No-Noise Headphones Make Business Trips More Tolerable

04/11/08 - 12:07 PM EDT

Diana Forbes

With thousands of flights recently canceled for maintenance, once you are on a plane, why be annoyed further with poor-quality headphones? Gadget Grrl says Clear Harmony Noise-Canceling Headphones will bring your travel, and ears, to a higher level. Next, say goodbye to black, single-purpose cables. These brightly colored smart cables have several functions.

Clear Harmony Noise-Canceling Headphones
$349.99
ableplanet.com

I can't imagine flying without headphones, and for years I used in-the-earbuds until recently when I tried out some Clear Harmony Noise-Canceling Heaphones from Ableplanet. It's worth mentioning that this company has a history of helping people with all levels of hearing and if you've got great hearing, they want to help you keep it that way. It seems like a logical step to go from manufacturing hearing aids to creating great-sounding headphones.

They have developed something called Linx Audio, which can create "high frequency harmonics that enhance sound quality and speech clarity of difficult-to-hear words or notes." Personally, I've got great hearing and wince whenever I sit next to a fellow passenger whose headphones are so loud I can hear them. As a rule of thumb, if those around you can hear the music you are listening to through your headphones, they are too loud and could be doing damage to your hearing.

What I liked about these headphones, enough to switch, is the sound quality and the lightweight comfortable fit. I've tried rival Bose models and for some reason they are too snug, whereas, these fit just right. Earbuds on long flights can be irritating, and if you are listening to podcasts or audio books with lots of narration, the Linx Audio technology in these keep the dialogue from sounding muddy.

Ultra-Smart Cable
$14.00
mobile.brando.com.hk

What sets this small cable apart from others is that it has several purposes. It's a charging cable (via USB), data connection cable for mobile devices, and as an added bonus, it's also a microSD Card reader.

With this cable you can eliminate one device (the reader). And isn't that what most mobile executives want? Stealth travel? Give me a reason to pack less and I'm sold.

Of note here is that the cable comes in several easy-to-see bright colors including; orange, blue, green, black or grey. It's about time manufacturers stopped making all cables black. For years I would use electrical tape to differentiate my camera cables from PDA cables. These colors make them easy to find at the bottom of a dark laptop case or in limited light on a plane.

Site to see: Institute for Agriculture and Trade

In case you missed it, there are reports that drinking anything out of a plastic bottle with the numbers, 3, 6 or 7 on itmight not be such a good idea. Here is a site where you can find out more about how safe or unsafe plastic water and/or food containers might be. This is especially useful on the road, since almost everything you buy in an airport is encased in plastic.

Diana Forbes is a Los Angeles-based writer and media personality. Her "Gadget Grrl" reviews appear in various national print and online publications, and she demonstrates consumer products on national and local television shows. Click here to visit her Gadgetgrrl Web site.
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