[Macworld]

Post your comments for Review: iPhone headphone adapters here

[tmpatrick]

"After all you've invested in your iPhone, you owe it to yourself" ...to spend another $20 on an adapter so your expensive audio device can work with standard components? Stepping outside the Venn circle of people who need to rationalize throwing good money after bad is an experience worth trying once. If that's not possible, then tell me why Apple didn't add a mic to the iPod remote and be done with it.

We're in a recession, dammit. Get off my lawn.

[Jason Snell]

These are products that add a microphone and remote control to your bog-standard headphones. So that you can use them with the iPhone. Apple does include, with each and every iPhone, a set of Apple headphones with this feature in place.

I'm not sure why spending $20 so that my expensive headphones will work with my iPhone is "throwing good money after bad." It would seem to me that buying an entirely new pair of headphones with integrated clicker and microphone, when you've got a perfectly good set, would be far more wasteful.

My point was that if you're going to buy one of these devices, spend the $20 for the good one rather than $15 on the bad one.

[timewasting]

How about a review of the various iPhone headphones with buttons for those of us who don't want to deal with separates?

Ultimate Buds, Etymotic hf2, Vibe Duo, etc. I'm sure there are others out there that I don't know about.

[mistersquid]

tmpatrick. Your gripe falls on eager ears. Unfortunately, I don't work for a company that makes all these accessories. The Apple juggernaut is selling a lot of yuppie glitz to many people who have been living like yuppies but can no longer afford to starting in December 2007.
I am one of these unfortunates and suddenly feel like I'm on the outside of the plate glass window looking at a sumptuous holiday feast being had by those on the other side.
2008: The Year Dismal Economic Outlook Becomes Reality

[Jason Snell]

http://iphone.macwor.../2007/11/reviewultimatebudsub7and_u.php

http://iphone.macwor.../2007/07/reviewvmodavibe_duo.php

[MTrauffer]

Jason.

The main issue I've had with those kinds of adapters is that they all extend the overall length of cable that you need to carry around. One adapter that should be added to your review list that solves that problem is the Monster Cable iSoniTalk.



http://www.monsterca...ay.asp?pin=4571

[cosmica]

Jason,
On the Griffin SmartTalk product page, it says it can skip BACKWARDS, can you verify that it does? The Apple supplied remote and some of the other ones only skips forward. If the SmartTalk does skip backwards, it's even value just increased 100%.
If not Griffin needs to fire their technical writer/marketing for false information.
Thanks.

[tmpatrick]

>These are products that add a microphone and remote control to your
>bog-standard headphones. So that you can use them with the iPhone.
>Apple does include, with each and every iPhone, a set of Apple
>headphones with this feature in place.
Oh, I'm crystal clear on the concept here, but thanks for the sentence fragment to hit it home. The first question I have is: why on earth, for all their product design prowess, would they insist on a recessed miniplug jack? Second: why should a $400 phone require an adapter - any adapter?
>I'm not sure why spending $20 so that my expensive headphones will
>work with my iPhone is "throwing good money after bad." It would
>seem to me that buying an entirely new pair of headphones with
>integrated clicker and microphone, when you've got a perfectly good
>set, would be far more wasteful.
I can't believe I have to point out the ridiculousness of the above scenario. I have two better ideas: How's about when you plug in plain ol' expensive "read-only" headphones, Apple turns on the speakerphone mic during calls and save their users $20 on a dongle? And while you're filling column inches (seriously, 10 paragraphs on headphone+mic jacks?), why not take Apple to task for an arrogant and poor design decision?
>My point was that if you're going to buy one of these devices, spend
>the $20 for the good one rather than $15 on the bad one.
Sure, and if you're worth $400, what's another $20 between friends? Sigh. Seriously, is it because today you're in for a penny, you should expect to be in for a pound tomorrow?

[W_Loring]

Wow. some people sure seem to be wound tight.
It is far too late at this point to be complaining about the poor design of the Apple headphone jack on the iPhone. And other than feeling superior, what possible good do you think would come from Jason using 10 paragraphs to "take Apple to task for an arrogant and poor design?" Hasn't that already been done to death? Do you honestly think that would have been a better use of the time and space? After all, you not only read the whole article, but then wasted more precious time and space arguing about it.
Seriously. Get over it. Apple made a design decision based more on aesthetics than on functionality. When has that ever happened before? Are you honestly surprised?
By the way, I don't own an iPhone, and have no plans to buy one. Which is not to say I don't want one. And yes, my Vibe headphones would require an adapter.
And please, if I made any grammatical mistakes... keep them to yourself.

[snowyowl]

Some here seem to be tone deaf... in more than one sense of the word. It must be the acoustics within the parent's basement.
So Jason, thanks for the review. It looks like Griffin is a nice choice, and there are others.

I have my Etymotic in-ear set for my iPod use: that was my $100 investment for excellent soundforums.macworld.com/community-document-picker.jspa?communityID=&subject=%24100%2B[iand[/i]greatqualitysound]. My other option is to send in my ER-6i's and my iPhone stock set for a bit of e-surgery.

While that's a nice option, it's $50.

I now have a review from Macworld that gives me good info for another way to go.

[tmpatrick]

@W_L: I wouldn't presume to criticize your grammar, as you aren't claiming to be a professional writer by trade. If I'm assumed to not have read an article by its author, that's when I get my red pen out.
Here, I'll write the lead-in sentence for you:
"In a more perfect world where form follows function, these products wouldn't need to exist."
There, is that too much to ask in return for turning a blind eye to crass consumerism?

[Jason Snell]

tmpatrick said:

Oh, I'm crystal clear on the concept here, but thanks for the sentence fragment to hit it home. The first question I have is: why on earth, for all their product design prowess, would they insist on a recessed miniplug jack? Second: why should a $400 phone require an adapter - any adapter?

As other have said, the recessed-headphone-jack issue is completely irrelevant to this discussion.

Second, this phone doesn't require an adapter for this purpose, unless you expect Apple to provide some sort of magical incantation that will transform headphones that were never designed to be used with a cell phone into cell phone headphones. Apple puts a set of earbuds with built-in microphone in the box.

>I can't believe I have to point out the ridiculousness of the above scenario. I have two better ideas: How's about when you plug in plain ol' expensive "read-only" headphones, Apple turns on the speakerphone mic during calls and save their users $20 on a dongle?

Yeah, I'm sure my speakerphone mic will sound great when it's in my pocket while I'm walking down the street. And of course, I can use my mental powers to pause tracks and answer the phone.

>And while you're filling column inches (seriously, 10 paragraphs on headphone+mic jacks?), why not take Apple to task for an arrogant and poor design decision?

Grind the axe all you want (seriously, multiple posts because you're offended that some people might want to spend $20 on a headphone adapter?), but you might want to do it over a topic that's more relevant to your argument than this one.

[Jason Snell]

MTrauffer said:

The main issue I've had with those kinds of adapters is that they all extend the overall length of cable that you need to carry around. One adapter that should be added to your review list that solves that problem is the Monster Cable iSoniTalk.

This wasn't one of the products we were able to acquire for this roundup, but we'll definitely try to look at it sometime. Looking at its design, I'm not sure I'd say it "solves the problem," but at least it tries to mitigate it somewhat, which none of these other products do. (Though to be fair, the Shure product is primarily intended to be used with Shure's headphones, which have a much shorter cable length.)