earbuds

The holiday season is a peak time for traveling, as many people gear up to take advantage of the kids' time off and visit family and friends. If you're traveling by air this year, a high-tech travel bag can help you ward off tedium and the annoyances that come with being contained on an airplane with dozens of strangers.

My main goal when flying is to drown out crying babies, obnoxious passengers, and droning engines, so the first thing that goes in my carry-on is an MP3 player--but it's not much good if I can't hear the … Read more

I have this problem all the time: I want to kick out the jams on my iPod Nano but my earbuds are all mixed up with my cab receipts, Jolly Rancher candies, and slips of paper with hot girls' phone numbers. The BudTrap wants to be a solution to that problem.

It's a doughnut-shaped clip for the audio end of your earbuds. The idea is to wrap the cables around your iDevice (or, really, any device) and then stick them into the "pinchers" on the side of the BudTrap to keep them from tangling.

It holds them in place so you don't lose them, but more importantly it lets you unwind them quickly, so when that one dude with the thousand-yard stare looks like he's about to ask you for your number you can unwrap the cords and rock on in no time. … Read more

This week on Crave, we check out a touch screen from Nokia that's guaranteed to melt, Jasmine gets all up in arms over a belly band, and Oprah shows off an iPad with wings (seriously). Also, Donald's excited by a beerbot that can detect empties, Netflix tempts people to give up DVDs altogether, and Volkswagen debuts a car for little people. To cap it off, an enterprising designer pitches a watch band for the Nano--and overshoots his project funding by a whole heck of a lot. Finally: two delicious items designed to appeal to the fat person inside of all of us.

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This week, a podcast about a day you will never forget. No, not because The Beatles are available on iTunes--though we certainly get some mileage out of that. We're betting you'll remember this day as the first time you ever considered getting a sponge bath from a robot. As you can probably guess by now, Jasmine couldn't join us for today's show. Instead, Eric, Benito, and I are left to our own--clumsily riffing on zipper earbuds, iPhone liberation, Nook Color, and our president's interest in dancing fembots. Also: patriotic chocolate bacon.

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In my many years reviewing portable headphones, I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like Digital Group Audio's (DGA) Zipbuds. These unique earphones incorporate a zipper that makes up the Y-cable descending from the left and right earpieces.

The idea behind the design is the prevent the incessant tangling that seems to be inherent to earbuds. It actually makes quite a bit of sense: think about trying to tie a strand of zipper into a knot. Probably not the simplest of feats.

More than that, the zipper is actually kind of stylish in the looks department, … Read more

A set of headphones is often considered an audio accessory, but the truth is that this "extra" can outlast your MP3 player if you treat it right. After all, headphone technology doesn't evolve swiftly enough to warrant purchasing a new pair every year or so. As such, investing a hefty chunk of change in earphones isn't really a waste, and though it's true that $100 or less can get you a decent model, there are even sweeter-sounding options available for those with luxury-level budgets.

To that end, we've rounded up a selection of high-end … Read more

Ever wonder how much those white earbuds that come with Apple's mobile products cost to make? Well, we came across this special from brandsdragon.com: one-cent earphones. Better yet, they come with free shipping (we're not sure how many you have to buy or whether there really is free shipping, but we do see a free shipping logo on the page).

Now we're not suggesting that authentic Apple iPod/iPhone earbuds cost only one cent to make. But we'd bet you're looking at a pretty paltry number. Anybody wanna guess what it is?

Our resident CNET audio expert Steve Guttenberg finally joined the rest of us and started his own Twitter page, so we invited him back on today's episode to see what else is going on with The Audiophiliac.

Steve always comes prepared with relevant (and not so relevant) talking points for us, and today's includes Joy Behar's mixed-breeding novel Sheetzucacapoopoo (Steve's a big fan of her work), the value of headphone amplifiers, and his concerns about the next generation of self-proclaimed audiophiliacs.

It's not a term that should be lightly used to describe anyone who loves music, and Steve considers a real audiophiliac to be someone who is truly concerned with an active music listening experience where extra attention is paid to audio fidelity in all its expensive glory.

The high-priced equipment might be the reason why audiophiliacs are a dying breed of enthusiast, but Steve makes it clear that quality audio gear is worth the price, especially when you consider that some equipment like headphones can last a lifetime.

We also learn that today's younger audiophiliacs are specifically interested in headphones and can be found on Head-Fi.org, a comprehensive audio site with in-depth headphone reviews, expert forums, and more.

Check it out if you're shopping for new cans or earbuds, along with CNET, of course!

If you're reading this, chances are you've owned at least one MP3 player in your lifetime, and anyone who has used a portable audio player knows that the earbuds that come packaged with these devices are--for the most part--far from impressive in terms of fit and sound quality. Even those who can tolerate the often thin and flat audio will readily admit that stock earbuds are severely lacking in the bass department.

In other words, find me an MP3 player owner, and I'll show you someone who's begging for boomier bass. The good news is that … Read more