iPhone Earbuds and Droid Functionality

[Thanassi44]

If anyone has already mentioned this, I apologize, but I think its pretty cool...

A couple months ago I bought a set of $30 dollar iPhone headphones with built in mic for my iPod classic. The mic allows for voice recording on the iPod, as well as pause/play and track skipping. I really enjoyed the convenience of these earbuds on my iPod, and thought I'd try them out on the Droid. Here are the results:

For phone calls, they do what you'd expect. Answer/End calls. Although they don't prompt voice commands like they did on my LG Dare, which I thought was also a great feature. Callers heard me pretty well on the other end, although I did have to hold the mic closer to my mouth outdoors, as I've seen most people with the iPhone do.

For the music player (MP3s on the phone) and Pandora:
Clicking the mic pauses and restarts audio playback, although with some minor inconsistency. Sometimes it took 1 click, sometimes two, or up to three. The phone seems to go "dormant" at some point and the extra click or two is necessary to "awaken" it, if you will. However, once initiated, each successive click will instantly pause/play without delay.

Another neat feature discovered: after closing or killing all the apps with taskiller or advanced task killer, clicking the mic will automatically start the last music app and the last song that was playing, (although in the media player's case, from the beginning. But I don't think that has anything to do with the headset).

So if you have an iPhone headset, try it out. Enjoy!

[dean.collins]

what music app were you using to get the benefit of the play/pause button functionality?

Did you try more than one application? wondering if it is app specific?

I posted a seperate thread elsewhere about various earbud where someone said the Bose earbuds had this functionality as well.
Klipsch Image S4i earphones with mic

[nka]

If anyone has already mentioned this, I apologize, but I think its pretty cool...

A couple months ago I bought a set of $30 dollar iPhone headphones with built in mic for my iPod classic. The mic allows for voice recording on the iPod, as well as pause/play and track skipping. I really enjoyed the convenience of these earbuds on my iPod, and thought I'd try them out on the Droid. Here are the results:

For phone calls, they do what you'd expect. Answer/End calls. Although they don't prompt voice commands like they did on my LG Dare, which I thought was also a great feature. Callers heard me pretty well on the other end, although I did have to hold the mic closer to my mouth outdoors, as I've seen most people with the iPhone do.

For the music player (MP3s on the phone) and Pandora:
Clicking the mic pauses and restarts audio playback, although with some minor inconsistency. Sometimes it took 1 click, sometimes two, or up to three. The phone seems to go "dormant" at some point and the extra click or two is necessary to "awaken" it, if you will. However, once initiated, each successive click will instantly pause/play without delay.

Another neat feature discovered: after closing or killing all the apps with taskiller or advanced task killer, clicking the mic will automatically start the last music app and the last song that was playing, (although in the media player's case, from the beginning. But I don't think that has anything to do with the headset).

So if you have an iPhone headset, try it out. Enjoy!

Thx for testing that out. I too have an iPhone earbud and noticed the Pandora pause/play. It would be nice if we could skip songs in the Music player with the earbud though. The lack of voice command when you hold the mic button down is lame.

[mindping]

That's right. I've tried it only in Music, but I've heard it's the same in other apps. Skip song functionality doesn't work, the Volume Up and Down simply double as pause/play, and the Mic didn't work at all for me.

[nka]

That's right. I've tried it only in Music, but I've heard it's the same in other apps. Skip song functionality doesn't work, the Volume Up and Down simply double as pause/play, and the Mic didn't work at all for me.

The mic didn't work for calls? Did you try it with Skype?

[unix.punkx]

Wow this is really sick. i just tried the $80 in-ear buds i used with my iPhone! Sweetness

[mpenda]

I too tried out my iPhone buds with the control button. It pauses and resumes play which is nice, but on my iPhone a double click would skip ahead and a triple click would restart/go back. I've been searching for an alternate music playback app that would perhaps add this functionality but so far, no luck.

[Thanassi44]

mpenda, out of curiosity, why did you switch from the iPhone?

[mpenda]

Well, I haven't actually switched yet!! I have one of each right now. My iPhone 3G was SO RIDICULOUSLY SLOW it was making me consider sending it to the bottom of the lake. But the newest firmware has fixed that.
The other reason is that I'm a Google user, including Google voice, and the integration with Google on the Droid is excellent. Its also on Verizon which in our area is a big plus over AT&T.

[mpenda]

One more reason I forgot to mention. I'm an Ubuntu user, and I have to keep a Microcrap machine running (or at least a virtual machine) to sync my iPhone. I'm hoping my options are better with the Droid and Ubuntu, but haven't gotten that far yet.