A lot of you may have the newest hip gadget, many more may have borrowed it from a friend, clutching and stroking the screen in some sort of masturbatory frenzy. Anyone who's tried to plug their Sony DJ-caliber MDR-V700 headphones in to hear the tunes has found the damn things just don't fit - Apple has recessed the jack so that most third-party headsets don't fit. What to do?- Stick with the included earbuds. You also get a microphone for talking with people on the phone, so it's not a bad idea. The stereo quality isn't that great, but since you'll have the iPhone out all the time to play with the screen, your chances of being mugged won't increase on account of the telltale white earbuds.
- Shave some plastic! For the DIY'er, take a razor or other sharp object and trim down the often useless ribbed rubber at the end of your current headphones. Not for the faint of heart, but if you have a half dozen sets of earbuds from all the different MP3 players you've bought over the years, might be fun as an experiment.
- Buy an adapter! iLounge has reviewed no less than five such creatures. On the cheap end is the frighteningly long Belkin adapter (at a mere $11). On the high end, Shure puts out a $40 adapter that adds voice capability to any set of phones you may want to rock.
The identity of the pretty picture revealed after the break!
- Buy special third-party headphones! Others will surely follow suit, but so far V-Moda has adapted their Vibe earbuds into the "Duo" set, which comes with a microphone for headset capabilities as well. Engadget has the full run-down. I have the non-iPhone set and can say that these are pretty nice - so long as you don't mind spending an extra c-note on them.
Good luck to all out there using an iPhone as an music player and not just browsing the web all day on your phone.
Turns out my B&O headphones work just fine. The reason for Apple's design decision is pretty obvious and, personally, I think they made the right call. The most fragile part of the iPhone is the headset connector. The jack sits on the edge of the circuit board where it is susceptible to high shearing forces imparted by pulling on the cord. In pre-MacSafe power adapter days, this was the same thing that caused the most damage to PowerBooks. Tugging on the cable would break the circuit board at the power jack. Apple recessed the jack on the iPhone, allowing the headset plug to be supported by the iPhone case itself. This is a brilliant idea and probably reduces damage to the iPhone by a HUGE percentage. So, once you decide to recess the jack, you're left with either 1) making the iPhone case thick enough so there's adequate material to support the recessed plug or 2) reducing the diameter of the recess hole. Since many headsets actually fit the smaller hole, and since an adapter would cost about ten bucks, they opted for #2. Which was a GREAT decision I think.I must also say that I purchased a set of the new Vibes and they're fantastic. They sound even better than my B&Os.