I've been watching these earphones for 3 years and I've never seen them drop to even $250. Even Black Friday couldn't even dream of a deal like this. After seeing today's deal, I'm upgrading from SuperFi 5 to TripleFi 10vi.

So why am I so excited?

Because:

• these earphones are some of the best you can buy, even at full price. I've owned their "younger brother" Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5 for the last 3 years (see my review of those) and I still can't stop raving about them. I've influenced many people to buy them and every single one has had nothing but positive things to say about their purchase
• the sound quality is stunning – I remember putting them on for the first time and hearing sounds and instruments in my music that I never imagined were there all along. Even though they have a small size, they sound just as good as those BIG professional studio hearphones
• the sound isolation – crying babies? A train passing by right by your ears? I can't hear any of those because these insulate the sounds so well. At the same time, I don't feel like they go too deep into my ear – in fact, they're very comfortable
• sturdy cord – it is thicker and sturdier than any other cord I've ever seen. This means it won't rip, break, or strip easily 
• the cord is replaceable - cord damage is the #1 reason for throwing away your headphones. With Ultimate Ears, you can just snap the cable off and replace it with a new one. Replacement cords cost $20 but so far all I had to do was email or call Ultimate Ears and ask them for one – and they sent it to me for free.
• best customer service in the business – any time I dialed the customer service number, my call was answered by a live person within 30 seconds. All my problems were resolved at no charge and in a very polite manner.
• got an iPhone, Android, or another mobile phone? Get the TripleFi 10vi model because it actually has a built-in microphone, which means you can use it with your phone as a headset. I specifically bought the 10vi model to use it with my HTC Hero.
• compared to the SuperFi 5, TripleFi 10 has an extra driver (3 drivers total!) which means better bass and clarity. I could really tell the difference when I was comparing the 2 models.

Conclusion

So my advice for you is: try them. If you don't like them (which is impossible), send them back.

I am rarely *this* excited about a product. Ultimate Ears earphones, however, brings out the jitters in me even today.

Do you own UltimateEars or are you considering getting them? Have questions or comments? Feel free to share below.

• Review of: Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro Earphones
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I was really glad to see Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood, and the whole StackOverflow team in person, as well as listen to great talks in the following topics:

9:00 – 9:50    Joel Spolsky Opening Keynote
9:50 – 10:45    Mark Harrison Python
11:00 – 11:55    Rory Blyth iPhone
11:55 – 12:25    Joel Spolsky Fogbugz
13:30 – 14:25    Scott Hanselman ASP.NET-MVC
14:25 – 14:45    Jeff Atwood Stack Overflow
14:45 – 15:40    Daniel Rocha Qt
16:10 – 17:05    James Yum Android
17:05 – 18:00    Yehuda Katz jQuery

My own favorite topics were in the following order of fun/usefulness level:

• iPhone (though I'm interested in Android development myself but it's always good to check out the competition) – it was fun and not boring. Quirky, jittery, OCD all come to mind.
• Joel's keynote (Hi, Joel, I'm @ArtemR ) – I welcome the discussion of simple vs feature rich, though Joel has talked about this on his blog multiple times.
• jQuery – nice intro into history of jQuery and competition with other frameworks. The technical level of specific examples was quite basic.
• Android – this is the topic I'm mostly interested in and unfortunately the main speaker got substituted by a guy who has obviously not presented in front of a large crowd before (sorry, I have to criticize – you'll do better and better each time! Just don't worry so much and know your stuff) and was pretty much a recent college grad from the looks of it. He did a pretty decent job at making the code run but a really poor job of marketing and explaining Android's weaknesses and strengths, as some people on twitter pointed out.
• StackOverflow review – quite brief but fun. Thanks Jeff!
• Python – very odd that it was even there – just a look at a few lines of code from the infamous Python google-like suggest algorithm.
• Qt – didn't really care for it but sat through it. Nokia, meh. Next!
• ASP.NET, Fogbugz – I skipped as I didn't care much for those

Overall, I feel like the information presented in all sessions was pretty basic but I guess that was the idea – a little bit of everything for everyone.

The absence of WiFi was pretty disappointing as I think it was advertised but I didn't care much for it. Kept everyone more concentrated anyway.

The free memory upgrades by Microsoft was an AWESOME move (though mine is already at 4GB and they didn't give out 4GB sticks)!

Lunch was decent – Boudin. Lots of drinks and snacks.

Well worth $99.

Twitter #devdays results.

Cross-posted to Meta-StackOverflow.

• Hidden Features Of Perl, PHP, Javascript, C, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Python, And Others [Collection Of Incredibly Useful Lists]
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• Monitor All Your Domains From One Location
• The Real Reasons To Use Twitter (Get Over Your Prejudice Already)
• Minority Report Becomes Reality

But where was I? I have been closely following Android news since its inception, then the introduction of the first phone – T-Mobile G1 (aka HTC Dream), followed by G2 (aka T-Mobile MyTouch 3G, HTC Magic, Google ION), the introduction of the app store (Android Market), and noticing throughout all this time that Android was still not quite there, not appealing to the masses, and not picking up speed. But then…

The Hero

I believe the market perception of Android is about to change because of the newest Android phone – HTC Hero. Thanks to Phandroid (my favorite Android blog) for the announcement.

Why

Hero has a super sexy Sense user interface. Just check out this video of the European version of Hero running Sense (the US version looks slightly different):

Hero also has:

• Flash support (!) – the one from Adobe, not the one that helps taking photos. That means playing flash games, videos, etc, which iPhone does not support and is not planning to support in the near future.
• First Android phone to support multitouch. It also has a trackball.
• Lipophobic coating – special coating to repel fingerprint oils.
• A speedy 528Mhz Qualcomm processor.
• 5MP camera with autofocus – 5 megapixels is a step up over most of the competition, except maybe Nokia.
• GPS.
• Digital compass.
• MicroSD slot for expanding memory.
• WiFi 802.11b/g.
• Accelerometer.
• Audio supported formats: MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media® Audio 9.
• Video supported formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media® Video 9.
• And of course, it runs Android applications.

Check out this comparison between HTC Hero, MyTouch 3G, Apple iPhone 3GS, and BlackBerry Storm:

When

Hero is already released in Europe and is coming to the US to Sprint on October 11, 2009.

How Much

$179.99 after a mail-in rebate and a 2 year agreement with Sprint.

Speed/Lag Concerns

Initial reviews of the Hero reported occasional lag, especially with a lot of widgets activated on the home screens. However, it looks like the latest firmware updates may have fixed the lag issues. We will see very shortly.

The Chin

The US version of the Hero does NOT have the "chin" like the European version does. Compare the picture of the EU version (below) with the pictures of the US version (further down in the Media section).

Pictures Of The US Version

I'm extremely excited about the Hero. It is the strongest Android contender on the market. Can you feel the excitement? Go out and get yours on October 11th!

Relevant Links

• HTC product page
• HTC Hero on Wikipedia
• Phandroid HTC Hero Announcement
• Youtube videos for 'HTC Hero'

• Meet Firefox For Mobile [Video + Feature Highlights + More Info]
• Sun Definitely Developing A Phone This Year
• My New Android Phone Wants Me To Do WHAT?
• More On Android – A Mobile OS With A Clue
• Google Phone (Android) Demo Of Streetview With Compass

Last year, Sun already made an announcement of JavaFX, a Java-based mobile platform but didn't provide any concrete timelines, so I was excited to hear the more on the subject. With Apple iPhone's advent last year and Google entering the same space later on this year with Android, Sun's addition to the game definitely won't hurt consumers. After all, competition usually leads to better products.

So when is the phone coming, Jonathan? My guess is you're going to try as hard as possible to compete with Google's second half of 2008 timeline but are you going to manage to beat it? And will it blow us away? I guess time will show.

• Meet Firefox For Mobile [Video + Feature Highlights + More Info]
• The Most Accurate Apple iPhone Review To Date From Maddox
• HTC Hero Coming To Sprint October 11th! $179.99, Powerful, And Sexy. Here Is Why You Need To Own It
• Impressions From The StackOverflow's DevDays Conference In San Francisco
• Sun buys MySQL for $1bln!

• The Most Accurate Apple iPhone Review To Date From Maddox
• Cambridge, UK, Week 1
• DJ Tiesto Elements Of Life 2007 Tour Live in San Francisco
• Coolest Rollerguy EVER, Goes 60mph
• Mexico Trip Impressions (+Pictures And Videos)