Tuesday, July 24, 2007, 05:00 pm

High-quality photos of Apple's Bluetooth Headset and Duo Dock

By AppleInsider Staff

Following an unexplained multi-week delay, Apple Inc. this week began shipping its petite wireless Bluetooth headset for iPhone and we've got about four dozen high-quality photos to prove it.

The $129 add-on turned up at several Apple retail stores earlier this week, many of which have since sold out of their initial inventory. Several stores contacted by AppleInsider said they expect additional shipments to arrive in the coming days. However, we luckily managed to snag a couple on our way back from SoHo.

Each Apple Bluetooth headset comes packaged quite elegantly in the same black retail packaging constructed for the iPhone itself. Outside of the imagery on the front and rear of the box, it's otherwise identical to the iPhone packaging.

Inside each box is the Apple Bluetooth Headset, Apple iPhone Duo Dock (for charging the iPhone and headset simultaneously), a User Guide, a warranty pamphlet, two earpads, and a USB travel cable that includes its own Bluetooth headset mini charger (recessed into the rear of the dock connector plug). Therefore, the USB travel cable can also charge both the iPhone and Apple Bluetooth Headset simultaneously.

On the far end of the Apple Bluetooth Headset is a minute MagSafe connector that magnetically secures the accessory to the charging port in either the Duo Dock or the USB travel cable -- there are no pins to bend or break. The headset itself also includes a single LED that glows green when the unit is fully charged or red when not.

When both the iPhone and Bluetooth headset are connected to the Duo Dock at the same time, the iPhone will display the battery level of both the iPhone and the headset on its display screen (last photo, below).

We'll have some initial impressions of the Apple Bluetooth headset in the coming days, followed by a thorough review sometime thereafter.