Apple has made their in-ear headphones, with mic and remote, available on the Apple Store for $79. The ‘phones feature three sizes of silicone plugs and a woofer and tweeter in each bud in order to give you something about sound which the weird guy who’s house they’re having the party in assures you is important when you were just trying to grab a Dorito, man.
Ahem.
The mic and remote “… are supported only by iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (120GB), and iPod touch (2nd generation),” according to Apple, though you can use them as headphones for any device that uses a miniplug.
The really important thing, of course, is that there’s now a microphone for the iPod Touch, which brings us back to the story of the year:
Ocarina Wars!
As you may recall, the Ocarina app from Smule was winning the hearts and minds of iPhone owners everywhere (and was the #1 paid app—now holding a respectable third). But Smule took advantage of the iPhone’s mic, making users blow into their iPhone to play music. iPod touch users, lacking a built-in mic, had to rely on Ocarina Spirit from Mirabar, which you could play by merely touching the screen.
Now, the official requirements for Ocarina state that it uses the integrated mic on an iPhone, and is therefore not compatible with the touch. But the new, official Apple microphone opens up a whole new front in the bloody conflict that is Ocarina wars.
Oh, and I suppose you could use it with a VoiP application to make free phone calls, too.
Have you heard about Mic&Buds3;.5 ?? This thing is great — you can connect these Apple earbuds/mic sets directly to your computer as well for VOIP calling — any computer, PC or Mac. Of course, it works with any earbud-mic set, not just Apple's. So no more big clunky, uncomfortable headsets – I can use my Apple earbuds anywhere – either audio only such as music/films or for VOIP calling. It's a perfect fit. It's new and took me awhile to find it – but totally worth it.