One of the most vexing and annoying problems with the iPhone is the recessed headphone jack. My Ultimate Ears don’t fit, my old Sony headphones don’t either, so the only option for me right now are the included iPhone earbuds. And well, doubly annoying is the fact that those particular earbuds hurt like hell.

There’s the V-Moda set that you can buy at the Apple store (UPDATE: they do not have the answering features, only a mic! LAME which also have the call answering function–I expect that a ton of other brands will jump on this, such as the upcoming pair from Shure) which look nice, but they’re $100. Then there’s the Belkin iPhone headphone adapter, the “peripheral no one wants, but many will need.” Essentially, ugly and not very flexible.

iPhone adapterYet today on my Flickr stream, I saw another innovative solution discovered by Tristan Tom (maybe he wasn’t the first, but the first I’ve heard of!). He cleverly remembered that the iPod Shuffle Sport Case comes with an adapter, that also happens to work perfectly for the iPhone. Another upshot is that it at least it looks Apple-like, and has some flexibility to it. The downside is that you have to buy the Shuffle Sport Case (eBay has them), which seems pretty dumb if you don’t have a Shuffle. Or if you don’t exercise.

If only Apple would sell this accessory separately! I’ve actually considered going through the process of either stripping some of the plastic covering from around the plug of my Ultimate Ears, or possibly re-wiring the iPhone cable with some new earbuds. This Shuffle adapter would be a much less painful way of using my favorite headphones again.

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