Callpod’s Amusing Dragon Specifications

Lee Phillips

A company called Callpod, Inc. is offering a handful of genuinely slick and useful accessories for your computer or cellphone. One of these, the Dragon™ bluetooth headset, was recently praised by David Pogue in his New York Times technology column. Of course, bluetooth headsets have been around for a while, but this one is distinguished by being very small, having extremely long battery life, and other features, including the ability to communicate as a walkie-talkie with others of its kind in nearby ears.

Looking around the page for enlightenment, I find “In open areas, testing has showed [sic] that effective two-way communication was achieved in excess of 450 feet.” The context (this is in the FAQ tab) shows that they are again discussing walkie-talkie operation. Well, 450 feet means an area of 636,000 square feet. Surely the marketing people are being overly cautious. No, I don’t think that’s it. I think that they rounded up to 500 feet and squared it. Don’t you?

The marketing people have missed an opportunity for much bigger numbers. I’m not talking about a paltry 636,000. What might happen if someone explained to them that two people, communicating with the aid of $100 devices inserted in their ears (available in three styles, all out of stock) are not limited to a two-dimensional surface? What if one of them is allowed to climb a hill? We’re talking 524 million cubic feet here! I need to get in to marketing. Clearly, I can do much better than these guys.