We've been wanting to get some extended face time with Apple's In-Ear Headphones (yes, that's the product name) ever since we spied them at the company's Fall "
Let's Rock" event. Of course, they didn't exactly hit the scene
on time, and we were starting to get suspicious. Tack on the rumor they wouldn't be compatible with iPhones, and we felt downright indignant. Imagine our surprise, then, at the discovery that they not only sound really,
really good (warm lows and crisp highs, a distinct lack of that modern, pushy mid-range), but they
do work with the iPhone (the 3G we've got here, at least). Regular playback is a charm, and we had no problem making and receiving calls with the buds and attached mic -- though strangely the remote doesn't seem operable on the phone, thus deflating our excitement ever-so-slightly. Regardless, the sound quality is pretty boss for the price (besting other, more expensive models we've checked out), and they're a huge step up from Apple's previous offerings. Check out some looks at the beauties in the gallery below.
Update: It looks like the remote
can be used for answering and ending calls on the iPhone, as well as pausing, playing, and advancing tracks. No volume control though -- very odd!
posted Dec 4th 2008 11:48AM
glad the mic works... now i am interested.
It was always going to work. The new headphones have 4 connectors. 2 for the earbuds, 1 for the mic and one for the volume control.
The earphones you get with the iphone have 3 connectors. So since iphone's 3.5mm jack was only built for 3 connector pins, everything BUT the volume control would work. And this is why, Apple did not mention iphone on the list of compatible devices.
What I wanna know is that these earphones have to be in development for atleast a year. Why couldnt Apple look ahead in its own portfolio and make the iphone 3G compatible with it from the beginning?
Actually, I'm a little bit confused. I had assumed that there would be an extra contact on the connector for the new in-ear headphones, but the tip actually looks the same as the regular iPhone headphones! There is a good shot of the new connector in the gallery, and it looks exactly the same as the iPhone headphones I've got.
So, these things have a microphone...which adds microphone functionality to the iPod Touch, right?
SKYPE via iPod Touch anyone???
It's do-able, but will Apple allow it to happen? PSP does it already.
Even the first gen iPhone has a 4 contact headphone connector. 1 left ear, 1 right ear, 1 mic, 1 common (ground). Not sure how they're doing the volume control, maybe they're doing something with the ground resistance and the iPhone is measuring it.
It does have the same 4 rings as the iPhone headphones.
This things uses new technologies to support more than one button on the headphones. New technologies cannot always be retrofitted to work with older devices.
"older devices" my ass. Apple dropped the ball, again, if this isnt fully compatible with the iPhone 3g.
Yes. Older devices. The iPhone 3G was out for a few months before these were announced.
Time flows in one direction, you're just going to have to learn to deal with it.
Why do people act like they're owed something when new stuff comes out? Your phone does everything you thought it did when you bought it. The feature list seemed worth the price to you then, why is that suddenly different now?
VoIP has been available for the iPod Touch with no hacks of any kind via the App Store since September! My personal favorite is Fring, which allows you to use Skype (and a whole lot more). You just need a headphone/mic combo with the four contact adapter (got mine for $2.99 on Amazon :p). It's free, easy to use, and is completely Apple sanctioned.
I can't believe nobody here knows this yet... and to think, you call yourselves gadget intuitive. Ha!
These look sweet.
Of course they do have "mug me" written all over them but what the hell...
"Of course they do have "mug me" written all over them but what the hell..."
Versus Zune earphones, which have "mock me" written all over them?
If a PMP mugger sees someone listening to music with *any color* headphones, that mugger can be 90% sure that person is listening to an iPod. The whole "Apple white makes you a target of crime!" cry seems a bit silly these days, no?
wait, engadget has no standard iphones to test on? for some reason, i thought the engadget headquarters would be entirely made of iphones. like the desks would be made of iphones, their phone would be made of an iphone, even their chair would be all iphones. "yeah, my chair has multicheek touch technology?"
The unanswered (as far as I can tell) question . . . do the volume buttons work with the new unibody macbooks/pros?
The current headphones allow use of the inline mic, so all the contacts are present.
Anyone have any hints on that?
@why not the LS2LS7?
Does time only flow in one direction? Really?
"Why do people act like they're owed something when new stuff comes out? Your phone does everything you thought it did when you bought it. The feature list seemed worth the price to you then, why is that suddenly different now?"
Who the hell said i was owed anything? Why do you make stuff up to try and prove a point? Im still kosher with my phone and im happy that they update it as often as they do, albeit without some updates one might think would be simple. I only pointed out that they dropped the ball because if they planned properly, they would be able to sell this as a compatible device and make more revenue in the end. I have that bling, and now they aint gettin it, ya dig homey?
@Quix
I think you need to reboot your sense of humour processor.
Interesting idea of planning. Perhaps this just technology/device wasn't ready for the iPhone 3G when it came out. If so, it would have taken more than just "planning" to make this work fully with the iPhone 3G, it would have taken delaying the iPhone 3G until this was available.
Deferring massive amounts of sales sounds like poor "planning" to me.
Seeing as how most review sites don't purchase the products they review, Engadget won't be reviewing a whole lot of other IEMs. Engadget can only review the items that companies agree to lend to them. Obvious Apple would send Engadget some review items, but I doubt UE would send their 10 Pros to a site that doesn't employ a single person with degree in audio engineering (please, someone prove me wrong and introduce the staff member who has experience in the matter. It'd provide future reviews with SOME credibility).
Volume control is an EXTRA FEATURE, which will be included in future versions of the Apple In-Ear Headphones 3G
I count three rings on this connector. Two for sound, and one for the mic. I don't understand how it's controlling the volume and skipping. It must be that the new iPod Touch has a way of differentiating signals between the mic and the control features, where both are coming from the third ring. If that's the case, it's a software issue and the iPhone 3G should easily be able to updated to be compatible.
@Michael
count the silver rings not the white.
Wow, so the mic actually works then.. that's nice to know at least. I'm curious to know if these are better than the first in-ear headphones that Apple put out in terms of bass.
Haha, it's hard to say when apparently the engadget staff believes there is a "distinct lack of that modern, pushy mid-range". Seriously, modern, pushy mid-range? If anything headphones generally scoop the mids way too much in an attempt to create the illusion of power and clarity. (That is, unless you're talking about the ones that came with your Sony Walkman 20 years ago, then yes, there would be pushy mid-range.)
So, the headphones *do* have some functionality then! Ich will die headphones!
can someone tell us how they campare to bose/shure/everybody else. not just that little blurb at the end
Ya, I'd specifically like to know how they compare to shure's for sound isolation/background noise reduction. Sometimes I use my shure's as earplugs on the airplane when parents think it's a good idea to bring babies on a red-eye flight.
They could be made by shure.
specifically compared to shure's dual driver earphones, as i recall, these new apple earphones are the cheapest dual driver earphones around. (that i know of)
@Mam00th
I agree with you as well. Why don't they have a hands on, on some Shure SE530PTH, I like the looks of them, and I want to see some really nice pics of them.
Yeah, we need some other stuff, not just Apple stuff. (I love Apple products), but sometimes, you need to stop focusing on Apple, and look at the other companies
Also, comment on the hole seen the back of the ear-phones. Are they an open design? Am I correct to think that those dark marks are holes? Does this mean they're not good for noise isolating? Can others around you hear your music?
Yea, specifically I'd like to find out how they compare to my bose in-ear headphones. If they're 'close enough', they may be worth picking up for when i'm running around town.
Fabulous, that's all I needed to know.Putting this on my wish-list for christmas!
So does this mean engadget will be reviewing all earphones that come out now.
Dude! That's engadget we are talking about....
No, only those arriving from Steve Jobs ass
I was wondering the same; a "featured" article for some over-priced head phones?
Right.
Only ones that people care about.
Plus "they not only sound really, really good (warm lows and crisp highs, a distinct lack of that modern, pushy mid-range)", how is this even remotely objective?
Can't kick the habit, Engadget?
Correction Darren***
Only the ones ENGADGET cares about. Which means, in a rather small nutshell shaped like an Apple, Engadget reviews only Apple headphones. Cough fanboys Cough.
"pushy" midrange? midrange is the only thing i give a damn about, its where the vocals are stupid engadget. sounds like bose to me.
I think that you are right to ask this khalil. If this site review Apple's earbuds, why don't they review every, or some of Shure's or Creative's earbuds (or at least do a hands-on of them)?
I know you guys love Apple's products and are eager to review them, but your readers want to know about everything happening in the gadget / electronic industry, not just what's the latest happening at 1 Infinite Loop (although we do want to know what's happening there).
Finally, I am by no way calling you fanboys there as you review are generally fair and objectives, and let's face it, Apple do have some great products out there. But your readers want MOAR then you doing hands-on with every Apple products.
Mam00th
PS. Could I have the grammar police check me out? English is not my first language but I do want to improve it.
PPS. When will you guys release another podcast?
Reviewing all earphones? I doubt it. Although I would love to see the "differences" between this and some Shure earphones. Those things are expensive and I'd like to know if they're worth the differences in price!
@ Mam00th.
Good Call. But MOAR is actually spelled More. Unless there was some joke I didn't get, in that case I fail.
@mam00th
MOAR?! is that a 4chan term? for shame...
Where is Saad reply? I thought it was funny! Am I the only one who noticed it?
Well, I'll worry about quality headphones for the iPhone 3G when Apple worries about a quality sound chip.
The latest Shuffle has much better quality sound, as does my Garmin Muvi and my HTC Diamond (playing back same file using the same head phones - yeah yeah I have to use that stupid dongle for the Diamond).
Not that the iP3G is HORRIBLE, but you don't want to put its sound quality in a head to head competition anytime soon.
Yawn...
http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=headphones&invocationType=wl-gadget&searchsubmit=
If you're all going to troll, at least do it properly.
@Dale
You missed the point, of course engadget reports about headphones... But when was their last headphones hands-on? I know this ins't an audiophile blog but still...
Oh and by the way, being a douche wasn't necessary...
Oh my god, shut up. I seriously HATE reading the comments because of people like this. I've read reviews for headphones on here numerous times, as well as articles on all kinds of things. I hate to tell you, but Apple is a pretty big deal in the "gadget" world. Gosh darnit now I'm all worked up...
yeah, this is where engadget stoops to a new low. i mean they go on and on with their praise of macbooks, iphones, ipods, etc. but for all that stuff, i don't agree with their affection but can sometimes see where they are coming from. mainly because it all "looks" cool. but with these headphones, clearly apple nor any media player manufacturer has or ever will match the quality you will get from a reputable earphone brand (shure, sennheiser, etc).
this whole post is the epitome of joystiq's fanboyism.
yeah dale, i have ranted at engadget for all the iphone update stories, but when i saw that comment i knew/remembered engadget posts headphone articles with some frequency. this is the first post about apple headphones i have seen, actually.