Commentary

Ed Hansberry
 

Motion Activated Headphones For Your Listening Pleasure

Sony Ericsson is working on a new headphone that is motion controlled rather than requiring you to fumble around for buttons. When you put both earbuds in, the music plays. Take out one earbud to pause the music or both to stop it. To answer a call, you have to remove both and then put one back in. Ok, this is getting complex, or at a minimum, it isn't very intuitive for some operations.

Sony Ericsson is working on a new headphone that is motion controlled rather than requiring you to fumble around for buttons. When you put both earbuds in, the music plays. Take out one earbud to pause the music or both to stop it. To answer a call, you have to remove both and then put one back in. Ok, this is getting complex, or at a minimum, it isn't very intuitive for some operations.According to AVReview, the headphones, dubbed MH907, only work with phones that have Sony Ericsson's Fast Connector jack. That means you won't be able to pick up a pair for your iPhone, Pre or any other device.

The concept is cool, but it should be limited to a very few maneuvers to control the music. To answer a call by pulling both earbuds out and putting one back in is a bit much. You might as well whip out your phone and hit the green Send button. What about putting someone on hold, setting up a three way call, turning the speaker phone on or simply hanging up?


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Even if it were limited in functions so as not to make yourself look like a mime trying to extract spaghetti from your head, by only working with a proprietary connector makes it of limited interest. Haven't we all had enough of the ridiculous proprietary audio jacks that phones have had lately that require you to buy an adapter so you don't have to use the cheesy $5 earbuds that some with your phone? I am though buying phones with anything but a 3.5mm audio jack. Microsoft has mandated that jack in their Windows Mobile 7 chassis spec 1. All phone manufacturers should follow their example.

If you have a Sony Ericsson phone though with the Fast Connector jack and these sound interesting to you, there is a video on YouTube with a bit more info. They should launch this month for around $60.


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