Apple headphones not working with N900
 

Alright, so Ive had these earbuds for a while

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA...co=MTM3Njc1ODY

never had any problems with them, until I got an N900 yesterday. For some reason, they just aren't recognized by the phone. Anyone know what's wrong?

Thanks for an help.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

If they have a mic, then they're useless for anything but an iPhone.

Apple decided rather than follow the industry standard of Right/Left/Mic/Ground, they would make their own up. They chose to make their socket Right/Left/Ground/Mic, which means your N900 is trying to ground the headphones through the mic, which clearly will not work.

In short, they won't work on anything except an iProduct.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

holy crap, that earbuds cost $79!!!!!!! wooooooooooooooa i really surprised... well not so much.. its apple :S

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

On the up-side, if you can find a converter that inverts the mic/ground pins , you could use it to "adapt" your iPhone headphones to any other 4-prong device. If there's a converter to turn other 4-prong headsets to the iPhone "standard", it would work in either direction. :)

You can thank Apple for this one though. The standard was set long ago to make the tip ground, no matter how many rings you add.

Oh, and didn't your N900 come with a headset? Mine did, but then I was a pre-order, so I'm not sure what was part of the default package and what was "special" for the pre-order folks.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

welp..

that sucks

these things are great.

is there any kind of adapter or anything that changes the pins or anything to pretty much cancel out the mic being part of it?

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

i bought mine used and yes it came with the ear buds but ehhhh im not into using used earbuds.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

That may be true, but the N900 is also finicky with headphones - I bought a pair of sony earbuds which also don't work with our beloved device. Lately I've been looking for new earbuds - any ideas?

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

You can always use apple earphones with N900. I do that all the time. The key is not to push the head phones into the socket. The plug which is supposed to go in just leave that a little outside and you should be done.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

Doing so will give u only mono sound.. To test, try putting the headphones in all the way and holding the mic button. that will be actual stereo sound.. Difference wil be obvious

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

hmm well what if i tightly wrap some tape around the mic so that the button is held down permanently?

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

Not really.
If I were you, I would search google.
Among the first results:
Something like this may solve your problem.

However, be careful and don't order them from E-bay!

Instead, look for this stuff in a local store and try it out before buying. That is the only way to be sure.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

It won't. It's just a cable extender, if you read the description : "Made and designed to work seamlessly with the Apple iPhone." I guess it would work to plug Nokia headphones to a Nokia phone, but not to convert the signals between Apple and Nokia.

The tape-wrapping is a better solution.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

I bought a cheap adaptor that allows you to plug two sets of headphones into one socket. The adaptor only supports headphones without the extra mic connector so it effectively just ignores the extra band around the apple deluxe headphone plug and allows audio to pass through without the grounding issue.

This obviously won't enable the mic on the apple headphones but at least you can listen to music with them.

The good thing about this approach is that it doesn't really add much bulk when plugged in as the adaptor is nice and small.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

I've noticed that this works, but even with tape or something it's not exactly a permanent solution. And it's not only that apple headphones don't work with the N900, as I mentioned before. Is the only lasting solution bluetooth headphones or nokia's own headset?

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

Well why don't you just use normal headphones and not some other companies headset? All of my headphones work great with the N900

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

i think you should sit the two of them , the phone and the headphones, down and make them talk and sort this silliness out. lol jus tkidding. a lot of apple products are like that. its like apple doesnt want its products to play nice wioth other stuff. but not just apple. my dad black berry head sets with the microphone (came with the phone) will not work in my n900. nor will my headphones with mic work in his black berry. i think it has something to do with the mics being made in a specific way to match a specific phone

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

Trust me on this one, I had the Bose mobile in-ear headset, which was compatible with the iPhone. Once I got my N900, it won't work. So I decided to get an adapter, I ordered 5 different adapters but none, none of them worked. So I had to sell it and get other one with out mic. :(

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

I guess I've just had back luck - which ones do you have. Also, maybe I haven't been specific earlier, but I actually meant headphone+mic, not just headphones - because headphones on their own also work just fine for me when the mic isn't built in, but obviously that's a desirable component.

Re: Apple headphones not working with N900
 

confirmed working with my UE iphone mic/headphones and n810

All you need is a normal 3 band 3.5mm extender (your best bet is probably just an L bend adapter since those are fairly small and serve some use, also probably available at radio shack). iPhone compatible headphones are designed to work with normal 3.5mm jacks, and so if you plug your headphones into a 3.5mm female jack, then the 3.5mm male won't know the difference, and thus, your n900 will treat it just as any other pair of headphones (shrubbery does essentially the same thing, since both male and female parts are 3 band).

This method disables use of the mic, so if you want to be able to use it, you will want to get a 4 band to 4 band adapter that correctly re-arranges them (as others mentioned)