What Can Your Headphones Do?

As a child, one of the best parts of a long road trip was my Sony Walkman.  My family could talk about whatever they wanted in the front seat, but as long as I had my cassettes (yes, I said cassettes) and my headphones, I was good. The headphones that came with my Walkman were the standard foam ear, plastic and metal wired ones that if you stepped on you could kiss goodbye. These days, I use ear buds and typically stream music through my phone.

It’s interesting to see how far headphones have come since then. My ear buds are way more flexible than the old metal and foam Walkman ones.  I also have increased functionality.  I can stream music, control the volume of my songs and my conversations as well as advance to the next track with the touch of a button.

My husband is a huge fan of noise canceling headphones. As a music producer, he loves that you can put these on, flip a switch and hear nothing but the music. He’s able to hear every note clearly and pinpoint what may need tweaking before releasing a song.

I believe the next generation of hardware will be smart headphones.  We can already connect our smartphones to our computers and our cars.  Our headphones will likely have similar capabilities.  These features can include:

– Letting us access our phone’s voice control. When I’m streaming music through my phone, my hands are usually on the computer keyboard. It would be great to access the phone features without lifting a finger.

– Sharing to Facebook and Twitter.  Maybe I’d want to share a quick status update or let people know what I was listening to with the touch of a button. Again, I wouldn’t have to stop working or get lured into surfing my social media accounts. I could push a button or say a command, post my status, and keep it moving.

– Wireless and extra portable. Though this isn’t technological, it would be great to have headphones that are comfortable but also able to be stored. My ear buds are very portable, but I get worried about the cords tangling. My husband’s headphones are very comfortable, but they are so bulky that it’s impractical to carry them outside his studio. It would be great to have wireless headphones that I could fold up and put in a purse or small briefcase.

Are you excited about what the next generation of headphones can do?  What other features would you like to see?