Miss #9: Earbuds

Yes, people play their music too loud, but you’d hear it anyway no matter what light weight headphones were used – they are actually better than the little headphones that came with the Walkman. Unless people walked around with big studio around-ear headphones (a look that would be ridiculous with an IPod while jogging) the noise to surrounding people would be a problem.

However – I’m not a big fan of the earbuds because they don’t always stay in your ear.

I agree that they aren’t comfortable, but it isn’t as if Apple invented inner ear headphones. Come on, they have been around for yonks.

They’re so iconic that they’re shorthand for one of the best-selling consumer devices of all time, and you call that a miss?

What? this article is getting better and better.

The earbuds do suck. Not a technology Apple came up with, but certainly not one they improved on either. To call earbuds iconic is moronic. Consumers these days actually CELEBRATE being taken advantage of by big business. To call earbuds that don’t stay in your ears and give a hollow, cheap sound iconic just shows why a company like Apple can charge so much for their products!! We need to grow up as consumers and start demanding more from companies that purposely produce products that don’t get used (for the most part).

How can this be a miss? 90% of people who walk around listening to music are using Apple earbuds, not to mention all of the other brands that have copied their design. They are small, portable, and unobtrusive. How many people do you see with truly traditional super cheap headphones on a band any more? The only people that don’t use earbuds are people who buy the huge noise canceling headphones which are just as loud and obnoxious.

I find them uncomfortable and leave them in a drawer.

By wha criteria is this a miss? I prefer the earbuds to the in-the-ear-canal type. As said by others, this type of earpiece has been around for decades. I certainly expect better quality from over-the-ear headphones. But for lightweight, mobile listening I’m fine with the Apple earbuds, and have thrown away several similar style earpieces from other vendors (one big-ticket set that I’m still kicking myself for buying).

Amazing how many people are defending Apple. All of their stuff is junk. Not really…. the ipod is cool. Everything else is junk. Iphone, Macs…. they all suck. That’s why they have been around like 10 years longer than Microsoft and Microsoft makes 10 times the revenue compared to Apple.

I find it a bit self-serving, snowskiman, that you are defending Microsoft since you make seven figures doing business for their platform. You can hardly call that being objective.

I am a high school teacher of science and media design courses and work in a dual platform computer lab, and I curse Windows every day, not because it’s not functional, but because I don’t enjoy the user experience compared to Macs. Our IT people refuse to switch to Vista because they know how many problems it’s had. When it comes to doing anything creative, I turn to my Macbook, which enables my creativity instead of thwarting it. Most people in media design use Macs (I’ll bet, if you ask, you’ll find that the people who do your marketing use them). When this debate comes up in class (and it does every year) I point them to a book by Robert Pirsig called “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” The PC world is the “classical” computer world, for people who want to dig into their machines and optimize them and customize their own components. The Mac is the “romantic” computer – it just works out of the box, without worrying too much about compatibility issues or hardware components that don’t match up. For the Mac user, it’s all about the user experience and product design and creativity. There’s room for both types of computer users in this world.

And you’re missing the point. Even the “failures” of Apple (from a sales perspective) have been hits from a design and innovation standpoint. You mention how much Apple has depended on Microsoft, but the reverse is even more true. When a company is out there pushing the innovation and design envelope, as Apple is, they are bound to have some ideas that don’t work out well (sometimes, like the Newton, because they are ahead of their time). Then other companies come along and capitalize on what the pioneers began (such as Palm). Without Apple, Microsoft would have no incentive to improve (what monopoly ever does?) and we’d still be stuck with Windows 3.1. Or worse. DOS, anyone? Microsoft is a better company because of these Apple “misses,” just as Apple is better because of their underdog status compared to Microsoft sales, which forces them to innovate. It’s the competition that benefits us, the consumers. So if it weren’t for Apple, you wouldn’t be making that seven figure income.

You kids get off my lawn!

Good grief. Now it’s Apple’s fault that kids listen to music too loudly?

I use non-apple earbuds :(

I am gonna have to agree with the Mac people here; i dont consider this one a miss since Mac didnt ‘invent’ them in the first place, and they are pretty convenient (I can stash them in places I would never be able to throw a regular set)

Great sound compared to other (included in package) earphones. However after a few months of use one came a part in my ear as I pulled it out. Ayeee that made a lovely noise in my ear. So now I use Bose on the indoors…Sony on the outside.

This should not be a miss, I don’t find them uncomfortable, they have great sound production, and are very durable. I have had some for over a year and they still work great, also to compliment their pretty decent sound they also have a clean simple and stylish look. I’m not saying they are the best on the market by any means but for ear buds that are included with a product they stand out more than most. Plus Apple isn’t a sound device company so we shouldn’t expect much from this accessory.