I'm looking for a stereo headset and not simply in-ear headphones for Skype at affordable prices.
From past experience, I own a dual-jack headset Logitech from my PC. Sound came out but the mic never worked on my Mac mini. A HP XA490AA headphone worked great on PC but was never recognized on OS X.
I'm thinking about a headset directly compatible with Mac OS X. I prefer a single-jack input over USB since it doesn't use a USB port, but USB is fine. What options exist and what standards will allow me to know a single-jack mic/headphone combination that will work with a Mac?
EDIT: I know iPhone/iPod/iPad headphones are compatible with MacBooks. But these are headphones.
What I read today and for sharing
The difference between USB and jack: USB uses the motherboard card. Jack uses the sound card. Usually laptops have crap sound cards. So go for USB.
EDIT May 31 2012: I finally bought a Logitech USB Headset H530 . Satisfied with skype clear voice. For most USB headphone, do not forget to turn on System Preferences > Sound > select the device in input and ouput tabs.
Best Answer
My experience is your best value is a USB based headset with over the ear cans and a plastic boom mic to get it near your mouth.
For a price premium, you can get headsets that use the 1/8 inch headphone jack, but these overwhelmingly have microphones in the cord which makes for a noisy conversation in my experience. Again, the Apple touch interface for the microphone where there is a play/pause button as well as volume up/down seems to drive the price of many units higher (in the $80 to $140 range in the US). Your best bet is to look for made for iPhone models since they work best with the Macintosh sound in / headphone out (of course many off-brands work just fine, just be sure you understand the return policy if you can't shop from a store that can speak to your need for it to work with OS X on the Mac hardware.)