Handheld electronic devices can include mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, laptop computers, or similar devices that might be able to communicate wirelessly with a telecommunications network and/or with the Internet. Other handheld electronic devices could include portable media players, such as music players and video players. Combinations of such devices, such as mobile telephone/PDA combinations and mobile telephone/music player combinations are also available.
Many such devices, such as mobile telephones and portable music players, can produce an audio output and might consist of a handset portion that sends digital audio information wirelessly to a headset portion. For example, a mobile telephone might include a base handset that can communicate with a telecommunications network and an earpiece that can send and receive voice-related information wirelessly to and from the handset. The handset portion of such a handheld wireless device will be referred to herein as a base or a base unit. The earpiece portion will be referred to herein as a headset.
Transmission of digital audio information between a base and a headset might occur via the Bluetooth wireless communication protocol or a similar technology. For example, a mobile telephone user with a Bluetooth-enabled base and a Bluetooth-enabled headset could carry on a hands-free, wireless telephone conversation. The headset converts Bluetooth signals received wirelessly from the base into speech audible to the user and converts the users speech into Bluetooth signals that are transmitted wirelessly to the base. The base may be worn on a belt, placed in a pocket, or otherwise be maintained some distance from the headset. A user might be able to answer a phone call by pushing a button on the headset and might not need to have direct access to the base to answer the call. The communication protocol between the base and the headset wilt be referred to herein as Bluetooth, but it should be understood that other technologies, whether currently in existence or developed in the future, could be used to achieve similar results and should be considered within the scope of the present disclosure.