iPod design: The labels on the earphones
Posted by Pierre Igot in: MacintoshApril 14th, 2005 • 3:06 am
With all the design awards Apple has received for the iPod, you’d think that they would have eliminated this flaw long ago… But, as far as I can tell, they still haven’t.
If you want to make sure that the earpiece for the right-hand side is in your right ear and the one for the left-hand side is in your left ear — and, apart for people interested in alternative stereo sound experiment, who doesn’t? — then you almost always have to physically move the little black covers that protect the earpieces in order to be able to see the little “L” or “R” label on the white earpiece itself.
Really, it’s quite ridiculous.
April 14th, 2005 at Apr 14, 05 | 12:33 pm
I never look at the labels. Notice the little straight rods are connected to the hemispherical parts somewhat off-center. Just take care to have the rods nearer to the back of your head; that is, looking downwards at the earpieces, the rods will be at the “8 o’clock” and “4 o’clock” positions.
Easier to do than to explain…
April 16th, 2005 at Apr 16, 05 | 12:06 am
True. I hadn’t noticed that. It’s hardly obvious, though. You still have to look at your earpieces rather carefully. Don’t know what’s so hard about just printing the “L” and “R” labels on the rods themselves.