Unless you are a fan of stereo bluetooth headphones, you have earbuds. With the iPhone, Android Phones, Mp3 Players and other personal audio items usually shipping with a pair of these, we all end up with at least one favorite pair. They are the bane of our existence, and there have been many attempts at taming these cords. Just take a look below at the mess I usually pull out of my bag.
Once I pull these out of my bag, I usually spend the next few minutes untangling them so I can use them. Well now I, and you — if you are in the same boat — don’t have to deal with that anymore. If you pick up the Nest Earbud Protector from Digital Innovations, then your earbuds will remain tangle free.
To stow your earbuds in the Nest, first you flip the cover down so that it looks like the above picture.
Next, you put the buds in the Nest like I’ve shown in the picture above.
Then you wrap the cord around the nest.
Once you have the cord completely wrapped around, you insert the end into the nest.
Finally you flip the cup back up, and now your earbuds are protected. Your earbuds will not get tangled or damaged. To extract the buds, you just grab the plug and pull them out without flipping the cover back and they will be tangle free.
This is a really great idea. I’ve seen lots of gadgets that tried to do the same thing, but they still end up putting kinks in the cable or falling apart. This solution takes care of that, and makes it easy to keep earphones in your bag without them getting tangled.
The only thing that I don’t like about them is that the Nest should be bigger. These days headphones with microphones built into the cord are more common. It’s for this reason that the Nest doesn’t work as well as it could sometimes. If it was a bit bigger, you would have the extra room for the microphone. This is made evident with one of my test subjects, my headset for my Yaesu VX-7R Handheld Radio. This headset has an inline mic, a clip and a longer than usual plug thanks to the screw type plug used on the VX-7R. I was able to make it work, but the nest does look a little egg-shaped when they are stowed.
I can see some other uses for the Nest, too. For example, how about USB cables? This could work for those and HDMI cables as well; I would at least try those cables with the Nest. Thinner USB cables like the one that ships with the Kindle should also fit in the nest. I think Digital Innovations should make MANY sizes of the Nest, as it’s not just an earbud thing! USB Cables, iPhone/iPod cables, HDMI cables, Network Cables, Microphone cables and more have the same types of issues; if they made the Nest in multiple sizes and colors, then I’d definitely buy them to tame my spare USB cables in my bag.
The Nest Earbud protector does the job, and it’s cheap enough at only $9.99. You can buy them directly from Digital Innovations.
You Can WIN!
Digital Innovations has also given us the opportunity to help one of our readers get a Nest of their own AND a 50 dollar gift certificate! Just tell us what you think of the nest below, and we’ll pick a random winner who will be announced in this week’s newsletter.
MSRP: $9.99
What I liked: Simple to use, and it works as advertised
What I didn’t care for: Needs to be a bit bigger for earbuds that include inline microphones
Hi Joel
You shouldn’t need a bigger Nest. Just cross the section of the cable with the inline mic through the Nest, it will take care of the issue you had.
Thanks Johan.
I tried that and it works better on some of them. Still wish I had multiple sizes though. I like the idea and like to see it taken to be used for cables too and for that you need one a little bigger.
I think it looks pretty good, and I am in the market for a case, somehow managed to lose the one that came with my earphones… I am leaning towards a hard one from westone, but maybe I will try one of these.
Yeah I like this a lot better than some of the ones that come with earbuds.
This looks like, I like that the whole ear buds (connector + wires + buds) go inside something. I’ve been carrying mine in my pocket, and the form things get lint on them.
Looks nice!
This would protect my headphones from my cat
It looks like they’ve done more with this than most previous headphone storage solutions, with places to put the buds and the plug, and the flip-up cover.
Simple design, durable material. As a traveler the cords and cables are the pain point in packing back up at the end of a flight. This would be handy.