Jabra Cruiser: A Great Bluetooth Car Kit (Updated Review)

[12/30/2009: Product links corrected - sorry about the error!]
[05/31/2010: Updated with pairing instructions - see end of post]

A while back, I broke my Bluetooth car kit (I knocked it out of the car onto the concrete - doh!). I did without a car kit for a while, but my state (Oregon) will begin to require hands-free devices for all cell phone use in cars beginning January 1, 2010. As I was looking for a new device, I discovered the Jabra Cruiser. This is a compact device that clips on your visor, providing an unobtrusive option for handsfree calling.

This device was very easy to set up, and paired with my iPhone automatically - much easier than with any of my previous Bluetooth devices. The controls are very simple to figure out and it is easy to use without creating lots of dangerous distractions while driving.

Hey Listen - I'm on the radio!

But the fun doesn't stop there. One of the other things I really like about the Jabra Cruiser is that it has a built-in FM transmitter. This means:

• I can either use the Cruiser's built-in speaker for calls, or I can pipe the call audio through my car stereo.
• I can use the Jabra Cruiser as a "relay" to stream music, podcasts, etc. to my stereo without any additional cables, adapters, etc. Note that this requires a phone that supports Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP), such as any iPhone with v3 iPhone OS or higher.
• The added advantage of using this device as a relay for my iPhone's audio is that I can listen to podcasts while driving and, when a call comes in, the audio is automatically paused while I take the call and the podcast resumes when I hang up. Way cool.

Nice quality audio

Easy to hear

I've tried other FM transmitters for my iPhone before, but I returned every one of them because their signals were too weak and I got a lot of hissing and static over my car stereo. In contrast, I am very pleased with the Jabra Cruiser's quality over FM.

The Cruiser will automatically find and announce (with its built-in voice) the frequency to which you should tune your stereo. I have been using the FM capabilities for a while now and, while I've heard static occasionally when I'm near large power lines, I haven't been bothered by static or hissing with this device. I think one of the things that makes a huge difference is that the Jabra Cruiser uses its wire visor clip as an antenna, which seems to greatly improve the effectiveness of its FM transmitter.

You can pause and resume audio using the Jabra's buttons which means you can start music on your phone while it's still in your pocket. If your device supports it (alas, the iPhone does not) you can move to the next or previous track with the Jabra's controls, too.

If you would rather use the built-in speaker, it is loud and clear - easily heard in a moving car.

Easy to be heard

Callers have commented that I am easy to hear on the Jabra Cruiser, and that it does a nice job of filtering out background noise and road noise (and this is true whether I use the built-in speaker or the FM stereo audio output during calls).

In case you're wondering how it sounds, I left a short message on my voice mail using the Jabra Cruiser while driving, and you can have a listen by clicking the following link (now updated in MP3 format for broader device support):

Sample Audio from Jabra Cruiser call (Now in MP3)

Other features

There are a number of other useful features provided by the Jabra Cruiser, as well (all subject to your phone supporting the feature over Bluetooth):

• Voice dialing
• Address book support so that incoming callers can be announced by name
• Support for multiple languages (English, French
• Multipoint device support so you can connect to 2 devices at once
• Great battery life (rated at 14 hours talk-time and 13 days standby time)

In short, I really like the Jabra Cruiser - it's far better than any Bluetooth car kit I've ever used. (And I am happy I'll be quite legal when January 1 rolls around!)

By the way - if you order through Amazon, it's elegible for free 2nd Day Air shipping in the US via the Amazon Prime program, so you can get it in time for Christmas if you want to give it as a gift.

---

Jabra Pairing Instructions for use with iPhone (similar process for other phones)

Several times a day, someone comes to this page searching for something like "Jabra cruiser pairing mode" so I figured I'd provide the instructions here to make it easier:

• Turn the Jabra Cruiser on.
• Press and hold the answer/end button for approximately 5 seconds until “pairing mode” is announced.
• On the iPhone, go to the Settings icon, then select "General."
• Select "Bluetooth."
• In the Bluetooth screen, make sure Bluetooth is set to "On," and you should see "Jabra CRUISER" appear in the Devices section of the screen.
• Select Jabra Cruiser, and pairing should finish automatically. You shouldn't be prompted for a passphrase but, if you are, use 0000.

I hope you find this helpful!

Gadgets

Traction: A fabulous resource for your business

I've gotten some emails asking why I'm not posting more on the site lately - the short answer? I've been really busy lately! As I mentioned in the past, I've recently taken on a new role in my company - running a new line of business. As part of this move, I've been building a new team and trying to establish new "habits" around the way we communicate, work, collaborate, etc.

As is often the case, some resources showed up at just the right time to help me (I love it when that happens). This time, it was in the form of Gino Wickman's book, "Traction: Get a Grip on your Business." This book is really designed for a someone running an entire business - not just a division like mine. However, the concepts can easily be adapted for a team, a department, or anything larger.

Even more intriguing to me: this book just showed up for me, but it's been out there for about 3 years. Apparently, there is a re-launch going on around this book - Providence, just in time for me.

Write your own EOS

Core to Traction is the 'EOS,' or Entrepreneurial Operating System - a set of practices, principles, and more - designed to help you establish and maintain clarity, accountability, and alignment within your business.

The book focuses on what I believe is the "trifecta" of a successful business:

• everyone is on the same page about what you're trying to achieve, how you plan to get there, and has the right metrics and indicators to track progress;
• everyone is crystal clear on their roles & responsibilities (and there is only one owner for everything);
• everyone agrees how they will work through issues, red flags, and obstacles encountered along the journey.

Wickman's content is crisp, actionable, and supported by a great tool set (the EOS Toolbox, available from the EOS Process web site for free). The book takes you through a lot of essential exercises, geared to help you establish the artifacts you need to align your business. This Toolbox makes the "hard work" of business a Hell of a lot easier. I'm not sure where Wickman got all of this content, but it's good stuff. While it intersects with lots of things I've read already from other authors, Wickman's approach smacks of real-world, tried & true process - not a bunch of theory.

One example is the notion of "Get the right people on the bus, and get people in the right seats," popularized by Jim Collins in his book "Good to Great." I've read this advice before, but have never been quite sure of how to really go about making sure that was happening. Wickman provides a set of tools and techniques to figure this out pretty quickly - using a simple "plus / minus" analysis of people's suitability to their roles. The book provides an example of this evaluation, and a worksheet is available on the EOS Process site.

Leadership Abilities - they're not just for the leader any more

One thing I think you'll like is "The Five Leadership Abilities" in this book:

1. Your ability to simplify.
2. Your ability to delegate & elevate.
3. Your ability to predict.
4. Your ability to systemize.
5. Your ability to structure.

Each of these five areas is addressed as you progress through the book, and you'll get better at every one of them if you use the methodology in the book.

I really like the way all of the techniques drive toward focus and alignment - for example, pushing to get you down to a small number of metrics you focus on to run your business, making sure everyone is focused on "one number" for their job, driving toward small objectives that move toward bigger goals, etc.

The side benefit of this process is that you end up spreading leadership throughout the team - each person gets to own some part of the business, and act as a leader within that area. This is key for scalability, engagement, and keeping people challenged as the business changes. I've worked in environments where I never felt a sense of ownership or empowerment, and I want to try to prevent that within my team.

Test your business - and see if you need Traction

This book is a quick read, but it is jam packed with content, and each aspect of the EOS is a significant project. If I were to detail every bit of the book here, this would probably be the longest post I've ever done. To boil it down: I recommend this book to leaders (and aspiring leaders) without reservation.

If you want to quickly find out whether Traction would benefit your business, why not take an organizational assessment today? It's free, and only takes a few minutes. Then, if you find out you should be better than you are, pick up your own copy of Traction and get to work.

By the way, if you aren't convinced but want a taste of Wickman's work, there is a free ebook called "Decide! The One Common Denominator of All Great Leaders" that you might enjoy.

Books, Leadership, management

Warning sign

Don't take the stairs - I think it's a trap!

A few useful tools

It's been a while since I highlighted some tools here, so how about it?

Mp3cutter (any platform) - free

The iPhone is a bit of a pain when it comes to creating free ringtones from songs you already own (seems they want you to pay, and pay, and pay...) but if you're using just about any other smartphone, you can use any .mp3 file for a ringtone. The challenge is getting just the right portion of the .mp3 file so that it sounds as awesome as you want it to be.   

The answer? the online tool "mp3cutter"  which provides a web interface to clip your .mp3's down to just that part you want to hear when someone special calls. It's pretty straight forward, and very much free. One note: it seemed temperamental when using it with Safari, but seems to work fine with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Go through the editing and cutting process, save it to your local computer, copy it to your phone, and you're in business.

Fresh (Mac) - free to try, $9 to buy (and worth every penny)

Fresh is a cool app. It sits unobtrusively at the edge of your Mac OS X desktop as a gray tab. It's job is to hang on to recently accessed files for you, as well as things you'd like to have available for immediate access.

When you click on the tab, Fresh extends out into the desktop (screenshot below) and has two main panels

"Fresh Files" (the top one) - this is a list of the most recently opened or accessed files. It's very handy when you realize you just closed something you weren't finished with. You can not only open the files, you can right click on them and take other actions. Pretty handy. And if there is a type of file you never want to see there (like temp files or your iTunes database), you right click and tell it to stop showing you that file (or that type of file). Pretty slick.

"The Cooler" (the bottom one) - this is a list of files you've selected. You drag files, folders, etc. there and it hangs on to them so you can get to them quickly. You can drag them from Finder, the Desktop, or even from the Fresh Files pane and they stay there til you remove them. This is handy for keeping things that you want to get to in a couple of clicks - such as your "stock" presentations, files or folders related to your current projects, etc.

This was the surprise hit of the spring for me and has saved me more time than I'd have imagined.

Fences (Windows) - free basic version, Pro version for $9.99

On my Windows system, I've developed a nasty habit of putting things I want to get to quickly on my desktop. That means a messy Windows desktop. When I discovered Fences, I loved it immediately. I actually have Fences Pro, and I think it's worth the $10 - at least for me.

What does Fences do? It helps you organize the icons and shortcuts on your desktop. You create "Fences" which are little corrals that icons live in. You can show or hide each Fence, which allows you to hide icons you don't care about at one moment, but bring them back instantaneously when you need them again.

My favorite feature is the "Quick Hide" capability. By double-clicking on a clear area of the desktop, you automatically hide all the icons on your desktop so you can instantly clean up before a presentation, a demo, or when you just want to focus.

What's that you say? There are a few icons you don't want to hide? Easy. Just right-click the icon when it's visible, click "Exclude from auto-hide" and that icon will stick around when you hide everything else. It may not sound like much, but try this for a day and you'll be hooked.

The Pro feature has an additional function I really like - you can set a default Fence for new icons. For example, I created a fence for documents that automatically "collects" any .doc, .docx, .pdf, and .xps file that I save to my desktop. Snazzy.

Gadgets, Personal Productivity

Whose is this?

In the new team I'm leading, I'm really beginning to appreciate the value of clarity.

Historically, I've been very comfortable with ambiguity - in fact, I've really enjoyed taking advantage of ambiguity as a means to have more freedom. After all, when nobody is sure what is supposed to be done, how can they challenge what you're doing?

In my new role, however, I am becoming very disciplined about documenting commitments, and ensuring that there is one, clear owner for each item. This is a rusty skill for me, and I've learned a lot over the past few weeks.

One throat to choke

They say, "When multiple people own a problem, nobody owns the problem." I think that's true, based on some fire drills caused when multiple people thought someone else was handling an issue. Quite often, everybody things someone else has the ball, so nothing happens.

I'm being very deliberate about driving to one name as the owner of each issue. This has two effects - both good. One, I always know exactly who to ask when I want to know what's going on. Two, I can "let go" of the task because I have it cleanly docked with someone else - this has greatly shortened my task list.

On a side note - I am tracking all the commitments and owners in a spreadsheet, and mark each one red, yellow, or green to indicate whether they are on track or not. Any task without an owner is automatically "red" until an owner is identified.

Let's be clear

For this to work well, clarity is essential.

1. Be very clear about ownership - I like it when the owner clearly says "I own this." Seems like a small thing, perhaps, but there is power in saying the words.
2. Be very clear about expected outcomes - for most of the things I assign, I have no clue what the solution is. However, I usually know what criteria will be met when the task is "done," or I can articulate what questions I need to be able to answer when things are complete, and when it needs to be done. This avoids the "bring me a rock" frustrations that we've all been part of at one point or another.
3. Be clear about guidelines and protocols - This is the part where you provide guidelines on when the owner needs to check in with you. Some examples:
   • "Your budget is $1000 for this project. Check in with me before you exceed the budget."
   • "I want to know if you hit any roadblocks you can't overcome, or anything that would cause the date to slip."
   • "If you have to do anything that pisses off one of the Sales guys, I want to know as soon as possible."

Respect the boundaries

Another thing I've learned is that people do awesome work if you get out of their way. This is why it's so important to be clear about the expectations and boundaries, but not tell people how to solve the problem. After all, if you stay involved, you get no benefit from delegation. It is also very liberating. Of the 43 open items currently on my tracking spreadsheet, I am the owner of exactly one of them - which means I can spend my time helping people clear roadblocks, working with customers, and monitoring the health of the business. And the people in my team actually like not having me in the details. Other people in my company would benefit from this kind of approach. Which brings me to my last topic...

Don't undermine the trust

The surest way to "unempower" people is to start questioning how they are doing things you delegated. Bad mojo. Especially if you "skip levels" and start digging into the tasks that are owned by the people who work for people you manage (i.e. you've just gone around your direct reports). This erodes trust at all levels in your team. You only get the power of this approach if you honor the boundaries, let people own their commitments, and get out of their way.

If thigns aren't working, I suspect you have an issue with one of the elements of clarity I talked about in the "Let's be clear" section.

Sanity check

OK - how does this match your experience? Am I smoking hope? Any other elements you've learned from your own experience?

Bring it on - let's learn from each other.

leadership, management, micromanagement, Delegation