth headset — particularly one as pricey as the Jawbone — should be able to withstand living in a front pocket.
Update: I now see on Engadget Mobile’s hands-on review (with which I agree) that a commenter has had the same problem.