Writing this piece left me downright torn. It’s easy to be enraged at people selling a product so simple anyone can build their own at home.

However, you are restrained in this urge by the knowledge that the product indeed works as advertised as well as provides a significant service, if only to a narrow range of people.  Introducing the bluDangle Headset Lanyard, a device which is, essentially, intended to keep your Bluetooth headgear from falling irretrievably off.

The product’s design, and why I’m so annoyed with bluDangle makers, is that they’ve essentially taken an alligator clip and attached an elastic length of thin bungee line to it.  The alligator clip is then clipped to your shirt collar while a loop at the end of the lanyard attaches to your Bluetooth headset.  Thus, should your Bluetooth be knocked from your ear, it will merely fall to the end of your lanyard length, whereupon the alligator clip will arrest it.

This is the kind of thing small children put together for business lectures in fifth grade, a simple melding of ordinary household garbage.  Any idiot can put one of these together at home with a butterfly paper clip and a length of fishing line.  And they have the unimaginable gall to charge six bucks a pop for these?

But as I said, my rage is restrained by the fact that the damn things WORK.  I actually tested these out using my eyeglasses, and though the lanyard didn’t fit too well over the earpieces (nor was it meant to) it actually worked as advertised.  My glasses effectively hung from my shirt collar.  If I were a greater amusement park patron, chances are I would love this, as there would be nearly no way to permanently divorce me from my eyewear mid-ride.

Make no mistake; they work.

bluDangles also show a surprising social consciousness, shipping them overseas to US troops and employing wounded homecoming veterans.

Would I recommend you buy one of these?  Well, that’s the problem.  Your purchase of one of these pretty much goes directly to the support of veterans in one of several ways.  It’s downright patriotic to buy one.  But if you really want one, you can build one yourself out of stuff lying around the house and pay significantly less.  I won’t issue a buy recommendation as it’s too politically charged, but I can tell you, if you DO buy this product, chances are you won’t be disappointed.

For such a simple product, it works amazingly well.