Killing your phone's GSM buzz with ferrite beads

Tired of all that GSM buzz coming from your cellphone when all you wan to do is listen to music? The guys at MacLife have re-uncovered a simple fix that involves parts that you probably have laying around in your spaghetti drawer. Just grab some ferrite beads -- the same ones that often ship with TVs and USB cables -- and attach them to your speaker cables near the speakers. This is probably not a shock to those of you who already know a thing or two about magnetic interference, but for the rest of you, get scouting and grab some tape.

[Via Make]

[JerseyBricklayer @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:32PM]

sweet. No more surround sound static ever time someone comes over with a nextel.

[marky-b @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:58PM]

Isn't Nextel CDMA?.. hense the Sprint/Nextel merger yesteryear..

[catapults.music @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:25PM]

Nextel is iDEN, hence the reason Nextel phones didn't work on Sprint's network.

[AJC @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:39PM]

Negative Ghost Rider, Nextel use's iDEN

[Jenny @ Aug 4th 2008 12:38AM]

Friends don't let friends use Nextel.

[neofolklore @ Aug 4th 2008 8:40AM]

"nigga technology"
that episode of The Boondocks was totally about Boost Mobile

[paolo @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:36PM]

all hail the low-pass filter !

[allislost @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:36PM]

ummm... chocolate doughnuts...

[andres @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:44PM]

eat them and see if they taste the same

[Aguiluz @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:02PM]

They are also good for removing loose teeth without going to the dentist. Just place them over that wiggling tooth and bite it hard!

[marky-b @ Aug 2nd 2008 10:35PM]

ah, well i stand corrected then ^-^

thx fur da klarificashun

[Lucretius @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:42PM]

pretty sweet deal, though, you know, it would be nice if this kind of thing would just be fixed in the factory room floor. simple fixes = major screw up on the manufacturer's part, at least as far as I'm concerned.

incidentally, "wan" should probably be want right there...

[GrangerFX @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:41PM]

I wan a spell checker!

[Aguiluz @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:58PM]

Get Mozilla Firefox. :P

[Aguiluz @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:59PM]

(But if you are referring to the article, Firefox can miss it. WAN is an acronym.)

[phanbouy @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:09PM]

wan also means lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble; "the pale light of a half moon"; "a pale sun"; "the late afternoon light ...

[Ron @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:32PM]

isn't that wane?

[crscheid @ Aug 2nd 2008 10:14PM]

no, wane means a gradual decrease in something over time, ex; the moon is on the wane, i.e. it is decreasing in visibility.

[Ghen @ Aug 3rd 2008 6:25AM]

I only wish Firefox's spell check knew about other geeky things like, well anything. CDMA GPS etc

[Chad @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:44PM]

I thought everybody already new this.

[luke @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:59PM]

I thought everybody spelt it like 'knew'.

[phanbouy @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:24PM]

luke, you must be knew here

[adam @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:36PM]

@phanbouy

He he...I love it when someone uses incorrect grammar when correcting someone else's grammar. "Spelt" is a type of wheat and not part of the conjugation of the verb "spell," my friend.

[John Doe @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:40PM]

@adam:

it might be a kind of wheat but "spelt" is also a past tense of "spell" and was rightly used in this context. also, it was used by "luke" and not by "phanbouy"

[TheGasMan @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:42PM]

@adam
"Spelt" is the British past tense of "spell".

[SimonRichards @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:17PM]

The word you are looking for is "spelled".

[dale_nx26 @ Aug 2nd 2008 10:37PM]

um....everyone I know spells the past tense of spell as "spelt," yet when i typed that, the auto spell-checker marked it as incorrect. However that's how I've been forming it since early childhood, and i live in MA--just saying that maybe different regions of the US spell it differently.

[blarvh @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:45AM]

Now that I would want to see dale. Do you have different dictionaries too?
West-coast US-English.

[hugh @ Aug 3rd 2008 12:32PM]

this is all very relevant to the topic XD

[Towncivilian @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:48PM]

You guys think you have it bad? My phone's earpiece has GSM buzz.

[Eric @ Aug 2nd 2008 11:32PM]

Damn, dude. Get a new phone.

[Towncivilian @ Aug 2nd 2008 11:53PM]

SLVR L7 ain't exactly old, man.

[Colin Potter @ Aug 3rd 2008 3:18AM]

he's not your man, guy

[Darwin @ Aug 3rd 2008 4:24AM]

He's not your guy, buddy.

[Razor @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:03AM]

He's not your buddy, partner.

[Indie @ Aug 4th 2008 8:07AM]

He's not your partner, chief.

[Dan Davis @ Aug 4th 2008 2:27PM]

He's not your chief, dude.

[profeteer @ Aug 5th 2008 12:22PM]

He's not your dude, gaylord.

[Blunt @ Aug 2nd 2008 7:51PM]

I read that on lifehacker not to long ago.

[Fanfoot @ Aug 7th 2008 1:53AM]

You might also just try a piece of aluminum foil.

Take a piece of aluminum foil. Fold it over so its a bit bigger than your phone. Lay it down on the desk. Put the phone on top of it. See if the speaker buzz from your phone is gone. Works for me and several people I've suggested it to...

I've also tried this in my car, placing a piece of aluminum foil under a rubber mat where I place my phone, and it works pretty well there too...

Originally saw this tip on an iPhone site, where somebody even tried it by taping a small piece of aluminum foil to the back of the iPhone. Worked there too. And yes, the phone still works...

[Bug @ Aug 7th 2008 8:38AM]

I've heard that--if you take a piece of tinfoil, about 30" by 30", center it on top of your head, fold the corners down under your chin, then fold over the remaining flaps taking care not to create any gaps, and smooth it out to lay as flat as possible over your skin and hair--you can get rid of the GSM buzzing in your head.

[Matt @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:10PM]

Anyone know if this fix would work with speakers in a car? Theoretically it would, but the example only uses computer speakers.

[freehunter @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:25PM]

If you care enough about the insignificant GSM buzz on your car speakers compared to the road noise and interference from your engine, you can pull the speakers out and throw these around the plugs, but honestly, I wouldn't say it's worth it.

[Luigi193 @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:10PM]

Yeah, I think I read it on Lifehacker also...
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/06/26/magnets_kill_the_cell_phone_speaker_buzz-2.html

[Hung @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:18PM]

So you only *think* so? You didn't read it?

Sorry, grammar police abuse.

[Jim @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:34PM]

You don't even want to know what I have laying around in my spaghetti drawer.

[Aguiluz @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:00PM]

Um.... Spaghetti?

[phanbouy @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:11PM]

Jim, you're right.

[andres @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:17PM]

a flying monster?

[Shadowfox952 @ Aug 2nd 2008 9:41PM]

So why bring it up at all?
I mean, the fact that you had brought up the topic would only lead to further enthusiasm towards knowing the contents your said spaghetti drawer. If you hadn't made the comment in the first place, you'd probably be saving some lazy chum about 2-5 seconds of their ever-so-interesting lives, but instead you found the need to make an necessary and self-contradicting remark and now some other lazy chum has spent 10+ seconds reading my rebuttal. GOOD GOING, GAWD.