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Microsoft Surface earbuds look like Princess Leia hair buns or cow tags

Can you ear me now? Twitter users have fun mocking the new cordless headphones.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper

Move over, Apple AirPods . On Wednesday, Microsoft revealed its own take on cord-free headphones, the Microsoft Surface Earbuds. They're disc-shaped, feature integration with Microsoft Office apps, and will be available this holiday season for $249 (about £202, AU$371). They reportedly include tap-and-swipe controls that allow Android users to access Spotify playlists without touching your phone, and on-the-fly translation capabilities, with support for 60 languages.

Watch this: Microsoft debuts Surface Earbuds

But just like when AirPods came out, social media reaction was less about the price or the technology and more about the look. 

Seems that some think they resemble those sticky round Avery labels.

Or ear gauges.

Or maybe the neck bolts on Frankenstein.

Or cattle tags.

Or clothing anti-shoplifting devices.

Or Princess Leia's hair.

Or Guinan's hat from Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

Comparisons aside, some people want them once they're available. Others have issues. 

"They look like they're competing with EarPods in terms of being shaped specifically so they fall out constantly," wrote one Twitter user. Said another, "I wear hearing aids and let me be the first to say that those ear buds are never going to stay in."

And the cost is shocking some.

If you've got $249 and want to try them out, the Microsoft Surface Earbuds will be available later this year.

Microsoft Surface Neo and Surface Duo: Dual-screen prototypes up close

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