Get set for unusual earphone alternatives at CES

By Jacqueline Emigh | Published November 14, 2008, 6:47 PM

Do your earphones ever fall out of your ears? Is your headset too heavy on your head? Vendors will show some intriguing new options at CES 2009, ranging from Acoustibuds adapters to a NxSET "neckband."

Tossing aside any worries you might have about money, health, politics, or anything else, how do you feel about your earphones these days? Are you pleased with them? Guessing that a lot of people aren't, vendors will be on hand at CES with new designs aimed at raising comfort levels as well as just making earphones more interesting to wear.

Do your earphones ever fall out of your ears? If so, Burton Technologies could have just the product for you. Introduced this week at the CES Unveiled event in New York, Burton's Acoustibuds Earphone Adapters are touted as "embracing acoustic horn methodology," an approach in which "sound waves captured from the speaker driver are transferred through a converging cone that fits snugly inside the ear."

Since that alone won't do the job, Burton augments the "horn methodology" with thin, silicone rubber fins and an angled design, to "assure optimum position and contact within the ear, conforming to contours and allowing for a customized fit."

Acoustibuds: acoustically designed earbuds

On the other hand, possibly your headset is just, well, too bulky and annoying to wear on top of your head. If that's the problem, S1 Audio now offers a "headset" that goes around your neck.

Known as NxSET Mobile 2, the Bluetooth-enabled "ergonomically designed neckband" pushes sound up to your ears through its built-in stereo speakers, said a company rep in the S1 booth, speaking with BetaNews during the event.

The NxSET combination neckband and headset, with speakers at neck level rather than inside the ears

NxSET also includes its own noise canceling microrophone -- which while located along with the speakers on the neckband, is "positioned toward the mouth." Supposedly, you can switch with ease between listening to music and talking on the phone.

BloomingBuds at work

BloomingBuds adornments for your earbudsMaybe it's just that your earphones are kind of drab-looking? If that's your only issue, you are in luck, because now you can spruce them up with small decorative "buds" from a company called "BloomingBuds."

"We have dozens more now in development," noted a BloomingBuds rep, standing in front of a table filled with "buds" in rocket, ladybug, soccer ball, American flag, and other designs.

"There are always new ones on the way," he added, citing as examples "tassles, for showing your school colors" and "jewel-encrusted buds, for bling."

View comments by with a score of at least

Microsoft's Bob Muglia and Ray Ozzie on Silverlight vs. standards

Bob Muglia: "We're trying to provide people with an environment that has capabilities that you just simply can't do today in the standards-based world."

Sony looks to finally open a single storefront for downloads

Sony has had many different download portals for movies, music, e-books, and games, and now it's looking to make a single shop for all of it.

PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?

There was the freebie that no one will forget, the heebie-jeebies courtesy of Scott Guthrie, and a teensy bit clearer picture of how this cloud thingie should work.

Tuning out the tablet: Time to give the endless speculation a rest

Wide Angle Zoom: Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying....won't put an iTablet on the market.

Microsoft's .NET Micro Framework is now free and open source

The latest version of Microsoft's .NET Micro framework is now in the hands of the FOSS community.

Google's value proposition for Chrome OS: Should we feel insulted?

For a search engine that has direct access to all the world's online history, it appears to have taught Google nothing about selling a machine.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?

Five improvements for IT managers in 2010

If businesses are to improve their efficiency for next year, they need to stop and reassess the basic tenets of their job.

Live report: Will Google Chrome OS change Linux?

The mysteries of just what Chrome OS is, and how much of an operating system it truly is, may be resolved today.

AOL's spinoff from Time Warner to shed 2,500 jobs

As AOL moves toward become an independent company again, it will cut nearly a third of its workforce.

PDC 2009: Microsoft cares about Web browser performance

The effort to give users of the world's dominant Web browser the impression of quality, is a personal one for the man who leads that battle.