Climb

After a long hiatus, I went hiking again. The Mount Si trail was much less streneous than I expected, and quite fun. Along the four mile climb, there are a few places to stop and take in the views. Close to the trail head there is a stopping area with natural history signs describing the different species and ecosystem. At the end of the four mile hike, lays the rocky peak, called "the haystack". As rock-climbing goes it is pretty easy, but you still need hands and feet to climb it. At the top, you have a rewarding view. As usual, the way down had its own difficulty -applaying the brakes for 4 miles left my legs and feet a bit sore, but all in all a satisfying first hike of the season.

There is something about hiking that is extremely rewarding -perhaps it is the sense of total immersion in nature, as you see trees, moss-covered rocks, streams, ferns -and when you reach a high viewpoint- the forest and mountains extending all around. Perhaps is the very tangible feeling of having accomplished your goal as you stand atop the peak.

Whatever the reason, right now I can't imagine ever getting tired of it.

Search

At first, I thought it'd be a simple task; after all, I am surely just one among hundreds of thousands of people -if not millions- who use their phones as digital music players.
All I wanted was to find a headset which was:

-Bluetooth (to avoid the messy tangle of cables and occasional snags)
-Passive noise-blocking (for use at the gym or outdoors active systems aren't good enough)
-In-ear (I don't want to walk around with two pounds of gear around my skull)
-Dual Use -for phone calls and music (who wants to swap headsets every time you get a call?)
-A2DP and AVRCP capable (for stereo sound and remote control functions)
-Boom-mounted mike -ideally retractable- (so that callers can hear me better in noisy environments, such as outdoors, or on a bus)

After hours spent researching this, it turned out there isn't a single product in the market that matches my wish list. I have to say I was a little disappointed -one would think the global electronics market big enough to support a number of products with all of those attributes, especially considering that most of them go hand-in-hand.

The one that came closest does not support phone use (no mike) and aside from being overpriced, they only had the version with the iPod adapter, which I don't need and bumps up the price by 50 percent. I could order that one and toss the adapter, but it would be wasteful-and it still does not work for phone calls.

Guess we'll have to wait for the overpaid product-manager geniuses out there to catch up with the market.