The things you learn here. It never occurred to me to wear the N800 ear buds "street style".

My explanation for the different lengths is so that the microphone is pulled up closer to your mouth for phone calls. I use skype a lot and the design works very well. If the ear bud wires were equal length, I'd be talking looking down at my navel all the time, to make sure the people I'm calling can hear me. That'd look stupid. (Or, both wires would be short, and then the microphone would be up close to my mouth, but people with big heads would get strangled :-))