macnn/ipodnn
12/02/2008, 10:35am, EST
Tuesday, December 2nd
Apple begins selling In-Ear Headphones
Apple has begun selling its special In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic, which should ship to buyers in approximately seven to 10 workdays. The headphones are meant to serve as an upgrade to Apple's stock earbuds, which do not isolate ambient sound due to sitting outside of the ear canal. The new gear is also equipped with separate tweeters and woofers in each earpiece, and has inline controls that can adjust volume, or play, pause and skip tracks.
The headset's microphone is intended only for recording voice memos, as such cannot be used to answer calls on an iPhone. The hardware is listed as compatible with the second-generation iPod touch, as well as the 120GB Classic and the fourth-generation Nano; the latter two players may require v2.0.1 or v1.0.3 firmware updates, respectively. The In-Ear Headphones cost $79.
Filed under: iPod, accessories, audio, Apple
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Sad
Months late and you can't answer a call with it?
Disappointing Apple. Very Disappointing.
Disappointing
This is disappointing. Why bother with the expense of including a microphone, and then not allow it to be used as an iPhone headset. I'd happy buy a pair of these to replace my iPhone earbuds/headset, if it worked for calls.
huh?
WTF? How the hell can the mic work with one part of the device and not the other? How can it record memos if it can't make phone calls, hello? This honestly makes no sense at all. I mean, it either sends electrical signals to the device that represent the sound that the mic picks up via an electrical connector or it doesn't. Are they saying that there are two different sets of electrical connections on the iPhone, one just for recording messages, the other just for phone calls?
Bizarre
This as bizarre as creating a monitor that does not work with anything but you new laptops.
BS
I don't even have an iPhone and I thinks it's BS that you can't take a call with these headphones. So you have to unplug the headphones and pull them out of your ear to take a call? C'mon, that's just plain dumb.
cable
The problem is the cable and backwards compatibility. The earphones need to use a standard jack, but there needs to be a conductor available to send signals from the remote, AND from the mic as well - so you need a totally new connector.
Since the rev 2 touch and the G3 iPhone came out around the same time, I'm perplexed why they couldn't have at least made these products compatible.
So, mic and remote functionality notwithstanding, can anyone confirm the ear phones themselves are backwards compatible with other devices?
Fact check
You might want to verify the unable to use the in-ear headphones for calls. I don't believe that's correct.
From the product page
"The remote and mic are supported only by iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (120GB), and iPod touch (2nd generation). Audio is supported by all iPod models."
Says nothing about iPhone support.
I waited all this time-
and can't answer a call.
Vmoda here I come.
Apple is making a huge mistake on this.
Legal issues?
Just a guess here, but it may have to do with trying to avoid liability issues. Since the use of headphones with an iPhone could be to enable hands-free phone calls while driving, in-ear devices could hinder the driver's ability to hear traffic sounds. I would be surprised if they didn't actually work with the iPhone, just not specifically "supported". Still, I can't blame Apple for not wanting to open the door to possible lawsuits.