Pro Tip: Cure iPhone Earbud Entanglement
If you listen to music on the go, chances are you suffer from tangled and knotted wires on your buds. I’ve discovered an effortless solution for keeping my 3GS buds untangled. If you want to learn my secret, watch the video below.
A few months back, I purchased a pair of Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket earphones. Unfortunately, they’ve stopped working and, what’s worse, the folks at Skullcandy still haven’t replied to any of my emails.
Rather than dwell on the disappointment of my bad Skullcandy buds, I decided to dig out the free headphones I received from Apple with my iPhone 3GS.
My bright white 3GS buds work wonderfully, plus they even feature in-line volume controls and a good quality mic. However the cables, being awkwardly spindly, tend to tangle up at any opportunity.
All the usual anti-tangling techniques involve rolling your wire up tightly — less movement means less potential for tangling. A tight roll can also damage the actual wire in your headphones, though.
I’ve happened upon a three-step technique that solves my tangling issues. There’s nothing to learn, there are no special knots, and there’s absolutely no wrapping, rolling or tying of any sort. It’s the perfect technique for lazy listeners.
It’s worth noting that you could probably use this method with any headphones, but I’ve only tried it using Apple’s iPhone 3GS buds. It’s made possible because of the little clip that’s attached to one of the wires on the 3GS headphones.
Note that I’ve found that one of the buds can get a little tangled occasionally, though most of the time, this trick works almost perfectly and I rarely encounter knots or tangles.
After testing this at home, I searched high and low and haven’t managed to find anyone else sharing this tip online. Please let me know in the comments if it works for you, too.
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ROFLMAO… “Parkour!”
This is a terrible article. You cite 3 steps and do not describe a single one….
I’ll go ahead and assume you didn’t actually watch the video…which is where the actual “how to” is.
I was on my iPhone, didn’t realize there was a video there. My apologies.
NIce tip, but I prefer the cat method of untangling your earbuds.
Nice, do you know if this method will work with my Border Collie as well?
nice! but how to do with buds without clip?
Running tangle thru cat is a RIOT ! Seriously, I have a closed clip (just slides) on my old ear buds, and to prevent tangles…..just slide clip from Y down to where the buds are after use…. :-)
You can do the same thing by moving the “slider” piece all the way down to where it is holding the two buds together.
I have a pair of budcozy ear phone holders. Mine never get tangled. It works well http://budycozy.com
I’m glad I’m not the only one whose SkullCandy headphones stopped working. When mine stopped, I sent an email to the company and never received a response. Ironically, now I’m on their spam list and get frequent emails telling me I should buy more of their headphones.
I think not.
Dammit, I don´t have a cat, I´ll have to go through all the hassle shown in the article´s video… :=)
GREAT TIP! Now I have got 2 for you
#1 – you can purchase skull candy ear buds MUCH cheaper at TJMAXX.
#2. – those earbuds! are terrible for your ears. Any that go into the ear canal can cause a wax build up problem that is awful, leading to infections, water trapped in your head when you shower/swim, and temp. deafness. Happened to me in Italy wearing vmoda ear buds a lot for 2 weeks.(took me about 6 mos to recover) After all that i will never use in ear ones again, just buds like the ones that come with apple or bose noise canceling!
just fyi. you can google that for much more info.
thanks again for the tip!
If what you and other idiots say about in-ear headphones causing ear problems were true, then operators who have to wear earplugs on a daily basis would be in serious trouble. Any issues you had are due to your own lack of hygiene and proper care and use of the headphones. In-ear headphones are not for everyone, and certainly not for the lazy.
Also, ear buds and in-ear headphones (also called IEM, or In-Ear Monitors) are NOT the same thing. Ear buds do not go into your ear canal.