Wait, what was I talking about?

My sexy Brazillian blogger pal Carol Zara was featured on G4TV’s Women of The Web today. If you’re into video games, blogging, pop culture and other things that some might refer to as vices, she’s you’re girl. I help her out with her website from time to time and frequent it for a laugh.

Check her out on G4TV’s Women of The Web. You won’t regret it. You can also follow her on Twitter or checkout her website DigitallyBlonde.com.

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These are some of the absolute most annoying things about Twitter user practices. These are things that would ultimately drive me away from Twitter completely if I wasn’t so tied to the multitude of REAL users I have between my 3 accounts (yes, 3–They all serve their purpose). In no particular order:

1. Auto DM’s — I don’t care what they say. They’re annoying. It’s like calling someones house and repeatedly getting the answering machine, and to make matters worse, the answering machine message is terrible. Why bother even calling? *unfollows*. Get this: The other day someone sent me an auto DM that simply said “hey, how’s it going?” I genuinely thought it was a legitimate DM so I replied cautiously with “Good. How about yourself?” I never even got a reply back. Asshole.
2. The Unfollower — This has to be one of the absolute most irritating things ever. Those people that will follow you just to get you to follow them, and then immediately unfollow you to avoid reaching the limit for how many people they can follow. In other words “I want to make sure you receive my garbage tweets that advertise how you can make $54,887,684 a day with Twitter and gain 10 billion followers in 5 minutes; but I don’t give a shit in a hand basket about your tweets.” I always check to see who is actually following me back. If you follow me and then immediately unfollow me, you get unfollowed and blocked. I don’t care who you are. If you don’t value the tweets I post, then why should I even bother reading a single thing you post?
3. Zero Tweets — If you have zero tweets and are following 910 people, I will not follow you back, period. It’s pretty obvious that your auto-following rampage is in preparation for bottom-of-the-barrel, meaningless tweets about things nobody cares about. Besides, save yourself the trouble. Your account will probably get deleted within a day anyways.
4. Sleeper Tweets — These ones can be sly but if you’re paying attention, you can pick them up. These are the bot accounts (and sometimes human) that will try and slip their spam tweets into a barrage of seemingly harmless, although meaningless, tweets. Stuff like “Listening to music…”, “Just finished watching ____” and I’ve even seen some do @replies to users that were never even talking to them in the first place. I’ve been fooled by some of these before but the ones that got me were actually run by humans. As soon as I see that “Get 300 followers in a day” tweet, you are gone. Some of the bot accounts can be funny though. I’ve seen some say that they’re watching a television show that isn’t even on anymore. The other day I saw one say that it was watching the Red Sox play and this was a few days after the Sox were eliminated by the Angels (fuckin’ Halos).
5. The RT Whore — Okay, you find something interesting posted by a friend and you want to RT it and make sure your friends see it. Fair enough. That’s harmless. Doing this all day long is annoying. If all you’re going to do on Twitter is pedal everything that someone else posted before you, then you should…just stop doing it. Post some original content. It’s not that hard. If all I see in your Twitter stream are RT’s, you’re getting unfollowed for being unoriginal and late.
6. Web Host Comparison Bots — This is a personal annoyance for me because I encounter these often due to my field of work. The Twitter user that @replies people with links to web hosting provider comparisons and recommendations. I especially loathe these because they act like they’re your friend or something. Like you were looking for web hosting and voilá, there they are to help you out. This is annoying in 2 parts though: 1.) I was never even looking for web hosting to begin with, so stop soliciting me. 2.) Those web host comparison sites are always a scam. It’s been proven that the majority of the web hosting top 10 list websites give out their spots on the list based on either the amount of money you pay for the listing fee, or how much you pay to be an “affiliate”. Base your web hosting reviews on human experience.

And there you have it. A short list of some of the worst things you can encounter on Twitter. Got your own to add? Post a comment or contact me.

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The NewReview - thenewreview.net

For the past couple weeks I’ve been frequenting a new music review website. The NewReview is a site that caters to those who are into a wide array of rock music, ranging from black metal, post-hardcore, punk and an various other sub-genres. Every review is informative, straight-forward and offers a personal edge. I’m normally not one to read a lot of music reviews or frequent any specific website when I am looking for them, but The NewReview has kept me coming back. These guys know their shit. They will tell you if a song sucks and if it’s good, I’m sure Lee will tell you it will shake the dentures out of your grandma’s mouth and make your grandpa fill his Depends.

I first heard about the website via Twitter. I follow Lee on Twitter and saw that the site was up and running. So I gave it a chance and have been reading reviews since it’s launch in September. Each reviewer adds their own spin to every review that they craft. I’ve bought 3 albums thus far-with more on the way-from reading their reviews alone. I’m appreciative of the fact that I feel like each reviewer is on a more personal level with their readers, so it’s as if you had a conversation with a coworker or a friend. I have faith in their opinions and my purchases based on them have proven successful (thanks, guys!).

I often feel like some reviews you read in magazines and on sponsored websites are manufactured and can be fluffed with creative writing and vague opinions. The NewReview team doesn’t beat around the bush. Their reviews will slap you in the face like a ton of cinder blocks or cradle you like a baby, all in the same paragraph. I think I speak for everyone out there when I say that I want the whole meal, not just the wafting aroma when it comes to getting the information I seek (okay, maybe some of you might have put it a little different but you get my drift, I hope).

Who Runs The Joint?

The NewReview consists of 4 guys that all have varying tastes in the spectrum that is rock music:

• Lee Rochester – Writer and Founder
• Ben Westerman – Writer
• Ryan Tallman – Writer
• Eric Burnet – Writer

Who Designed It?

Being a web developer myself, I was really appreciative of the craftsmanship when it came to the usability and overall appearance of the website. The NewReview was designed by the talented wife of Lee Rochester and owner of the small web design company redheaddesign, Jennifer Rochester. Aside from the website offering an awesome amount of helpful features and immediately presenting the user with a list of recent reviews, the website is aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eyes when it comes to sitting down and reading a bunch of reviews at once (like myself). I often have trouble reading at length on websites but the dark interface, font faces and font size choices help this immensely. Heck, it even tames my ADD and that’s a rarity.

The NewReview has some tools that assist the user in purchasing and sampling the music being reviewed. Every tool is helpful in the decision making process of album purchases and ventures into the minds and music of new artists. There are Flash players that offer sample songs from each album, track listings, cover art, band photos, Amazon and iTunes Store links and other ways to get more information about the band being reviewed. Easily accessible and helpful.

This Concludes Our Broadcast…

The bottom line is that The NewReview is a great website if you’re looking to get some insight on your future rock album purchases. I’m helping promote this website out of personal experience and the success I’ve had with my album purchases based on the reviews I’ve read. When you have a few minutes, check it out! – TheNewReview.net

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You can read my review here – Pavarotti’s Review on WorstPizza.com

Or you can read it on the jump (it’s long)!

Let me first start off by saying that the photo I’ve supplied doesn’t do this pie justice. I took a photo of the fresh, hot pizza after I was served a slice, but for some reason my G1’s camera froze up and the photo I took was never saved to memory. So to suffice, I’ve included a photo of a slice I took home.

Pavarotti’s is a little family owned place located in Dunnellon, FL and is situated in a plaza next to a Sweet Bay supermarket. It’s probably one of about 3 pizza places in town and is the best bet out of all of them, hands down. They actually recently opened up a second location in Ocala but I’ve yet to eat there. I hear business is doing great for the new location though. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere and the service is excellent. All of the staff there are very personable and genuinely friendly. Seating arrangements are comfortable and you’re almost always seated immediately (you seat yourself wherever you please). The general appearance is clean and organized. Nothing too fancy but it gets the job done. The music is a nice selection as well. When we were there we heard Bobby Darin, Bobby Vinton and some Opera. That’s not even close to my era (I was born in ‘81) but for a pizza joint, it’s a nice mix. I brought my mom along since she loves this place as well, so the music was right up her alley.

Today we had a server (Pretty sure his name was George) that I’d never had before and I would say that this was my best experience at Pavarotti’s to date. I’ve eaten there approximately 5 or 6 times, maybe more. It’s only about 8 minutes from my house. Service here is always quick and each server is attentive to your needs, which is the way it should be. Our pizza was out in about 10-15 minutes. They normally have about 2 to 3 cooks in the kitchen and all of their pies are cooked in a stone deck oven.

We ordered an 18” hand-tossed pie with half white (easy on the regatta) and the other half (mine) was pepperoni. I like to keep it simple. The crust on their hand-tossed pizza is some of the best I’ve had in this area. In fact I’d say it’s my favorite pizza crust. It’s perfectly cooked and has a nice consistency. Not too doughy but not overcooked and too crispy. The pizza stays together in your hand perfectly. It gets along well with all of the other elements of the pie. I hate crust that has dark burnt areas spread out along the bottom of the pie. Trust me, I’ve found this to be a common occurrence at a few pizza places in Florida.

The sauce and cheese are excellent as well. The sauce is spread evenly and and you’ll never have any sort of slipping and sliding when you pick up the slice. It’s sweet and tasty. You’ll always be able to taste each individual part in its own glory as you masticate (not THAT, dirty mind). The cheese has a nice taste and doesn’t resemble any sort of processed crap you might get at some other place. It’s guaranteed to compliment your toppings well and hold them in place while doing so. These guys know what they’re doing and would never risk putting some second hand cheese on their pies.

All in all there is honestly nothing I can say that got me down about this place, or ever has. The service is excellent, the pizza is excellent, the restaurant is excellent. Heck, even their soft drinks are awesome. Their Sprite is unbelievable. Some places do a crap job at mixing the syrup in the machine but this was some sort of heavenly Sprite. I think the only thing I could say about their pizza is that it can sometimes be greasy. It depends on your toppings. I got pepperoni so that’s expected.

If you’re not big into pizza, don’t fret. They also have a large dinner menu that includes baked ziti, spaghetti, lasagna, hot and cold subs, etc. Their pasta and calzones are delicious. If you dig Sicilian pizza, try their Sicilian with sliced meatballs and pepperoni. Also, if you’re big into garlic knots, this is the only place I’ve been to around here that serves them and they’re awesome.

Pavarotti’s in Dunnellon, Florida is an impressive little pizza place with a nice menu and I hope my review will get them some more business. They deserve it! I’m gonna have to give them 7 out of 8 slices on this one. I always have a pleasant experience and I love their pizza.

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Dunkin' Red Sox sticker by Michael Wolstat

Yesterday I visited a fellow Red Sox fan’s blog, saw his most recent post and thought it was brilliant. I proceeded to express my approval for his concept by telling him it was “wicked pissah”, which I felt was fitting. So I left a comment on his blog, Size of Guam, and we started talking back and forth via email. We both had a lot in common career-wise and obviously sports-wise, so I told him I could get a bunch of these printed as soon as he gets me a vector file. Should be awesome. Obviously he’d get in trouble if he sold them but I think it’s a fantastic wicked pissah idea.

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1. It has absolutely no storyline. You go around doing missions for gangs, most of which (obviously) consist of driving. But there is honestly no plausible plot WHATSOEVER. You don’t earn money, you don’t get shit. You just unlock other parts of the city (GTA IV ripoff) and you unlock a bunch of side missions that are absolutely and utterly worthless. I’ve yet to complete a single side mission and I’m nearly complete with the game.
2. Everything in the game is completely forgettable. The music, the scenery, the characters, the story, the vehicles, the mechanics, the entire God forsaken thing. This game is a complete GTA IV knockoff. What GTA accomplished almost flawlessly, this game falls flat on its fucking face. The developers tried to make Barcelona a thriving area to interest the player, but it does nothing for the game. Granted it’s nicely rendered and designed but GTA IV had memorable landmarks. You could drive through the city so much to the point that you could travel to locations without even using the map. You could say to your friends “hey, remember that building?” and they’ll know exactly which building in the entire city that you’re referring to. GTA IV was memorable in nearly every aspect. This game is like its porn star brother who does films in his basement. The one that the parents shunned years ago due to his career choice.
3. The driving is a jerky mess. Driving is by no means intuitive. It’s tolerable but you can’t hold the joystick to a slight degree to smooth out your turns and to stay on the road. It’s either one extreme or the other. There’s never any happy medium. It’s annoying. The end.
4. The melee and firing mechanics vaguely resemble GTA IV (hey, imagine that) but again, they fail miserably. Fighting enemies on foot is a fucking yawn fest. Red dot after red dot on your radar, you mow enemies down with ease. They’ve never a challenge throughout the entire game. The gun assortment is nothing special either. If anything you’re grabbing the largest gun so you can get this crapfest portion of the game over faster and get back into a vehicle.
5. The missions are annoying. Oh for the love of God, the missions. Where do I begin? The missions are simple: Get the fastest vehicle and airjack and/or destroy the target at hand. There are variations of this of course, like… nevermind. The missions drive me absolutely insane. They’re fun for a while but after you’re doing the same mission over for the 1,000th time because of how ridiculously hard or annoying they are, beating them becomes a requirement and the fun is now completely drained. You’re trying to complete it so that you can move onto the next, and probably more annoying, mission. It’s like the game designers thought of the most annoying pitfalls of previous video games and raveled them all into the missions. I’ll give you a good example: I’m on a mission right now where you have to chase this guy named Che down with your motorcycle. Che is driving a runaway subway car full of enemies and your mission is to disconnect the cars attached to the engine car that Che is driving, get in front of the final car and shoot him a billion times (in the face!!!!!) in order to stop him. Sounds fun, right? Well, it is, to a degree. While you’re trying to do all of this you’re trying to avoid going down the wrong tunnel because if you do, you’re completely fucked; trying to avoid the GIANT BOMBARDMENT of enemies firing out of the windows of the subway cars you’re trying to disconnect; dodging motorcyclists and cars in the subway that are trying to thwart your chances of disconnecting the cars and killing Che; and trying to preserve the motorcycle you’re on because having it get wrecked is the end of the line for you. *takes a breather*
6. The side missions aren’t even worth bothering with. Seriously, if the main missions are completely annoying, why are you going to subject yourself to even more of the same shit? You don’t get anything worthwhile for completing them. Sure, you can unlock weapons caches and other things, but who the hell cars? You can pick up guns from the enemies you easily murder in melee mode during missions, so why the hell are you going to go out of your way to get the weapons caches?
7. It’s $39.99 (as of July 2009)
   
8. It’s glitchy. It’s like the Midway and Ubisoft teams had no budget for testing or quality control. I don’t even want to get in depth with this so here are some blaring examples: 1.) I was on a mission and my car was nearly at its end. So I quickly bailed while slightly moving and my car hit a set of tables with umbrellas. I got stuck between my destroyed car and umbrella and was unable to get out. Luckily an enemy came and killed me. 2.) If you’re driving really fast and you hit the Y button to jump out of your car like you would in GTA IV, sometimes Vin will just appear in a standing position where the car was and the car will continue to coast forward.
9. Nobody can die except who the game dictates. It’s virtually impossible to kill the police and pedestrians. I mean, not that I’m some sadistic bastard, but if I plow over a police officer with a semi truck and he gets up like nothing happened, then it makes the game even more unrealistic. How does this happen? How does the company that created Mortal Kombat (one of the bloodiest games ever) make a game where nobody can die? Example: You can use car melee attacks on cop cars, destroy them and then when it shows the slow motion replay of the cop car getting demolished, you can see the cops fly out and then magically get up like nothing happened. If you try to run pedestrians over or shoot them, nothing happens. They run away and yell things in Spanish.
10. The AI is flatout dumb. It’s horrendous. When you’re in melee mode the enemies don’t even hide. They stand in one place and fire at you or they run right at you in a blaze of glory. The AI in vehicles isn’t so bad but there’s nothing to that. Enemies in cars pull up next to you and try to shoot or ram you.

So there you have it. 10 reasons not to play Wheelman for the Xbox 360, or any console for that matter. Don’t get me wrong, the game has some fun aspects to it when you’re looking for mindless entertainment, but don’t play this game expecting some sort of indepth storyline or amazing weaponry. This game lacks in both departments, and pretty much every other department there is.

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1. People who don’t wipe down the machines after they use them. I love having to wipe down a machine before AND after because the sweaty ass lady before me was too lazy to do it.
2. People who mull around the machine you’re on and occasionally stare at you as if to say “are you FINISHED yet?” Look, lady. I’m trying to complete my 4 sets with a minute of rest in between. I’m sure you can go find another machine to use in the meantime. GTFOH.
3. People who sing loudly with headphones on when they have no singing capabilities whatsoever. I encountered 3 of these yesterday, all of which were completely out of tune. It was like American Idol tryouts.
4. People who walk dangerously near or around the machine you’re on while you’re using it. I had this old guy almost get hit in the ribs once while I was on the leg press. He walked next to the foot plate as I was pushing out.
5. People who don’t put the weight pins in properly and end up bending them. I can point out like 3 or 4 machines at the gym I attend where you can’t use the weight increment add-ons (the 5lb, 10lb, etc.) on the side because someone put the pin in half way and then used the machine before realizing the pin is sticking out. Ugh.

There you have it. My gym pet peeves. What are yours? Please feel free to comment and let me know. I’m curious to see what everyone encounters at the gym.

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Jeremy Keith demonstrates what could be a disgruntled end user face.

Being a web developer and an avid spokesperson (for lack of a better term) for such things as accessibility and usability, I tend to browse the web and look at what other developers and designers around the world are creating. The amount of beautiful websites on the web today is stunning and I’m happy to see it come along this far. I’ve watched people like Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer pioneer it to where it is now and the journey thus far has been an experience (see how I threw that in there?). I’ve also found that a lot of times the term “beauty is only skin deep” applies heavily, kind of like makeup before showtime arrives.

Where to draw the line

The huge influx in use and introduction of object-based Javascript libraries such as Scriptaculous, MooTools and my personal favorite, jQuery, has catapulted usability and the “wow” factor greatly. Even the least savvy of designers can accomplish some impressive things with each library. I’ve also seen it do nothing but hinder websites to the point that they’re just plain unusable. Where do you draw the line? When does the shine really become too much?

A prime example of bad usability is when a website solely relies on a Javascript library just to navigate the page. I’ve noticed that a lot of designers are trying to use creative ways to navigate their pages. This is all fun and nice but there are actually a few reasons to avoid this at all costs:

1. Javascript can be disabled. Some savvy users browse website weary of what scripts may run in the background and potentially cause harm or hang. Unless your website degrades gracefully and can still offer easy navigation without the absolute need for Javascript, then you’ve got a huge problem on your hands.
2. A lot of these methods us an id for each content section div, thus all of your content is essentially on one page. This can greatly harm search engine placement. Search engines will only see your website as being one page when in reality you want search engines to index multiple pages from your website. This also greatly adds to usability because then the end user can go to exactly the page they want and not have to shuffle through some fancy navigation that slides, fades, serves you tea, sharpens your pencil, etc.
3. Older versions of Internet Explorer have trouble interpreting Javascript. IE6 is prone to throw “object undefined” errors with libraries like jQuery. I put this last on the list because support for IE6 should realistically be dropped completely in favor of versions 7 and 8.

Prior to the launch of any website, running rigorous usability tests with a set of random people has always been good practice. Handing it off to someone with no prior knowledge of the website’s existence and letting them figure it out for themselves. It’s kind of like giving a chimp a Rubix Cube and seeing how long it takes him/her (and how easily it is for them) to solve it. If it takes forever and they become confused and/or frustrated, then you should definitely be revisiting your creation before launch.

The user experience is like a ball of clay sometimes. Despite your numerous usability tests, even some users will be confused or hung up somewhere along the line. I’ve experienced this first hand and having a client that is very open to the feedback of their clientele makes the improvement process a whole lot easier. The same can be said about marketing. It can be hit or miss. You abandon the things that just don’t work, improve the ones that show promise and leave the things that are spot on.

Accessibility: A web for everyone

Accessibility is another factor that has both suffered and thrived since the earlier days of web design, due to the widespread education provided by pioneers in the industry (the aforementioned ones above that is). Accessibility should be a huge factor when creating a front end user interface for a large audience, and there should never be a reason to avoid making accessibility a target goal (especially when the practices to get there are so easily integrated into your everyday workflow). You should accommodate everyone.

The easiest way that I can relate this to everyday life is like this: Let’s say that you’re an engineer, drawing up blueprints for skyscrapers and various other buildings. Your job is strictly guided by codes that apply to everything—electricity, water, fire exits, extinguisher systems, etc. Another requirement for every building is wheelchair ramps and entries that are wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through. The building has to be accessible to everyone. The same applies to the web. Simply disregarding accessibility for any reason is essentially banning a certain group of users from viewing your website properly.

A fellow web developer friend of mine has had a cochlear implant device most of his life due to the fact that he is deaf. Like myself, he’s an avid movie, television and technology lover, but he has a justified beef with television and movie production companies: closed captioning is not enforced. It’s very lax and extremely inconsistent. Some movies offer it while others have absolutely no CC option whatsoever. It’s something that you think would be a requirement for all Blu-Ray and DVD releases. Apparently this is not the case, thus he’s unable to enjoy certain films and shows. This is a prime example of accessibility in everyday life.

The UX Household

My view of the user experience has always been simple. I consider the user experience to be a house that serves as a home to a set of roommates. Each roommate contributes something different to the household:

• User Experience
  • Usability – The head of household. Usability is the ease at which a user can become acclimated to a website, to put it simply. All elements that come after usability are essentially contributors to the usability of a website.
  • Accessibility - Accessibility is the roommate that goes out of its way to make every guest feel at home. Accessibility is the practice of making your website easily accessible to people with disabilities. This includes (but is obviously not limited to) people that use screen readers.
  • Content – This is the guy that always has information to share and is easy to get along with (as long as the rest of the roommates don’t piss him off or something). Hindering the ease at which the user can gather the page content or somehow breaking usability, thus hindering your user’s ability to read the content, can cause huge issues. Ultimately your “house” can become chaotic, sort of like those reality TV shows. “Content” is fairly self-explanatory and at first glance can seem like a broad term. Your content is the meat and potatoes of what your website conveys. Keeping your page content concise and clear is usually your best bet. Most users are more apt to read bullet points and look at images before they’ll read paragraphs.
  • Functionality – This roommate keeps the content guy grounded and often times brings out the best in good ol’ content. Functionality is basically the fluidity with which your website’s special features interact with various browsers, resolutions, etc. and how well they hold up. Your user shouldn’t be solely relied upon to have extra features or add-ons in their browser or browsing environment just to make your website’s featuers work properly. An example of bad functionality is when you create effects in jQuery that break, shift or just plain fail when the user provokes something such as a browser window resize or a font size adjustment. The same applies to all aspects of the website. Shifting divs can be an issue if you haven’t properly cleared elements and the viewfinder encounters a resize or a resolution that the website was never tested on.

Searchability: How easily can you be found?

Another aspect that I think could be factored in as a “roommate” is searchability. The ease at which your website can be found can greatly help or hurt the user experience. There are many factors that can contribute to the rise and fall of your website when it comes to being found at all:

• meta tags: description, keywords… – Although most search engines are doing away with a lot of them, having a description meta tag is crucial. Without it, search engines rely on the next best thing to grab: your page content. Some people will tell you that the keywords meta tag is dead but that is not completely the case. There are some search engines out there that still utilize it, so keeping it won’t hurt you. It’s good to be safe than sorry.
• Heading tags: h1, h2, h3… – Search engines “crawl” websites and follow by the structure of elements provided to them. Having properly ordered heading tags and using the <p> tag to enclose page copy, is good practice and should be utilized.
• Relevant page content – This tends to be a trial and error aspect of searchability. Keeping your content relevant and concise to what the website is about is important, but make sure not to be redundant. Example: if Google sees a keyword within your page copy that is used numerous times through the same paragraph, your website can be penalized.
• Fresh page content – The frequency at which your content is updated can make or break you. If Google or any other search engine scans your website over a period of 6 months to a year (roughly) and sees that your content has not changed, your rank will suffer. Keeping your page content up to date will help greatly. If you find it practical, having an active blog can help. I stress “active” here because having a blog is one thing but having a blog that is never updated will hurt you more than it will help you. An inactive blog page is another page for search engines to penalize you for.

Think about it. Unless all of your website traffic is miraculously direct traffic only, your website is going to suffer a huge deal. If people can’t even find your website, then all of the aforementioned aspects of the user experience are out the window. You have to get the guest in the door before you can do anything else.

Wrapping it all up

The user experience can be a very broad term but there are many aspects that make up the “household”. If all of the roommates can’t live in harmony, the entire house will suffer. There should never be an excuse to ignore any UX element, unless the client just doesn’t have the budget or the website is strictly for internal use and is only available to a select audience.

I hope that you’ve gotten this far and that you found my insight informative. I am in no way the ultimate spokesman for user experience studies but I like to think that I have a detailed grasp on the matter. I would love to hear your thoughts! Please take a moment to leave a comment below. Thanks.

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Let’s get started

The materials list is short and sweet and the steps are as well. Don’t worry, your margin of error is pretty slim.

Materials:

1. Foam – soft foam similar to what you find on headphone covers or a microphone cover. For this I used a piece of foam cut from the cover on your standard Xbox 360 headset.
2. Scissors – Your everyday household pair will do. You’ll only be using these to cut the foam, which is soft.
3. JVC Marshmallow In-Ear Headphones – You can pick these up for about $19.99 but they’ve been around a while so I’m sure you can find them cheaper now. Don’t worry. They’re available in more colors than just pink. That just happens to be the sample I’m using for this post.
4. Tweezers – You’ll be using these to get the rubber sheaths off of the earphone tubes.
5. A Needle – You’ll need a needle to get the paper screen off the top of each earphone tube. You could probably use tweezers for this instead if you don’t have access to a needle.

Instructions:

1. Slide off the memory foam covers around the tube of each earphone so that the rubber sheath around the earphone tube is exposed.
2. Grab your tweezers and pull the rubber sheath upwards so that it comes off. You might have to give these a small tug because they are initially stuck on. Be careful not to rip the sheaths.
3. Once you’ve got the rubber sheaths pulled off, you should see a thin paper disc over the top of each earphone’s tube. These paper discs have a small hole in the center of them. Grab your needle and put it in the center of the disc so that you can pry these discs off. Don’t worry if you damage these. You will not be using them again.
4. Take the foam you’ve acquired and cut a small cube for each earphone. The purpose of this foam is to act as a damper inside of the tube in each earphone. The depth of the foam cube inside of each earphone tube will affect the sound, so you may have to mess with this part to get it to your liking. Depending on your preference (whether you prefer your highs more crisp or your lows deeper), you might have to cut a couple different sizes to get it right. Fortunately for me, the first try was the perfect balance for my ears.
5. Once you’ve got your cubes cut and ready to go, insert them into each earphone tube. I wasn’t exactly sure how deep down they should be pushed but I don’t think it makes a great deal of difference. I pressed them in so that they are slightly exposed past the edge of each earphone tube. Don’t worry about using glue to secure these pieces of foam in or adhering them in any other way. They should remain where they need to be.
6. Once you’ve got (1) piece of foam pushed down into each earphone tube, take the rubber sheaths we removed on step 2 and slide them back down over the earphone tube. Make sure they’re snug in place.
7. Take the memory foam earphone tube covers that we removed on step 1 and slide them back down over the earphones tubes as they were before. Now it’s time to try them out.

Before you give them a try, make sure to roll the memory foam earpieces in between your fingers. This loosens the foam up a little and makes it more flexible to seat nicely within your ear canal. If the sound is not what you are looking for, then repeat the steps and try playing with the size of each foam piece you put into the earphone tube.

The end result should be a day and night difference between the default paper screens that come with the headphones, and the foam cubes we replace them with. This mod made me love these headphones 100x more and this mod was actually my entire reason for even purchasing these headphones.

Update: I forgot to mention that this mod has been used for various headphone models and not just the Marshmallows. If you find a set of in-ear headphones that have a similar setup, you can perform this mod.

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