Ignore the existence of McDonalds, Oprah Winfrey and Oder-Eaters, you'll come to a stunning conclusion: It's a Star Trek world.

Star Trek has those nifty "communicators", basically a jazzy handheld computer and telephone combination. Sound familiar? Get a Pocket PC or Palm cellphone, and you can have the same thing.

The Enterprise's crew sits in comfy chairs in front of a giant high-resolution video screen. With La-Z-Boy furniture and plasma TVs, we do the same.

You may remember the Star Trek uniform emblems – tapping them opened communications channels back to the Enterprise. Tap again to close the conversation. We now have this ability with Bluetooth wireless headsets.

You've seen people seemingly talking to themselves, walking around with a subtly cool cellphone headset sticking out of their ear. They're probably using Bluetooth.

Bluetooth is a low-power, short-range radio transmission. While it has many uses, it's great for wireless headsets to talk with a nearby cellphone. No wires needed.

Before purchasing your wireless headset, you'll need a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone. If you've got one, find out what version of Bluetooth the phone uses. To prevent problems, make sure the headset you get supports that same version.

Bluetooth headsets bring convenience: Like in Star Trek, answer calls instantly by pressing a button, keeping your cellphone holstered the whole time. Depending on equipment, you can get voice-activated calling, caller ID display, call holding, mute and volume. You no longer need to hold a phone to your ear, enabling you to use both hands while you talk. The uses for headsets aren't limited to just phone calls. If your phone supports it, use the headset as a speaker: Watch video and listen to music from your cellphone without disturbing others.

The disadvantages are size and call quality. With no wires, wireless headsets are completely self-contained. So they need to be larger than equivalent wired headsets. Call quality with Bluetooth is almost perfect if the cellphone and headset are within line-of-sight from each other. It's recommended you wear your Bluetooth headset on the same side as your cellphone to prevent interference from your body, but good headsets and cellphones can work together from 20 feet away.

A Bluetooth headset recommendation depends on your preferences. Do you prefer a headset with caller ID built in? That increases the headset size. If you talk often, make sure battery life is long and charging time is short. Try wearing similar headsets to decide if you like the hang-off-your-ear style (easy to put on one-handed, but a looser feel), or those that plug-into-your-ear (harder to put on one-handed, but a very secure fit). My current headset is the Jabra BT500: For $70, it's small, tight-fitting, has a great battery life and simple controls. For more options and plenty of quality Bluetooth headsets, check out http://jabra.com and http://plantronics.com.