Hasta La Gadget!

Starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to pick up some attractively woody audio accessories, all from the iWave Grass Roots collection. Targeted at the green buyers, iWave’s collection includes headphones, earbuds, and cases, all made from reusable, environmentally friendly, and recyclable materials. Even the egg-crate packaging is recyclable.

Items in the collection include iPhone and iPod cases ($24.99), earbuds ($19.99), and headphones ($29.99). Cheers to iWave for keeping it all affordable. You’ll find the complete collection at Neiman Marcus, Microcenter, FYE, Tekserve, and more. In Europe, they’ll be in Apple Stores.

Really, the Panasonic RP-HJE 130 is just another earbud. Price is a good indicator of headphone quality, and after that you choose whether you need noise-canceling or an in-line remote and you’re done. But the real genius behind the RP-HJE 130, the thing that will make people buy a pair, is something that has nothing to do with Panasonic. It’s the packaging.

It’s fantastic, right? The design was done by the Scholz And Friends agency in Berlin, Germany, and shows the two hook-shaped buds as a pair of eighth-notes linked together by a bar formed by the in-line remote. The design was so good that it won a Cannes Lions award this year. These buds, it is certain, would jump off the shelf at you, whatever their specs.

And those specs remain a mystery. A Google search for “RP-HJE 130″ comes up with nothing but articles about this design. Switch to Google Shopping and you get precisely zero results. But then, I guess it doesn’t really matter. After all, it’s better to pick headphones on their quality, not their packaging, which will be ripped open and tossed into the recycling-bin after a few minutes anyway.

Panasonic Earphones: The Earphones Note [Coloribus]

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Not wasting any time on trumping the original, are we Jaybird? Just a scant five months and change after introducing the eye-pleasing SB1 Sportsband Bluetooth headphones, along comes the SB2 for those who just like to live life on the vivacious side. In fact, the SB2 isn’t all that different than the SB1 in terms of features, but if you’re scouting a set with a little lot more flair, you’ll find these available in nine fresh colors: Limonade Green, Sonic Blue, Orange Crush, Runner’s Red, Toffee Apple Red, Midnight Black, Polar Blue, PowderPuff Pink and — drum roll, please — Snow White. You should know, however, that these also ship with apt-X onboard, which is said to “clean up” your jams while adding depth, bass and treble, and if your BT device has apt-X (or if you use an apt-X enabling BT adapter), these guys can kick it up a notch further with “CD quality output.” Best of all, these are still priced at $99, making the toughest decision of all which hue to pick.

Jaybird’s SB2 Sportsband Bluetooth headset ain’t afraid of no rainbow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the Scout in-ear headset launches this fall, it’ll actually be Nox Audio’s second debut product — the first is the Specialist we just reviewed — but unlike that pair of supra-aural cans, these little devils may actually have quality sound. Even in the hustle and bustle of the E3 2010 floor, we were able to make out clear, nuanced audio from their balanced armature drivers, and were impressed by the build quality as well. The silicone tab attached to each phone kept them more easily affixed to the ears, and both the in-line microphone and send / end button for calls were so tiny a Nox rep had to point them out — at first, we thought they were part of the cord. At an estimated $70, though, we’ll be eager to see how they compete with Klipsch, not to mention Apple’s model.

Nox Audio explores audiophile options with Scout mini headset, we go ears-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next time you’re in a Verizon Wireless store looking for accessories for your phone, you’ll also notice a more colorful collection of earbuds on the wall near the Bluetooth headsets. Wicked Audio has partnered with Verizon Wireless to include their two new lines of earbuds, the Metallics and the Jaw Breakers, onto store shelves for mobile phone owners looking for some earbuds to listen to music on their device.

Wicked Audio’s Metallics line come in five colors: white, pink, blue, black, and green , and are all made with a shiny, metallic coating on the back of the earbud, giving the earbuds their name. They’re noise isolating, light, portable, and affordable, coming in at $19.99 US per pair. The Jaw Breakers on the other hand feature gold-plated audio connectors and greater sound quality, are also noise-isolating , and come in four colors: white, pink, green, and black. They cost $29.99 per pair.

Both sets of earbuds come with several flexible earpieces that you can swap to fit your ears, and since they’re designed for use with mobile phones, they both have included in-line microphones that you can use to take calls in between listening to music. Both the Metallics and the Jaw Breakers are available now.