Pegaso's VIBONE EZ-80WP: for underwater, skull vibrating fun

Here's the tired buzzword, catch-all product for the day: Pegaso's waterproof, bone-conducting VIBONE EZ-80WP headset. Besides being yellow and dark gray to camouflage your ear-grub, these babies vibrate the skull, not the air, in order to bring the beat to your auditory nerve. It's that little trick which makes 'em ideal for use underwater, or in space for that matter, you decide chief. Available starting July 15 in Japan for ¥19,800 or a whopping $170 bills. Hmm, reminds us this little ditty: the skull-bone's connected to the, Vi-bone, the Vi-bone's connected to the, ass-hat...or something like that.

[Via Impress]

[remi @ Jun 29th 2006 10:06AM]

nice, but i don't remember that chantey like that.

[Alex @ Jun 29th 2006 10:17AM]

Ass-hat? Seriously?

I know the commenters here are often immature, but the posters?

I enjoy the "engadget style" of light hearted, funny posts about products, but resorting to middle-school humor in order to add that funny touch to a post seems a bit much.

[Wonderboy @ Jun 29th 2006 10:21AM]

Actually I thought it was pretty dang funny... but then again, my wife continually accuses me of being a 6 year old... so maybe you're right.

Personally, I'd be careful about accusing the writers, they might start busting out mamma jokes on you.

[BoyVSCar @ Jun 29th 2006 10:56AM]

Lighten up Alex. It was quite unexpected as it IS atypical of Engadget and THAT made it funny. I laughed. I am an adult. You have upset me and have made me feel immature. I will await your apology. Geez.

[MarkF @ Jun 29th 2006 11:21AM]

As a motorcyclist I have been waiting for this idea to be integrated into helmets. I have been disappointed by the performance of helmet speakers due to all the other road and wind noise effectively washing it out. Perhaps with a bluetooth connection to my cell and nav units.

[Osiris @ Jun 29th 2006 11:37AM]

MarkF, surely you could get some in-ear headphones that are noise cancelling?
Sony Nude come to mind..

I'm guessing these work in the same way that those phones from Japan that you hold to your forehead to hear work..
I think you'd be quite dead before getting to try these in space..

[HardwareGuy @ Jun 29th 2006 11:40AM]

I understand how it can work underwater, but isn't this kind of limited use unless they make waterproof devices like iPods or CD players?

[Mike @ Jun 29th 2006 12:04PM]

I wanted one of these so bad in the 70's.
http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/magicalgadget/index3.html

[Tomb Guard @ Jun 29th 2006 12:16PM]

This writer is trying too hard. Subtlety is funny. This just didn't seem like an Engadget article.

[Kenundrum @ Jun 29th 2006 12:36PM]

I've got an otterbox and h20Audio's headphones for my ipod when i go lap swimming but this thing sounds like it'll be a heck of a lot better... unfortunately the price tag stings...
underwater headphones work well but you really gotta seal them into your ears the right way and let just a little bit of water in- tough when you're doing vigorous swimming but it works very well while kayaking or something

[demios @ Jun 29th 2006 3:10PM]

I actually laughed today.

[Espen @ Jun 29th 2006 4:37PM]

There is an MP3 player called SwiMP3 that already uses this technique, that is waterproof, and, according to my wife who just got one, actually works amazingly well.. I beleive its manufactured by Finis or something, and was less WITH the mp3 player (admittedly an unexpandable 128m) than these headphones .. But, it is attached to swim goggles and the player attaches to the back of your head, so it might give you some funny looks on dry land..

[Oven @ Jun 29th 2006 5:18PM]

Stereo or mono? It looks like a mono plug but I'd believe you if you told me the manufacturer would expect to just use the water as the ground (but that would make them useless when not submerged). Also, if they made these bluetooth then you wouldn't need a waterproof DAP. Just a ziplock bag!

[jackchance @ Jun 30th 2006 12:40AM]

Hey Bro,
Looks like asshat riled up some readers. I laughed.
It's funny, when i read that, i figured it was your post.

however, i think as a responsible website you should let your young readers know that they should never use a q-tip to clean their asshat.

-jc

[Maureen @ Jul 5th 2006 12:12PM]

Hey Gang!

You all can laugh and poke fun @ this product but some of us need and use products like these in our daily lives.

That being said, I am a BC (Bone Conduction) wearer and have been for 10 yrs. Can anyone tell me how to get this product. . . The Vibone company is in Japan and I can not find anything here in the States with their products.

Mo from Jacksonville, FL

[athens @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:07PM]

let me know if you find out where to get these headphones. they would be great with an otterbox. i tried to use the FINIS swiMP3 but i returned it because the interface didn't work very well. it took forever to transfer music from my computer... and it only held 128 megabytes or something... so i returned it. the device worked well for swimming laps though.

[Cherie @ Jul 2nd 2007 1:53PM]

OK, I'm actually interested in bone conduction waterproof headphones, might even be willing to spring for an outrageous price, but haven't found anyone on the web who actually sells them. Anyone out there find a source?