headphones

If you're looking to improve the quality of your music, headphones are the most important link in the chain. Today's phones, tablets, and computers are capable of spectacular audio quality that was unthinkable just 10 years ago, but you're not going to hear it with the headphones that came in the box.

Fortunately, you don't have to spend a lot of money to hear a dramatic improvement in headphone audio quality. In this Top 5, we have the best headphones for under $50, as selected by CNET … Read more

It's never too late to discover that those boring, all-white headphones Apple threw in with your iPhone can do a lot more than adjust the volume.

In fact, any headphones that include a remote (or have a remote adapter attached) can be used to control your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch in up to 10 ways.

Thanks to this post by Business Insider, here are all the ways you can use your headphones as a remote controller, allowing you to perform useful functions without taking your iDevice out of your pocket.

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Follow Steve Sphere Guttenberg on Twitter.

Bathroom break video: Steve Coogan impersonates Steve Hawking.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Sol Republic introduces headphones for cats.

- Digipacking: what to put on your emergency flash drive.

- Literally the worst word on the planet.

- How to use psychological tactics to avoid strangers on the bus.

- eBay testing same-day delivery service for iOS called eBay now.

- One percenter turns home theater into Nolan's Batcave.… Read more

All of the best sounding in-ear headphones I've tested over the years have been custom-molded to my ears models. Prices vary, but the $399 UE-4 was the least expensive, and most of the top-of-the-line models are more than $1,000. Those prices don't include the fee the audiologist charges to make molds of your ear canals, and the fees add $100 to the price of the headphones. Customs ensure a perfect fit, and the best isolation from external noise. Plus they can't fall out of your ears,

The FitEar ToGo 334 in-ear headphone is made in Japan … Read more

Some "portable" headphone amplifiers aren't all that small, but the Firestone Audio Fireye Mini is downright tiny.

It's just 1.5 inches by 1 inch by 0.5 inch, and the soft-rubber-shelled amp weighs almost nothing, so you can hang it off your iPod, iPad, iPhone or any device with a 3.5mm headphone output. Plugging in a headphone turns the Mini on and lights a bright blue LED, unplugging turns the amp off. Charge the Mini via the USB connection and it'll play for up to 24 hours. It's available in green, gray, purple, red, and white.

The Mini is no giant-killer, but it definitely bumped up the detail and resolution of my Monster Turbine Copper, Ultimate Ears UE-4, and vPulse in-ear headphones.… Read more

Great Britain's Olympic team has been given a friendly reminder to clamp down on athletes wearing the wrong brand of headphones, after medal-chasing Olympians were spied sporting non-sponsor Beats by Dr. Dre cans.

The bass-heavy Dr. Dre brand shipped batches of its headphones to hotels where British athletes were staying, the Associated Press reports.

The Beats brand is not an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics, and as such officials were none too pleased about the company's publicity ploy. British Olympic Association spokesperson Darryl Seibel said team leaders have been reminded of "the importance of protecting … Read more

No, really, I'm not kidding. You can buy a set of headphones for your cat for $999. No joke. Well, it is sort of a joke, but it's still real.

Headphone maker Sol Republic may be best known these days for having its product semipermanently glued to Michael Phelps' head whenever he's not in the water. Now it can also be known as the company that created headphones for cats.

It's part marketing stunt, part viral video, and part genius. The tiny headphones were developed with the help of music producer deadmau5 and Professor Meowingtons, a black-and-white shorthair. … Read more

File this one under M.W.A.: Marketers with attitude.

Organizers of the 2012 London Olympics are peeved at Beats Electronics, makers of the headphones that are ubiquitous in major U.S. cities, according to The Guardian and other British publications. Without the company ponying up the money to become an official sponsor of the games, Beats' headphones still managed to find their way onto the ears of Olympic athletes, who during the games are some of the most watched people on the planet.

That makes them very valuable human billboards.

Officials from the International Olympic Committee are looking into … Read more