Hasta La Gadget!

Solidalliance has started selling again the funny earphone series “Crazy Earphone” on April 22.  It ended production a couple years ago but has made a comeback by popular demand.

A few years ago we wrote about these and here we go again. As we noted, they’re not the ultimate in sound performance but sometimes you need something a little bit different…

There are 4 models this time around: Banana, Ikura (salmon roe sushi), Katana (Japanese sword), and Kinoko (mushrooms). Put the the Katana model on, it will look like a katana penetrates your head and the blade is popped out of your ear.

Weight is 15-19 g. All are 2,000 yen.

They can be ordered here.

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, has created the first ever pair of graphene-based earphones. It might not surprise you to find out that they’re utterly incredible. More »

You know Sennheiser’s pissed when it holds a press conference just to talk about its anti-counterfeit efforts. In Guangzhou yesterday, the German audio company brought along two executives to debut its new authentication technologies on its retail packaging: a shiny Tesa PrioSpot authenticity label plus a “fool-proof” online look-up system. For the former, President of Corporate Services Volker Batels claims it’s treated as securely as one would with cash money, in the sense that it has many visible and invisible features.

There’s also a QR code plus its corresponding label ID printed below the foil, and scanning the former or entering the latter on qr-sennheiser.com returns a virtual copy of the foil label plus a visual description. If what you have matches the label on the screen then hakuna matata. But if the code’s been looked up many times already, the website will also give you a warning like in the screenshot after the break — chances are the label’s been duplicated, so potential buyers should always check this before handing the money over.

Marc Vincent, the company’s President of Greater China, aims to have this “urgent project” covering most products by the end of this year. “We have been fighting counterfeits for five years with some result, but now we have officially declared war on counterfeiting,” Mr. Vincent said in a stern voice. “Manufacturers of counterfeit products are social parasites. They really damage our reputation.”

Continue reading Sennheiser boasts anti-counterfeit efforts, unveils new authentication technologies

Sennheiser boasts anti-counterfeit efforts, unveils new authentication technologies originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve seen a couple of these earphone jack accessories pop up over time, and this one is definitely for those of you who like their smartphone accessories cute, adding tiny animal tails to your phone.

Made in Korea, the Sumneeds Line Tail earphone jack accessory was made to protect your audio jack on your phone from getting damaged when you aren’t using your headphones. The tails also act as a simple cord-management device. Simply string your earphone cord through the end of the tail, and wind it up when not in use.

Line Tails come as whale, fox, and swan ends, and there’s an accompanying set of wallpapers you can load onto your phone to give it a face to go with the tail.

[via designboom]