Mozilla / Tech tips

How to use Jawbone headset with Skype/SJPhone on a MacBookPro

joduinn8 Comments

I wanted to setup a headset for my work VOIP phone calls from my laptop. I already had a Jawbone headset for my cellphone, why not use that?
Literally all I had to do was:

  • make Jawbone discoverable (when powered off, press the black shiney section with raised lettering, until the LED starts alternating Red/White)
  • on Mac, in Bluetooth menu, “Set up Bluetooth Device”, pick “Headset”and walk through the dialogs to find devices. Enter passcode, which is defaulted to ‘0000’.
  • in Skype, preferences dialog, audio tab, set the “Audio Output”, “Audio Input” and “Ringing” options to each use the “Jawbone” menu item.
  • in SJPhone preferences dialog, audio tab, set the “Output” and “Input” options to each use the “Jawbone” menu item.

That was it.
It all just worked first time, and was literally all up and running in two minutes. It would have been even faster except I had to dig up the instructions on making Jawbone discoverable! It took me much longer to write this blog post, but thought this info might be useful to others.

For the record, I was using the following:

  • MacBookPro running OSX 10.4.11
  • Skype v2.7.0.330
  • SJPhone v1.60.299a
  • Jawbone headset(!)

8 thoughts on “How to use Jawbone headset with Skype/SJPhone on a MacBookPro”

  1. Thanks for the tip! I just tried this (with Mac OS X 10.5.3), and it worked great with my new JawBone. The only difference was that I have the new JawBone, so I had to hold down both the talk and the NoiseAssassin buttons while the headset was turned off to put it into pairing/discovery mode.

    The new JawBone comes with instructions warning that if you pair it with multiple devices, and more than one of those devices are in the vicinity, it’ll pair with the one that has the strongest signal, but the signals might cause interference.

    I think that just means that if I want to use the JawBone with my mobile near my computer, I should turn off BlueTooth on my computer.

  2. Thank you for providing such clear, easy to follow instructions. I just purchased a new cell phone and couldn’t remember how to enable “discoverable mode” on my JawBone to pair the two. Frustration was setting in as I searched online. Yours was the fifth page I read and the only one that gave me what I needed. Thanks!

  4. Thank you so much for your detailed instructions. The “2nd button” is not mentioned in other pairing instructions. My sister called asking how to get the Jawbone in discovery mode. I went through 4 websites before finding yours. You saved us a lot of greif.
    Thanks again!
    Michele

  5. Every thing worked for 1 call. However, the 2nd call generated nothing but static on the receiving end. I’ve replicated this at least six times on both old and new jawbones.

    Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

  6. Dave, same issue here. very dissapointed. I am taking the headset back, and hopefully I can find either another wireless, or USB headset to use with skype.. 🙁

  7. When I run the test call, I can only hear the audio if I put the output as my bose usb speakers. When I set it to Jawbone I hear nothing in my Jawbone. The mic ont he jawbone works fine, but for some reason I can’t hear anything through it. It works fine on my iPhone, just not in skype. What gives?

  8. I did the same (before reading this site) and found it very simple and fast. The only trouble is mine gets some pretty bad static. Not sure if it is the headset or the pairing.