Thursday, February 4, 2010

I'm not shucking oysters - help!

About a year ago I posted about my noobishness around technology, including the headsets that come with the iPhone. Remember this conversation I shared?

Conversation #1: K and techy sales guy (TSG) in Apple store:
K: So I also want to get a headset thing for my iPhone so I can take calls in the car while I'm driving.
TSG: Um, ok... so you already have an iPhone?
K: Yeah, I got it like 9 months ago.
TSG: So... you want a bluetooth headset?
K: No, I don't need bluetooth, just something I can hook into the iPhone is fine.
TSG:Well here's the headphones it came with.
K: No, I already have those... I just need to be able to talk into something.
TSG: Um... Ms... the headphone that they come with will allow you to talk while driving.
K: Huh?
TSG: Yeah, see this little white rectangle here? Just click it and you can talk into it.
K: What in the?!?! I've had the ability this entire time and didn't know it?
TSG: Um... yeah (/thinks this girl is a total dope). What did you think this little rectangle was for?
K: I don't know... decoration?

Well about a month ago I accidently dropped one of the headphones into a cup of coffee. And apparently as awesome as Apple is, and as much as they are taking over the world, their headphones do not work when one is dropped into a cup of coffee (yeah WTF). So why does this matter? Well, I have always used the headphone/mic thingie that I use with my iPhone as my communication device in WOW. Yep, no separate fancy headset or anything, just the iPhone thingie (technical tech speak FTW).

The set up worked just fine until the little coffee incident, which made one earbud thing not work, subsequently making me feel slightly off kilter. So I went to Apple and bought a new one. I figured that I would be able to just plug this new one in and go about my merry way.

Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case. My guildies are telling me that what they hear from me on a semi-regular, but not constant, basis is a sound akin to shucking oysters or cracking open pistachios. And contrary to guild belief, no I am not shucking oysters while raiding, so this sound has to be coming from these headphones somehow.

This causes comments akin to:

There she goes again, shuck shuck shuck!
Hey, K wants to weigh in (*click *click *click)
What the hell is that?

Which causes me to react with:

Oh for f'sake

For one day I had a small glimmer of hope where I thought I had identified the issue. I thought that perhaps the area where the mic is located (which is more than just decoration!) was brushing up against the zipper of my fleece zip up thingie I wear a lot at home. That perhaps that was the clicking noise everyone else was hearing. But alas, that was not the case because the sound continued when I was wearing something else.

Is anyone else using the iPhone headset on vent? Am I being a total noob for using this (I probably know the answer to this but am asking anyways)? Anyone have any idea what this oyster shucking noise could be? I have never used push to talk, and I really don't want to have to go to that because I like being able to yell out obscenities spontaneously. Its just odd because my last iPhone headset seemed to work just fine without this clicking sound. Anyone have any ideas? Help!

7 comments:

  1. Generally speaking, intermittent noises are a result of faulty connections...cutting in and out. I would just go buy a cheap headphone/mic at radio shack or wherever and plug it in to see what happens. They can be had for pretty cheap. You can always return it if you have the same problem.

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  2. Might just be a bad pair of earbuds, since your previous ones worked okay. I use Apple earbuds, and haven't had an issue with them yet. However, if they work fine on the phone, and only do this on vent, and your previous ones didn't… I'm stumped. You could also try Skyping someone to test it there. How frequently does the shucking happen? If it's happening even when you're not talking, you could try messing with your vent sensitivity - different mic might have a different sensitivity level you have to compensate for, I know I had to re-set that recently. Can't hurt!

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  3. you are wearing a fleece zip up thingie?
    now perhaps I am getting something wrong here but isn't that exactly what the Teletubbies are wearing?
    interesting

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  4. I wonder if I have to just get a real mic. Though Agnoster, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one using Apple earbuds.

    And since my guildies were also laughing at my explanation of a fleece zip up thingies I always wear, for the record this is what it looks like:

    here

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  5. Is this also a possible explanation for your innervate assertion sounding a bit...gin-soaked...a few weeks back?

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  6. For what it's worth K, the clinking sound makes me happy. I actually giggle a little bit whenever I hear it.

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  7. @Fiona: Aw Fiona! My tree sister! *wave

    I'm glad it amuses you as opposed to annoying you!

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