Apple's new EarPods that will ship with the iPhone 5.
Apple unveiled the new iPhone 5 last Wednesday. I didn't watch any part of it; I'm already familiar with the features of the new version of iOS that will be on it, and I have no reason to upgrade to a new phone from the 4S that I bought last year. Recall also that I had my previous Motorola V220 for nearly seven years before purchasing the iPhone.
The one thing I did find interesting was the redesign of the included headphones, now to be known as the EarPods, that Apple says took three years. They look interesting, but not worth the thirty dollars they're going for without purchasing a phone to go along with them. If they do fit better in the ear, that would be a huge plus. They also don't appear to have the gray coating around the ends that the current model has. That's hugely beneficial, because this is what the earbuds that came with my iPhone look like after eleven months of use:
The same thing happened to the last pair I had, and they don't sit nearly as comfortably in the ears once the gray part comes completely off.
This would be an easy decision but for a little accounting problem, so to speak. Last Christmas, I got seventy dollars in gift cards to the iTunes store. I still have forty of those dollars left. But
Though I won't be buying the iPhone 5 this month, many will be. Undoubtedly its features, performance, and appearance are key features driving people to make these purchases. But Jimmy Kimmel Live did a little demonstration that could show another attribute that comes into play: