有零售商在出售用于苹果无线耳机Airpods的绳套，其售价为60美元。
Retailers are selling $60 cords for Apple's wireless Airpods.
在2016年的时候，我们没遇到什么问题。好吧，事实并非如此。我们确实遇到了一些问题。但那时候我们的耳机还没什么问题。
Back in the year 2016, we had no problems. Well, okay, that's not true. We had some problems. But our headphones weren't one of them.
那是因为100多年来，耳机一直遵循着通用设计，也就是普通的3.5毫米的插孔。
That's because headphones featured a universal design that was based upon a simple 3.5 mm jack that had been around for over a century.
后来，苹果公司没有在苹果手机上采用标准音频插孔，还推出了其售价159美元的无线耳机。
Then Apple killed the standard audio jack in iPhones and introduced its $159 wireless Airpods.
当然，无线耳机看上去很棒，直到一只耳机从耳朵里掉出来，并掉进下水道的格栅里。单一无线耳机综合征（掉进下水道里？）是新的不受束缚的音频世界的一个很真实的后果，因此苹果公司还提供了用于替换的单一无线耳机，而一家名为Tapper的公司也提供了其特有的解决方案：无线耳机绳套。
Wireless earbuds seem great, of course, until one falls out of your ear and down a sewer grate. Single Airpod Syndrome is a very real consequence of the new, untethered world of audio. That's why Apple actually offers single Airpod replacements. That's also why one company called Tapper introduced a solution of its own: Airpod cords.
Boingboing（综合类博客）首先发现了这款售价60美元的绳套，它可以缠在脖子上，并通过磁铁连接到无线耳机上。这意味着，如果一只耳机从耳朵里掉出来，它会挂在你身上，就像系着绳子爬山的人被固定在山上一样，或者是，你知道的，就像曾固定在你的手机上的普通有线耳机一样。
First spotted by Boingboing, the $60 strap wraps around your neck and connects to your Airpods via magnets. That means if one falls out of your ear, it's anchored to your body—like a rope climber is anchored to a mountain, or, you know, a normal, wired pair of earbuds were once anchored to your phone.
这还有什么好说的呢？我们讨论的是一款为一种产品增加绳套的产品，其售价为60美元，而那种产品原本的设计就是为了摆脱绳套。最滑稽的是，Tapper公司的这款绳套目前在Nordstrom（美国高档连锁百货店）上的评分为4星（满分5星）。
What more is there to say here? We're talking about a $60 product that adds wires to a product designed to remove wires from your life. The most hilarious twist is that Tapper's cord actually has 4/5 stars on Nordstrom right now!
即使这些评价中有一半是在讽刺这款产品，另一半是（推广者）精心设计的，但对于这款几英寸长的绳套来说，这依然很令人印象深刻。在苹果公司毁掉完美的通用标准三年后，这也是目前很令人难过的耳机现状的写照了。
Even if half those reviews are ironic, and the other half are planted, that's still pretty impressive for a few inches of cordage. And a pretty sad commentary on the state of headphones, three years after Apple destroyed a perfectly good universal standard.