The new Jawbone keeps all the technological advancements of the Jawbone Classic while giving the device a fresh look and updated functionality. It is approximately 50% smaller than its predecessor and Aliph has somehow made the Jawbone even more comfortable that the already supremely comfortable Jawbone Classic.

You will find no controls on the Jawbone: at least none that you can see. Aliph has done away with buttons or switches in favor of an outer surface that activate internal controls. Lightly press certain areas on the Jawbone shell and you can activate all the features and functions of the headset. This gives the smooth design an even more finished look.

The Jawbone is made with medical-grade polycarb. This ultra-smooth material allows Aliph to make the Jawbone light, curvy and ultra-strong. They have also included little touches like optional leather ensconced earloops, and reflective textured surfaces to give the outer surface a 3D look. The Jawbone comes with 4 earloops and 3 earbuds so that you can choose the setup that is most comfortable and or most stylish.

If it sounds as if Aliph has gone through extraordinary lengths for mainly cosmetic changes, that’s because they have. The designers and engineers at Aliph have not designed the Jawbone to be a piece of technology that happens to look good, but as stylish accessory that happens to have the industries best noise-cancelling technology.

Speaking of the noise-cancelling technology, the Jawbone uses a patented process that Aliph calls “Noise Assassin” to eliminate noise. It does this by combining three different components to separate speech from background clutter. The VAS, or Voice Activity Sensor, is the Jawbone part of the Jawbone: using bone induction, it detects when a person is talking and captures the frequencies at which his or her speech is occurring.

The second part of NoiseAssasin is the dual-mic setup. The Jawbone picks up sound both from the user and from the environment.

The final part of Noise Assassin is a DSP Algorithm that combines the data from the VAS with the audio from the mics and eliminates all but the actual speech from the user. The systems works remarkably well and does an excellent job of performing the thousands of tweaks per second to keep the audio as clean as possible.

One interesting note is that the Algorithms that power the Jawbone were originally developed for DARPA as a way to allow clear battlefield communications for soldiers and helicopter pilots. — If it worked for them, you can bet it will make your conversations sound better!

Using the Jawbone is easy. You charge the Jawbone using a provided dock with a USB end. You can plug this cable into an standard USB port, or into the included AC adapter. Charging from a completely discharged state takes about 50 minutes, but subsequent charges rarely took longer than 30.

To pair the device with your phone, you activate the TALK and NOISEASSASSIN controls for 2 seconds, at which point the indicator light will begin flashing red and white. Once the light begins flashing you then have your phone search for the Jawbone and use the passcode ‘0000′ — That’s it. You are now paired.

To turn the Jawbone on and off, you press and hold the TALK control for two seconds. Pressing the TALK control will either initiate a call, answer a call, switch between active calls, or disconnect a call in progress. You can also reject an incoming call by pressing the NoiseAssassin control. To change volume, you press the NoiseAssassin control to cycle through the volume levels.

In use, everything was intuitive and we never once dropped a call because of the headset. Battery life of the New Jawbone is rated at 4 hours of talk and 8 days of standby. If the original Jawbone is any indication, your milleage will be even better.

The New Jawbone is available now for about $130.