Jawbone Era & skype

[Charlotte]

Recently spent a couple of hours trying to get skype on my lenovo laptop to recognize my new Jawbone Era.  Followed all the directions -especially from Jawbone.  Now I am advised that the best thing to do is purchase the Nerd Dongle in order to successfully use skype on pc with Jawbone Era.  I do not understand why this "nerd dongle" was not included with the very expensive Jawbone Era - which is supposed to work with skype.  The dongle costs $49.99 which will make the total cost of my headset surpass even Bose.  I am pleased with the era performance on iphone - but very dissatisfied with being forced to spend $50 to simply establish a PC connection to skype.  Jawbone should be required to  state "in bold letters" that the ERA may  not integrate with Skype on a PC unless the nerd dongle is also purchased.  I researched Jawbone, headsets and user & editor reviews - decided upon the Era - then I've had to spend hours finding out that the product does not work exactly as advertised & spend more money in order to get it to work as advertised.   I like the Era quality but will be returning it and the dongle because it's just not right to have to buy something else to make what you originally bought work like it should.   Not happy - not happy at all.

[alpha_alpha]

I have a Lenovo T420s for work and I was able to pair and use Skype this morning for some test calls. I haven't tried a real phone call yet but it looks ok so far.

[Charlotte]

How did you get it to recognize the Era microphone and speacker in skype?

[agustinar]

Hello Charlotte

I just received my Jawbone Era a couple of days ago and on my learning curve finding ways on how to use it and exploring the most of its functionality.  Connecting with Skype isn't in my priority list but reading your post makes me curious to check if it will works with Skype using my laptop.

It works! 

However, please note the following:

I keep windows XP in my laptop (long story but I decided to just wait until windows 7 is ripe enough before I switch to it).  Because of XP, it takes longer way to connect with bluetooth devices... in my case I am using "My Bluetooth Places" to be able to manage connection easily.

So when I tried to pair my laptop using My Bluetooth Places, it gave me two choice of connection type, based on whether or not my bluetooth device has display screen.

Each of them are have small notes underneath it, summarising the limitation and/or access given to each type of connection. 

The one that says "my bluetooth device does not have a display screen" saying that your laptop will not allow your device to access Skype/Yahoo Msgr contacts etc.

The one that says "my bluetooth device have a display screen" saying that this means I will need my laptop to allow my bluetooth device to access my Skype/YahooMessenger contacts numbers/address.

Even though my Jawbone Era has no display, I choose the 2nd one (saying as if my Jawbone has display screen)....

The reason I chose this one is because logically I do want to be able to contact my Skype/Yahoo contacts by just saying their name through my Jawbone - it makes sense for the laptop to allow Jawbone device to access Skype contacts (I set my Jawbone Era's Callers ID "ON" and also turn all other functionality in MyTalk advance setting "ON".... so if people calling me, if they are in my contacts Jawbone Era will be able to read for me my caller's name).

My advise to you is:

1) To make sure you download latest update for your Jawbone Era (through MyTalk).

2) In your "MyTalk" Advance Setting:

a. To set all functionality related to your Audio device ON.

b. To set connection setting to allow simultaneous connection (allowing two devices, i.e.. your smartphone & your laptop, to simultaneously connecting with your Jawbone Era).

c. As I am not sure what else that may or may not limit you in regards to Skype connection, make sure to read all the notes and instructions in there, so that you will understand your limitation on each setting for your Jawbone and proceed accordingly.

3) Unpair your Jawbone from your computer.  And try to freshly pairing your Jawbone.... make sure you are choosing the same type of connection like the one I have (allowing Jawbone to access your contact numbers and names).

4) Once your Jawbone paired to your computer, make sure you CONNECT "Jawbone ERA Hands-Free unit" (there will be two type of jawbone connection in your bluetooth connection folder, "Jawbone ERA Stereo Audio" and "Jawbone ERA Hands-Free unit".  If you can only connect to one of them, choose to connect to Jawbone ERA Hands-Free unit).

5) Open your Skype, then go to "Call" menu, choose "Audio Settings" then make sure that the setting for your Microphone, Speaker and Ringing are changed to "Bluetooth Hands-Free Audio".

Save this setting.

You can make a test-call in Skype to check if the connection works fine... in Skype, go to "Call" menu, choose "Audio Settings" then under "Other things you can do" listing, click "Make a free test call".

Mine works smoothly!

I hope this helps somehow, and hope it works fine for you? :-)

Good luck.

Tina

[Charlotte]

Tina - thanks so much for your detailed assistance.  I spent several hours today on live chat with Jawbone -  first Sergio who was very nice and walked me thru all the things I had already tried,   then Juan who was extremely helpful - we tried resetting Era, rebooting computer - verified my Bluetooth works with everything but ERA   (  Era does connect as long as the micro USB is plugged in - as soon as you unplug it the device disappears)  It also never was recognized by skype.  I can walk around with ERA and hear the messages about battery live but I cannot get ERA to work with my PC.  By the way it is a Lenova - brand new - I have 4 other Bluetooth devices that work with skype and I was hoping I could throw them all away if the ERA was as good as it was advertised. 

Anyway I appreciate your help.   The Jawbone customer service in my opinion rates a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being excellent service.   The most frustrating thing is not the trouble I've had with the ERA - it's the total non-response from the company while all of us customers frantically seek a solution,  posting to forums, googling and researching the issues with ERA just so we can make it work.  

[Charlotte]

Just as a side note - I have windows 7  64 bit which seems to be frequently reported as having and issue with an "unidentifiable" driver   or should I say "non-existent".   Maybe ERA should have been tested a bit more with Windows 7   64 bit OS before releasing . 

[AndreLRG]

I agee whit you. I didnt have any reply from Jawbone about the same issue. It's a very expensive device and a TERRIBLE custumer service

[TinaR]

Hi Tina,

Many thanks for your extensive info, my Jawbone ERA works with my Skype now!

5**** contribution!  Much appreciated!

Kind regards

Tina R.

[demetri_melekos]

thanks Tina -

used your guide line to see how i could get the ERA to work with Skype on my tabled.

had issues with inconsistent performance on (2) Android devices -

using Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybean 4.2 -

the key to getting ERA to work with Skype is to turn OFF the A2DP

in advanced settings on MyTalk.

this forces the ERA to work as "Phone audio" ONLY on Android apps.

keep in mind that ERA in this configuration will to work

as a stereo headset for music files or Pandora.

since i use my mini-tablet as my phone with an AT&T 4G LTE date service,

the inconvenience of not being able to hear music on ERA

is offset by a $30/month cell phone bill (data only predaid SIM) !

peace,

Demetri