When Colleen Pham came onto the phone from Motorola to speak with me about the brand new H17txt with Motospeak, I was impressed.   Well-spoken, clear about her technical language but PASSIONATE about the Motorola brand and product, she exemplified what it means to believe in what she was speaking.  We discussed bluetooth specs, where Motorola was innovating next and why this device truly made a difference in safety and the comfort of consumers.  Motorola’s commitment to safety and their use of Social Media and marketing strategy has truly caught my eye.  Throughout the summer, join me as this girl goes handsfree and explores what happens when she stops texting, and enjoys the drive. This is the first of a multi-part series, complete with lots of giveaways!  A huge thanks to Motorola, I have my hands on a stunningly beautiful demo unit!

We discussed engaging customers by innovation and foresight:

“Texting while driving has raised important questions.  As the technology evolves we need to understand what people are using their phones for and adapt our products.  What are those consumer pain points and how can our technology resolve that?  How can we go beyond voice? At Motorola we are getting smarter and creating smart headsets.”  - Colleen Pham

Colleen understands a  very important fact: to reach consumers better, we must look at all the stresses of their daily lives and find out how products can make the best impact in dollars, sense and ease of use. The gadget itself, is remarkable.  Listen to what Colleen had to say:

“The great thing about optimized for hands-free experience with the H17Txt is Motorola’s great audio and  noise cancellation.  It’s very seamless; all they hear is your voice.  Consumers need to have it be comfortable, we’ve developed a package of inserts for the ear that help you figure out which is the right combination.  The secret sauce is the availability of the motospeak app available android or blackberry device.  The A2DP profile- allows music to stream across, even Google Navigation.  No one will hear the music or navigation except for the driver.  It puts the information right where it needs to be.  There are no settings to turn the device on. All you simply do is put the device in your ear and flip the bottom down. The recognition begins from there.  Also, We really felt it was important to use a good voice and wanted it to be natural and not be a distraction a female worked for the great voice with tonality and articulation“ – Colleen Pham

Finally, we discussed the impact that this device might have on other competitors, and programs on your phone.  For pennies a day, ($13.99 annually,) Motorola will read your emails to you.  Pham spoke about innovation and branding and gave me some insight into what else the H17txt with Motospeak could do:

“We continue to innovate in this area and we have exciting new features that are coming out.  Twitter will even read those messages to you as long as they are set up for SMS text messaging.  There is so much more to do in the space with social networking.” – Colleen Pham

The best part for me about the device isn’t the seamless integration, clear audio or the insanely simple accessibility: It’s the fact that ONE device can change the way we are living our lives and by simply freeing our hands: Saving lives.Without lifting a finger, the hands are on the wheel and eyes are focused.  Safe driving is important and Motorola has taken a revolutionary step, not only by creating a device to cut down on accidents and loss of life, but they’ve made it affordable, hardly more than a normal blue tooth headset.  A standard has been set. When innovation and safety partner, everyone wins.

There are scary statistics about mobile devices and driver attention.

  • Distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (University of Utah)
  • Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (NHTSA, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
  • Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent (Carnegie Mellon)

Click Here to see an Overview of Minnesota Legislation regarding devices while driving a motor vehicle.

This mighty device?  Aims to fix everything.  And? It can be yours.  GirlmeetsGeek is giving away a FREE headset, ($100 value.)  Scroll down to find out how.

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Specs:

H17txt with MotoSpeak™

Keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road with Motorola H17txt with MotoSpeak™, a new Bluetooth headset that is designed to optimize text-to-speech technology. By downloading the MotoSpeak™ application on your cell phone* all your texts can be read over Bluetooth® 1 letting you stay connected in a more responsible way.


Motorola H17txt with MotoSpeak™
Talk Time Up to 5 hours
Standby Time Up to 7 days
Bluetooth® 1Version Bluetooth® 1 V.2.1 w/EDR
Weight 9 g
Dimensions (boom flip closed) 42(L) x 17(W) x 10(H)mm
Features ·         Text: Reads texts (SMS) through your headset, including 150 text acronyms and senders name; available by simply downloading the MotoSpeak™ application to your phone.

·         Audio: Listen to streaming media, music, video, games and navigation through your headset.

·         Text Sender ID: Announces sender name if in phonebook.

·         Auto- response: Ability to send an automated text message to callers informing them that the person they are trying to contact is driving and will call back when available.

Motorola in Minneapolis:

As of May 2010, seven states have enacted handheld phone bans and 25 states have banned texting behind the wheel to combat distracted driving.  Since June is National Safe Driving Month, Motorola wants to make sure your listeners have the latest hands-free information to help them stay responsible and legal while communicating on the road.

To learn more about what Motorola is doing to prevent distracted driving please see our press release here. Let me know if you have any questions and/or if you would like to receive one of Motorola’s hands-free devices

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You totally want it, right?   To enter, all you have to do is comment on the blog post and tell me what your FAVORITE part of the H17txt with Motospeak is.  If you tweet about it, you’ll even get ANOTHER chance at winning.

Disclaimer: GirlmeetsGeek has not been paid, nor does she sell advertising space for any product.  I happily review and giveaway products that I BELIEVE IN and stand behind.  Motorola has generously offered to give one of it’s headsets to my readers.  I received a headset to review, snap pictures of and speak about.  I’m already addicted.