The Samsung HM3700 Stereo Bluetooth wireless headset is my current favorite and I use it a lot.  The headset is well designed and is able to function as a headset or as headphones.  From hours of podcasts to non-stop music listening without wires and the occassional extended phone call, the Samsung HM3700 is my wireless workhorse.

    I like this model so much that I bought four more as backups and instant recharge spares.  I got mine on sale for about $20 a piece, and I use these constantly. 

As a merchant on the Amazon Marketplace, I print a lot of labels for my inventory that goes to the Amazon fulfillment warehouses.  As a small business, it's important to me that I buy the most economical label printer and supplies.  I tried the Dymo LabelWriter 450, but after I started looking for replacement labels I realized that only die-cut labels were available.  These labels were a pre-cut with a fixed number per roll and this all added up to be a bit pricey as I bought more and more labels.  I needed something a little more economical.  I had owned a couple of Brother multi-function inkjet printers in the past and knew that Brother supported their products with Linux drivers.  I decided to look at the Brother label printers and chose the Brother QL-570 Thermal Label Printer.  I have had no regrets. 

When I saw the JVC HAEBX85 Stereo Headphones I bought one on the spot.  These headphones solved the primary problem that my old ear bud style headphones gave me.  I quit using the old headband style headphones a long time ago in favor of the ear bud style headphones because ear buds will easily wind up and fit into a pocket.  Ear buds don't have the headband that flattens your hair style.  However ear buds do have the problem of coming out of the ear.  This isn't a problem for most use cases, but if you operate any noisy machinery and wear hearing protection, you will understand the problem with ear buds. 

    The BlueAnt X5i Bluetooth combination stereo headphones/headset are the second bluetooth device that I bought for listening to music that was trapped on my old T-Mobile/HTC Wing Windows smartphone.  The BlueAnt X5i works great as a pair of headphones.  The neckband design keeps your hair from getting a permanent headband indentation.

    Because these are headphones in form, it is difficult to walk around all day using these as a headset for incoming phone calls.  I tried to use them all day as a headset for phone calls, but I kept pulling one side off of my ear to hear people that were talking to me.  Because of this slight annoyance, I found that these were most useful when left on the desk at home or work.

The Plantronics Discovery 655 Bluetooth Headset was the first bluetooth headset that I reviewed.  I bought it in a T-Mobile store as an accessory to my T-Mobile Wing Windows smartphone.  This was before iPhone and Android had revolutionized the smartphone industry, but the Plantronics Discovery 655 did a good job of providing safe driving while talking on the phone.  Hands-free driving is what I bought it for, and it does that job well even now.

    After wasting too much time on installing the Brother QL-570 label printer in Linux, I've decided to abandon using the QL-570 Linux driver .deb package from Brother. I could get it to work for most things except for Amazon Scan & Ship which uses Java. This is what I really needed in the first place. I found this post in which an anonymous user claims to use a synaptic package called "ptouch" which installs a driver for the QL-550 which is compatible with the QL-570.

    After a few weeks of struggling with the Brother QL-570 label printer in Linux, I tried this solution and it "just works". I finally found a way to get Brother QL-570 to print in Linux from the Amazon Scan & Ship Java applet. I am also able to print to the Brother QL-570 with the 2.4" Continuous Label Tape Roll. Here are the steps:

    I recently purchased the Brother QL-570 to help speed up the process of labeling items that I ship to the Amazon FBA warehouses. Here is my experience with the Brother QL-570. I have recently been using the dedicated Brother Linux driver download site for the printers that I have recently been buying from Brother because of their Linux support. I am quite surprised at how many of their products have native Linux drivers available.

    Next to HP, Brother is probably the most pro-active at Linux support, IMHO. I've decided to stick with manufacturers that release native Linux drivers even when all the functionality isn't there or the product gives me problems from time to time. OK, I'm off my Linux soapbox now.

I just got the Samsung HM3700 Stereo Bluetooth Wireless Headset from Amazon.com. Wow, this is a cool device! Prior to buying this headset, I owned a Plantronics Discovery 655 bluetooth headset, but it only worked for phone calls. To listen to my music without wires, I got a pair of BlueAnt X5i Bluetooth Stereo Headset/Headphones that could stream music and take calls, but they were big compared to an earpiece and best only used when both ears could be covered... definitely not for driving. After using the BlueAnt X5i headphones for a while, I began to realize that the wireless headphones didn't work for me in most situations. Because they were not geared toward a highly mobile lifestyle that includes driving, I found myself leaving them at work and then missing them at home or vice versa.