For those who do not know 'dog and bone' is Cockney rhyming slang for telephone and is sometimes shortened to 'bone'. That is appropriate in this case as these headphones rely on bone conduction technology.
For a while I have been considering getting some new earphones for #running. I have been using some cheap wired earbuds, but they are not ideal in that the cable can get in the way. I do like to be aware of what is going on around me and they were not too bad for that as they do not block my ears. I had some cheap Bluetooth earphones that needed to be pushed into my ears, but they would not stay in whilst running. Perhaps my ears are an odd shape. I did not have a lot of confidence in buying some of the expensive Bluetooth models with a separate unit for each ear as I feel I might lose one.
I read about the Aftershokz and they seemed a good alternative. The transducers sit on your cheekbones just in front of your ears and transmit sound through your skull to your cochlea. That means your ears are unobstructed and so you should be able to hear your surroundings.
These are not particularly cheap, but I got a nice discount via my health insurance and I had some money from things like Steem on my Wirex card.
I can report that they work well. There is a female voice that prompts you to pair them with your device and it also lets you know of various other actions. There is a button on the left side to pause or answer your phone. On the right side bulge behind your ear are the volume controls, with one acting as power button. The USB charging port is also there. There are various actions such as pressing both volume buttons to change the EQ. It apparently has different settings depending on whether you are wearing earplugs. You might want to do that in a noisy environment such as a plane. I noticed that if I stick my fingers in my ears then I get more bass.
The audio quality is good, but not up to what you get from any decent conventional ear or headphones. Maybe more AM than FM, so these are not for audiophiles. I mostly listen to spoken podcasts and so they are quite adequate for that. I feel it sounds a lot like wearing earphones, but I have seen other describe it as like having a speaker in the room with you. If you are running by a busy road then you might have to turn them right up as you will be hearing the traffic loud and clear.
I have not tried them for phone calls yet.
They are pretty comfortable as they are quite light and do not squeeze your head much. They fit fine over glasses, but I read that some people put them under the frames to get better contact. I wore them for two hours on my half Marathon yesterday and they did not budge at all. Battery life is specified as six hours, so I could probably manage a full Marathon with them.
During my research I found a whole site dedicated to bone conduction headphones. Aftershokz get good reviews there.
I have only had these a couple of days, but I can see me using them for all my running now. I will report if I have any problems with them.
Run free and stay well.
