Logitech Internet Chat Headset

My Trusty Friend Rogue Nine convinced me to join him (along with his many friends) on Skype, a free online phone program. I discovered that there was no microphone on our desktop, and while Skype has a chat window for those without a mike, it's a lot more fun to be able to talk to your friends. So, off I went on a search for a headset with a mike on it so I could talk to people literally from all over the world at no charge. After checking out a couple different places, I found one at Wal-Mart. The Logitech Internet Chat Headset does a good job for chatting on Skype. It has a decent range of volume and sound quality. I actually use it for listening to music on my laptop, too. It's not top-of-the-line for music. I only paid about $20 after all, which is cheaper than buying it online from Logitech, btw. It's better than the laptop's tinny speakers, though. :)

The headset is very easy to use. It has two plugs, one pink and one black. The black one goes in the headphone socket, the pink plug goes in the microphone socket. Headset goes on the head, and voila, you're ready to go. You can change the colors of the little earphones if you care about that kind of thing, since it comes with 5 different colors. You need the little plastic tab provided in order to snap the colored plastic parts on and off, but it's pretty easy to do, and I'm now the proud owner of a headset with a bit of blue plastic on both earphones. I don't look at those earphones while I'm talking, so I didn't think changing the colors was that big a deal. Some people probably enjoy the small amount of customization this allows, however. It fits over glasses and can be used by people with larger heads. It's quite lightweight. You can bend the headset a little bit to adjust it to your head, but not very much. The foam over the earphones is pretty basic but it does the job of keeping things comfortable unless you plan on using the headset for many hours. The packaging did not specify whether this was a latex-free foam or not, so that may be an issue for those of you with that allergy.

There are only two things I don't quite like. The headset is designed to go behind your head. This works well if you have a big head. I don't, so the back of the headset doesn't rest against my head, and the weight tends to sit on the tops of my ears. It's so light this isn't much of a problem as long as I'm not wearing them for hours. The other thing I don't like is the jacks are about two inches long, which is longer than other headphone jacks. The sockets on my laptop are right in front (kind of a dumb design, I think, but they didn't ask me). Well, those two-inch long jacks poke me in the stomach if I happen to be using the laptop in bed, which is pretty much every night. That's rather annoying. Since I got one of the handy lap desks with the wrist rests, it seems to be less of an issue. It just sticks into the padding now.

There are a couple parent-friendly features I like. First, the volume control is easy to use and has a mute switch. That's handy if I need to talk to my kids in the middle of skyping with others. It also has nine-foot long cord. This means that I can get up and walk around a bit and theoretically get something done in the kitchen while talking, or peek around a door to see if all is well with the kids.

It's not a top-of-the-line item, but I think I got more than my money's worth. If you need a mike or headset, this option works well.

On a 0-5 scale:
Ease of use for geeks: 5 tech -silver sheep
Ease of use for non-geeks: 5 silver sheep
Features: 4 silver sheep
Value for price: 4.5 silver sheep
User-friendliness for parents: 4.5 silver sheep