Despite my feelings in regards to their hardware, Apple makes a fine pair of earbuds. The earbuds that came with my 2nd Gen iPod Nano far outlived the actual iPod. The design of the earbuds were getting a little on in years though. Competitors have already created far superior earbuds in the absence of any real innovation from Apple. That may be changing with the iPhone 5.

A recent video from Vietnamese site Tinhte.vn discloses what appears to be newly redesigned earbuds from Apple. According to Mac Rumors, the video used to have a person talking over the video while showing off the new headphones.

As you can obviously hear, there is no sound anymore. The video was replaced with the no sound version for an unexplained reason. Mac Rumors was able to grab a transcript before the sound went down:

In my hands are the new earphones for the iPhone 5 that is about to come out – Apple’s next generation of iPod [sic]. These will replace the current earphones that are on the market. These are manufactured at Phax Co factory in Vietnam. They have the appearance of a horse’s head, not like earbuds. When they are worn, they have a much smaller profile. They have the appearance of a fully integrated, single unit – there’s no part that looks like it would come apart – not like earbuds; the integrated design is characteristic of Apple products. Here I have the old earphones for comparison. The new ones are much smaller; when they are worn, they do not hurt the way earbuds do. You can see on the old ones the surface is a separate part that looks like it can be detached – not like the small surface of the new one. The old earphones were mostly made in China, with some in Vietnam. But the new ones are clearly made in Vietnam. (Reading from the wires): “Designed by Apple in California, assembled in Vietnam.”

They look a little uncomfortable, but so do all earbuds. The true test is to actually use them. Apple’s original earbuds passed that test with flying colors a long time ago. If this turns out to be true, we can expecto see the new earbuds launching with the iPhone 5 on September 21. Apple will also probably phase out their old earbud line for the new ones this month.