HandStands The Core

A couple years ago, we reviewed Sumajin’s SmartWrap and found it to be a convenient way to manage excess headphone cables; HandStand’s Core is a similar, though smaller and thicker, silicone accessory. Shaped a bit like an apple core, the Core is 1.4 inches long and 0.9 inches in diameter at its wider ends, with a narrower middle section for holding your headphone cord. You thread one end of your headphone cable through a notch at one end of the Core, wrap the cable (tightly) around the middle section, and then thread the cable back through the notch at the other end. Your excess cable doesn’t dangle and tangle, and you can adjust the effective length of the cable by wrapping more or less of it around the Core. The Core is light enough that it doesn’t add much weight to your headphones, although you do end up with a slightly bulky “blob” somewhere along the cable.

The Core is available in a number of colors; our 3-pack contained black, white, and green, although we also saw several other colors at January’s Macworld Expo. Like the SmartWrap, the Core works only with thin headphone cables, and headphones with cables much longer than the iPod’s stock earbuds may be too much for the Core to accomodate. If your cable fits, and you’re looking for a way to keep it under control, the Core is another decent option. –Dan Frakes