I know it is much cooler to be wearing a bluetooth one ear-ed headset these days than a two ear-ed wired headset, but I am currently a HUGE fan of the Nokia hs-43 wired headset and don't even know where my fancy pants expensive bh-602 bluetooth headset is (somewhere in the bowels of my purse).

Since July 1st, those of us who live and drive in California are to have hands-free wireless devices whilst driving. You can talk on your mobile while driving, but you have to have both hands on the wheel and your headset on, not that most SUV drivers obeying the law. We won't talk about the lady with her phone glued to her ear in the GMC Yukon XL who nearly ran me off the road today, no, not at all, we won't talk about her nor bailouts for auto companies that build such behemoths.

No, what we will talk about is cute, small, efficient, good design by forward thinking companies.... Nokia, thanks for two good products that make my life easier.

I like the way that the Nokia BH-602 bluetooth headset will shape to the back of my ear, but I don't like how I can't hear in stereo and when I am walking or out in the big wide public my friend on the other end of the call asks if I am in a wind tunnel. I also have lots of music loaded on the microSD chip both in my N95 and in the Nokia viNe loaner N82 mobiles and it is very hard to listen to music in a one ear-ed bluetooth headset. Also due to having a small ear, the bluetooth headset even when properly shaped to my ear, flops around making it hard to hear.

My N95's wired stereo headset died a bad wire failure death over nearly a year ago, so I had been using the wired headsets from my N80 and N800 to listen to music while exercising and walking the dogs. When the black N82 arrived on my doorstep in early September, I pulled out the included in the box wired headset, the HS-43, with glee to see what it would do.

Over the last couple of months, I have fallen in love with the wired headset that came in the N82's box, to the point that I don't use my bluetooth headset unless I left the wired one at home.

Why do I love the HS-43 wired headset so much? Let me list you the reasons:

1) Wires. Good old fashioned copper covered in plastic & cloth makes for a better sonic / audio experience.

2) Stereo. Hey, novelty! I can hear sound, be it music or spoken voice, in both ears!

3) No need to remember charge the wired headset.

4) Friends and family can hear me speak during a phone call much clearer with the wired headset, even when I am walking along the beach in a stiff breeze. Hello, Seal Way, the killer of all phone calls, you don't kill my calls now.

5) Oooh, baby baby... the best feature of the HS-43 wired stereo headset is the one that seems most bizarre when you first pull it out. It does not look or act like your usual wired headset, as the back/top is not a headband but a 1/4 inch wide black fabric that is about 6 inches long that have two lanyard style clamp/unclamp at each end. Thus, when the danged thing gets all tangled up into a wad of wired hell, you just pull the two clamps apart and YAY the tangles are gone. If you by accident attempt to pull it out of your purse too fast or out from under the dog and you think, "Oh Crap! I have just broke the headset!", oh no you have not, the clamps release and you can pull it out nicely and reclamp it.

Oh, lovely HS-43 Wired Stereo Headset, I <3 you.

Bluetooth, who?