Apple - What's the little plastic clip on the headset good for?
I actually find it very useful to clip around the buttons on my dress shirt. Depending on the amount of slack I want, I can pin it around different buttons.
It creates enough slack in the lines/wires that go to the ears:
- reduction in cord noise carrying up into ear-buds
- the mic in the right wire stays away from your body (better pickup and less noise
- if the earbuds fall out of your ear, they don’t drop all the way to the floor
It works perfectly (see yellow arrow in picture):
It's good for avoiding tangles when you're not using your earbuds, or when you are using them, from preventing you from tearing your earbuds. (When you're jogging or whatever.) That extra clip is the first thing to give when you pull them apart. If that wasn't there, the next thing to pull would be the splitter. Then you'd have half a pair of earbuds.
The usages you described are the correct ones. The Headphones ones are really lame, but it does its job on the Macbook’s power bricks. I made a pic for you:
I can’t find my iPhone earbuds, but the idea “is more or less the same”.