California-based Kleer has come up with design for un-tethered earphones where the left and right ear buds are completely separate and not connected. The design uses the 2.4GHz radio frequency rather than Bluetooth to deliver lossless transmission of CD-quality digital stereo audio. Kleer claims that the design uses one-tenth of the power that a comparable Bluetooth design would use (providing up to 10 hours of battery life), prevents issues where wires can get entangled in hair or clothing, lower noise levels for better audio quality, and can allow multiple users to simultaneously listen.
The earphones work with Kleer-based audio sources only. For example, you would need to get the optional adapter for the earbuds to work with your iPod.
RCA has announced that it will make use of this technology for its RCA Jet Stream MP3 audio player. The first model will come with 1GB of memory and will sell for $149 USD.