Saturday, March 12, 2011

Headphone Cable Wrap (From Dealextreme)

Headphone Cable Wrap

Do you ever carry your ipod (or alternative music player) in your pocket, pull it out and find out all the headphone wires are tangled up.  Untangling and separating the wires, can sometimes be annoying and takes some time.

To help solve this problem, I bought some of these 'fishbone smart wrap' from Dealextreme, a Hong Kong/China based online store.  I guess these aren't something you usually think of as being a pocket tool, but I find them quite handy and wanted to share them with you.




As the name implies, these 'fishbone smart wrap' are shaped like a fish skeleton.  The spaces between the 'fish-bones' can be used to wind up small cables, reducing tangle and mess.  I find they are a good size for most headphone cables.
 
All wound up!

The fishbone cable wrapper is made from a soft felixible silicone.  This silicone is meant to have a dirt repelling coating, however even if the silicone does get dirty, I'm sure you can wash it with some soapy water.

Dealextreme sells these  in a pack of five with variable colours.  My packet included a red, light blue, white, black and pink skeleton fish.

One of the great things I like about this, is the price.  A packet of five, at less than $2.48 shipped... these are dirt cheap!  It's nice ordering something without having to deliberate whether my money is better spent else where.



The ends of the cable go through the 'mouth' and 'tail' - however the ends are not very tight and the cable can unwind
 One issue that I have noted with these heaphone cable wrappers, is the ends of your heaphones can sometimes get undone from the 'ends' of the fish skeleton.  I find wrapping a second loop around the ends of the skeleton reduces the likelihood of the heaphones unravelling.

I have looped the cable twice around the fish tail end
Also, if you leave your cable wrapped up for too long; when unwound the cable tends to be quite 'curly'.  This is more noticeable in cables that have a stiffer rubber.

Overall I feel this is a great buy.  They're handy for wrapping up headphone cables and avoiding the tangly mess that can develop later.




Other options to consider:

I have also come across these cable turtle - earphone cable wrap.  They are little more pricey though.
http://rushfaster.com.au/brand.php?pBrand=TURTLE&pRange=Mini%20Turtle



Specifications:

Length: 8 cm
Height: 0.5 cm
Width: 3.4 cm
Weight: 9 g


Cost:  $2.48 shipped


Link:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/fishbone-smart-wrap-5-pack-842

2 comments:

  1. Really clever and simple, great solution for those messy cables!

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  2. I wish the guys at Cable Turtle would look into this market. They make fantastic cable wraps for computer equipment, home entertainment units and so on. Their mini-cable wrap - also called Cable yoyo - may be small enough to use for headphones. Worth a look I think.

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