Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Save Your Jack with a Replug
Posted by Chris Gohlke in "ARTICLE" @ 07:00 AM
So, you're working at your laptop, minding your own business - perhaps listening to some tunes or watching a video. You step away for a second, but you forget you have your headphones in and yank the cord as you get up. Lots of bad consequences follow - the tip breaks off in the headphone jack, your laptop goes crashing to the ground, you get a case of whiplash...
This scenario must have happened to someone at Replug, so they came up with a solution to help you avoid suffering the same fate.
Conceptually, Replug is similar to the breakaway cables found on Mac power supplies and allows you to add breakaway functionality to any standard 3.5 mm audio jack. After the break we will see how it delivers.
Replug is a short dongle that you can add to the end of any set of headphones. The dongle consists of two pieces: a short wire, and a breakaway tip. Rather than using magnets like the Mac breakaway cable, the Replug uses a TPR/TPE (Thermoplastic Rubber/Elastomer) to grip the audio tip. The amount of force needed for it to break away seemed just right since it won't just randomly come off, but it easily broke away without budging my lightweight laptop.
Figure 1: Add a short dongle to the end of your current cord.
Figure 2: Broken into its two constituent parts.
Figure 3: The tip stays in the jack.
I noticed no discernible difference in sound quality from my Shure headphones between using the Replug and not using it. In addition to being useful for laptops, the Replug would also be great for MP3 players or any other device you use headphones with. The Replug is available in black or white starting November 1st for $17.95.
Chris Gohlke is a Contributing Editor for Digital Media Thoughts. He loves Sci-Fi and loves to get his hands on real-life tech gadgets. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with his wife and three cats.
This scenario must have happened to someone at Replug, so they came up with a solution to help you avoid suffering the same fate.
Conceptually, Replug is similar to the breakaway cables found on Mac power supplies and allows you to add breakaway functionality to any standard 3.5 mm audio jack. After the break we will see how it delivers.
Replug is a short dongle that you can add to the end of any set of headphones. The dongle consists of two pieces: a short wire, and a breakaway tip. Rather than using magnets like the Mac breakaway cable, the Replug uses a TPR/TPE (Thermoplastic Rubber/Elastomer) to grip the audio tip. The amount of force needed for it to break away seemed just right since it won't just randomly come off, but it easily broke away without budging my lightweight laptop.
Figure 1: Add a short dongle to the end of your current cord.
Figure 2: Broken into its two constituent parts.
Figure 3: The tip stays in the jack.
I noticed no discernible difference in sound quality from my Shure headphones between using the Replug and not using it. In addition to being useful for laptops, the Replug would also be great for MP3 players or any other device you use headphones with. The Replug is available in black or white starting November 1st for $17.95.
Chris Gohlke is a Contributing Editor for Digital Media Thoughts. He loves Sci-Fi and loves to get his hands on real-life tech gadgets. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with his wife and three cats.
