Perhaps you are acquainted with the type of woman who cannot survive unless she possesses the latest dress, the trendiest shoe, or the bag of the moment. Fashion victims, I believe they are called. I feel their pain, though, because I am a gadget victim. If it's the newest, the thinnest, the fastest — any of those will do — I want it. But, even for me, there are limits. For example, I would prefer not to look like a middle-aged Secret Service agent, which is why I've never entirely warmed to Bluetooth headsets.

Let's face it: A wireless earpiece is the technological equivalent of a pocket protector. One might as well scream, "I am a geek!" at everyone who passes by. But have you ever tried to carry on a phone conversation while dragging your luggage through customs at LAX? And who hasn't watched in fascination — and horror — as a harried driver, mumbling into his handset, attempts to traverse a three-lane freeway with one hand on the wheel? Wouldn't it just be easier to give the guy a gun?

Holding a phone while driving is stupid and dangerous. Increasingly, thank God, it is also against the law. On July 1, California's hands-free law went into effect — proponents believe it will save several hundred lives a year. New York, New Jersey, and other states already have similar statutes on the books, and more are on the way. Soon, speaking into a cell phone while driving will become as socially acceptable as tossing a beer can out of your window.

So, we need these little headsets, and despite my reticence, I have owned about a half-dozen of them. Most were hideous, many uncomfortable, and each of them made it harder to place a call without a handset. The sound quality usually fell into three categories: 1) I couldn't hear well, but the person on the other end could; 2) My earpiece worked fine, but the guy listening to me assumed I was calling from Baghdad; 3) All of the above.

Then, a year or so ago, I got a Jawbone, the smart headset made by Aliph, which employed noise-reduction technology developed for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Hosain Rahman, the company's affable CEO, told me I could make a call while blasting music from my car and it would sound as if I were speaking from a cloud. I tried, and it worked. Then I turned off the shield that filters out background noise, stood in front of a whirring lawn mower, and called several of my friends. Most of them yelled at me and hung up. I put the noise shield back on, called them back, and whispered — still in front of the lawn mower. Nobody even knew I was outside, though some of them wondered what was wrong with me.

The Jawbone was put together magically, like the best American products: stylish, simple, effortless to use and to look at. It was created by Yves Béhar, one of the nation's finest industrial designers. No Bluetooth headset — and few electronic gadgets — has come closer to perfection.