Bone phones fall short

I like bone conduction headphones. For activities like cycling, they're a good alternative to earbuds, which could too easily fall out of your ears. 

And I might have liked these headphones if I had gotten them to work. When the headphones power up, they are automatically in MP3 mode playing music from some internal storage. 

In search of pairing mode, I consulted tiny instruction sheet that comes with the device. The text is so small that I had to get out a magnifying glass to read it. 

Here's what I found: "After power on and enter pairing status. the LED display Bluetooth flashes, cell phone, desktop computer, and laptop devices search for X10/(Bluetooth), manually click connect. The laptop de vice searches for X10/(Bluetooth) and manually clicks to connect."

Clear as mud, right? I tried multiple times and the headphones occasionally flashed "Bluetooth" but did not pair with my iPhone. 

The itty-bitty instructions also makes reference to a TF card function, but doesn't explain what TF means. Nor does it explain how to find the MP3 library and add new files or, better yet, disable the the function altogether.  So, unless I fall in love completely with the internal music files, I won't be wearing the Ortizan  bone conduction headphones on my next bike ride.  

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Written by Ric Manning

Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.