These headphones will put Alexa in your head at all times (if you're into that sort of thing)
Amazon's Alexa is the personal secretary that can make us feel as powerful as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But it's not always feasible to constantly be on your phone to stay connected when you leave the house. Thankfully, these are worries of the past with OnVocal's new headphones, which allow you to give Alexa commands (plus a lot more) from wherever you are, right from your ear.
"From easy access to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google to unmatched audio and vocal controls, OV enables users to stay in control and productive all day long, keeping their phone in their pocket and remaining ready for anything," said OnVocal CEO Stuart Nixdorff.
The OnVocal headphones, called OV, connect to your phone via bluetooth, giving you access to Alexa as well as calling and music listening with just the touch of a button. So, you can leave your phone in your pocket and pay attention to the world around you.
The headphones have a wraparound power source and electronics housing that sits on your neck with connected earbuds and a microphone. OnVocal claims you'll get around eight hours of continuous talking and music playback, which works out pretty nicely for the average workday.
Setting up the headphones isn't a maze of impossible instructions, so most people should be able to get them going pretty quickly. Users simply download both the OV companion application and the Amazon Alexa app. You'll get an instruction card in the box that should take about three minutes to go through. Then the (voice assistant) world is your oyster.
OV doesn't just work with Alexa, it also gives users access to Siri and Google Now with a button on the right earbud. On top of that, you'll get voice controlled access to Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, Audible, Kindle, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn radio. When you're not using OV to access AI assistants or an app, the headphones also offer tunable sound — this means voice mode for your phone calls and ambient mode for when you just want to hear the world around you.
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The headphones do a lot, but they're not as bulky as you might expect. OV only weighs 2.8 ounces. For reference, the popular Beats Pro headphones weigh in at 14.1 ounces. Of course they're used for different purposes sometimes, but OV gives users a ton of options at a pretty low weight.
Note, though, that you'll have to pay up if you want these sleek headphones: the OV model goes for $399.99. Nixdorff, for one, thinks it's a smart investment.
"$399 is the cost of being first in line to experience what a more productive, optimized, and tuned-in daily experience is like for work and play," said Nixdorff.
That's quite a bit more than actually buying your Alexa device in the first place. But if you're really into your voice assistant, pick up your pair from Amazon, and you'll never go anywhere without your own personal secretary.
Topics Amazon Alexa Apple iPhone Music
Molly is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While there, she studied life sciences communication and conservation biology. Molly has worked in multiple communications positions at UW and recently acted as a science intern at Business Insider in NYC. She is a lover of all things science and tech related, and is always ready to take on a new challenge. When Molly isn't writing, she fills her time training for IRONMAN events, acting as the unofficial #1 Wisconsin athletics fan, and trying as many new foods as her budget will allow.
