Hitachi Maxell HP-NC20.IPS Earphones

Hitachi Maxell has released its HP-NC20.IPS earphones today, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of noise-cancellation without having to juice up these earphones since it will draw power from the iPod (or compatible portable audio player) instead. A slider on the earphones is there to control the volume, since plugging it into the iPod will override the iPod’s own volume controls. This is one battery guzzler though, since it will reduce battery life by up to 66% when connected. Hitachi Maxell claims it is able to cancel up to 20dB of noise, and it works with 4G iPods, 1G and 2G iPod touches only (sorry iPhone owners). The Hitachi Maxell HP-NC20.IPs is out in Japan from December 12th onwards for $80. We’d steer clear of this considering the massive drain on battery life.