DIY iPhone earbud replacement

One of our gripes with the iPhone are those ill fitting earbuds shipped in the box. Unfortunately, you don't have many options at the moment unless you're willing to live without the convenience of the mic / music toggle built into Apple's headphone cable. Even then, there's a good chance that your third party audio-only headphones won't fit the non-standard, standard jack. No worries, assuming you're not afraid of a wee bit (promise!) of soldering, you can fit the Apple cable with another set of buds of your choosing. Really, it doesn't look too difficult and James Papadopoulos even worked up a video tutorial which you can peep after the break.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 19th 2007 4:22PM]

I performed this mod myself today using the black marshmallow earbuds and the $7.00 radio shack soldering kit. Circuit City had the earbuds online for $15 and in the store for $25, so I just ordered them from my iPhone outside the door and went in to pick them up! :)

Anyway, the mod certainly works but it would be a heck of a lot easier with a microscope, some mechanic gloves, and a solder remover. I punctured one finger twice and then burned a few of them with the soldering iron and glue gun. I accidentally soldered the two leads together on one, then by the grace of god was able to scrape a division between them.

Effective but not fun!!!