Not long ago, if you spotted someone walking down the street and having a conversation with an imaginary companion, you were looking at a candidate for the funny farm.
Today it's likely to be a friend or neighbor chatting with a spouse, significant other, office mate or boss on a concealed but very real cell phone - completely oblivious to the fact that he looks like a raving lunatic.
The only way to separate a fake raving lunatic from a real one is to look for a strange, metallic growth protruding from the fake lunatic's ear. These are called Bluetooth headsets, clever gadgets whose main job is to take us a step closer to true hands-free operation of our cell phones.
With evidence growing that using a traditional cell phone behind the wheel is an invitation to an accident, Nanny State advocates around the country have been pushing legislation that would require driver/gabbers to have hands-free phones. They almost succeeded in Maryland this year, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time until they do.
With that in mind, I recently joined the ranks of Bluetooth lunatics to try out Verizon's new LG Decoy phone - the first I've seen with a built-in, detachable Bluetooth headset.
Given the number of people who leave their headsets at home, forget to charge them, can't remember where they left them, or accidentally drop them down a street grate, a headset that latches onto the phone itself sounds like a no-brainer. But the idea must be either too obvious or unexpectedly difficult to execute, because the Decoy appears to be a first of its kind in the mass market.
Overall, I found it worked well enough for casual use if you don't mind repeating the occasional spoken phrase.
Serious hands-free talkers will be happier with a stand-alone, noise-canceling Bluetooth headset with more battery life.
A word here about Bluetooth, a term that still confuses a lot of folks.
It's the official name for a short-range, wireless technology that a consortium of computer, printer and other gadget makers developed in 1998 so devices could communicate without cables.
Bluetooth failed to gain traction until cell phone makers began using it in headsets that communicate with cell phones - in essence piling wireless technology on wireless technology.
Bluetooth headsets don't get tangled up like their wired cousins, so they've become popular for hands-free phone operation.
