In case you didn't know why, there was a presidential debate last night Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump went head-to-head, and as expected, there was controversy after controversy online amidst heated heckling from one party or the other

What you may have missed was the startling claim that Vice President Harris was “cheating” during the debate by wearing earphones hidden in his earrings

The alleged earring is the Nova H1 Audio Earring, first seen at CES 2023 over a year ago

The controversy is somewhat similar to claims reported in the 2020 presidential election when President Joe Biden was accused of wearing the earpiece during the first debate between Biden and Trump Images taken during the debate were said to show what appeared to be a wire line on his shirt

As our friends at Laptop Mag pointed out, this conspiracy theory seems to have stalled A Reuters fact-checking team investigated and found the rumor to be false

The questionable technology Ms Harris is accused of wearing are Nova H1 Audio Earrings

At first glance, the earrings appear to be gold-lined pearl clip-on earrings, but are actually a set of Bluetooth earpieces that produce sound around the earlobe The sound comes from a micro-chamber opened in the pearl

Frankly, we had never thought about these earrings beyond 2023, so it was a surprise to see these smart earrings getting so much attention during last night's presidential debate

The H1 earrings were developed by a fashion-forward German startup company called Icebach Sound Solutions, which initially used Kickstarter to launch Nova H1

As far as we know, the H1 earrings are the only product this company has ever produced, and they have not announced any new devices since CES 2023 The website and social media accounts are also fairly quiet, with the most recent post being from last May

If anyone is still working on these earrings, they appear to be inactive

Tom's Guide asked Nova for comment

Tom's Guide checked and it appears that the original Nova H1 company went bankrupt and was purchased by Icebach Sound Solutions

This is based on comments we saw on the Kickstarter page Since we are not backers, we did not have access to an update that would explain the situation Its last submission was on May 31, 2023

It is unclear if anyone actually received the Nova H1 earrings At this point, it appears that the company was simply a Kickstarter scam and an unfortunate one-tenth reality on the crowdfunding platform

Icebach has responded to the controversy by claiming that it has received too many media inquiries and only responded to Jimmy Fallon's interview

“Our interviewer of choice is Jimmy Fallon Please do not request an interview with anyone other than Jimmy Fallon Thank you

CEO Malte Iversen reposted the LinkedIn post (now deleted) and re-posted the article on LinkedIn stating that they “can neither confirm nor deny” this claim

They seem to be stooping to controversy, but do not answer the question of whether they actually produce these earrings Of course, that is doubtful

Our friends at Laptop Mag investigated the issue and determined that Ms Harris most likely did not wear the Nova H1 audio earrings at the presidential debate

Vice President Harris is known to regularly wear pearl earrings at events One suspicious X user shared an image comparing the Nova earrings worn by Kate Kozuch of Tom's Guide to the earrings worn by Vice President Harris

The style tracking blog What Kamala Wore has previously spotted the Tiffany earrings, and writer Susan Kelly told The Verge that Ms Harris has been seen wearing them for several months

As you can see from the images, the earrings Ms Harris wears are not exactly the same as the Nova earrings worn by Kozuch Ms Harris' earrings have a U-shaped hook around the pearl

As Laptop Mag discovered, what Ms Harris was wearing was most likely a set of 18k gold South Sea pearl earrings, which are officially sold as part of the Tiffany & Co hardware collection

At $695 for the gold version of the Nova H1 earrings, they were not exactly in our earring price range, but Tiffany earrings can start at $2,000

After a cheeky response from the website and the CEO of Eisbach, Tom's Guide received a belated email from Managing Director Marte Iversen

Regarding Vice President Kamala Harris, Iversen wrote, “We do not know if Mrs Harris was wearing our products Our products were not developed specifically for use in presidential debates, but they are still suitable”

They remain irreverent

“To ensure a level playing field for both candidates, we are currently developing a men's version, which will soon be available to the Trump campaign The color choice is a bit tricky though, as orange doesn't go well with many colors"

Iversen further claimed that the company is out of stock of Nova H1 earrings and is preparing a lawsuit against an unnamed Chinese company for “infringing” its patent perhaps even 'expand its business' based on the lawsuit”