I'll have your headset on a platter

A few years back, talking with someone using a mobile phone was generally annoying. Calls were dropped, voices were delayed, and often it sounded as though the conversation were being conducted in the depths of an industrial popcornmaker.

Now that the quality of our mobile phones has improved, we've found a new piece of phone technology that screws up not only our wireless phones, but our land lines as well.

It's the headset.

You may be using the latest Bluetooth earbud or an ancient AT&T headset, but chances are, either you hate it, or the person talking with you does.

In the past two days, I've had the following phone "conversations" with people wearing headsets:

• "Hi, whoever this is, you'll have to call me back on my other line because I can't hear you. I can't get the headset on this phone to work."

• "Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing those numbers. It's this headset. Could you repeat them again?"

• "Sorry about that; I'm back. My headset fell off there."

• "Wait a minute. Let me change headsets." (horrible crackling sounds)

• "Do you hear an annoying noise? Do you hear it now? (Pause.) I think I need a new headset."

• "Hi. I'm just calling to test my new headset. How does this sound?"

Annoying.

I don't use a headset (after several tries) but I'm interested an another technological advance that's supposedly just on the horizon. It's an advanced form of Caller ID that can detect callers using headsets...and route them immediately to voicemail.