I’m going to start this review with an aside: do you remember when white earbuds were an iPod symbol? Back before the iPod monoculture, there were people who used iPods but bought black headphones, or people who used whatever MP3 players were around but bought white earbuds. Now, of course, it doesn’t matter. So! Yamaha EPH-30 Headphones. They cost $40 and give you nice, nice sound for that price point.

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…