Some Korean designers have come up with a concept design for a pair of earphones that solves these problems while still functioning like a regular headset. Called the Ear MIKI, you can tell that they’ve obviously been inspired by Mickey Mouse’s head. The Ear MIKI consists of a ring that keeps your ear buds neat when not in use. When you need to use it, all you do is pull the “ears” out and wear them like you normally would. The ring will then hang around your neck to function as a microphone. When you don’t need to use it, just retract the cords and you have a nice little ring that you can even wear around your finger if you wish.
Simple, stylish, and functional – now all they need is to get it into production stage (and possibly change its name so the folks over at Disney won’t have any problems with it). Check out more pictures of it at Yanko Design.