Did Your Code Ever Make Anyone Deaf?

theodp writes "Siemens AG anticipates additional costs from a software problem with new mobile phones that has led retailers to suspend sales. Five models of its new 65 series can emit a piercing melody into users' ears if the battery fails during a call, causing hearing damage in extreme cases, according to a statement."

Comments

Maximum volume

[whereiswaldo]

What is the maximum volume on this phone? Why not just cap the volume at a non-hearing-threatening level and be done with it? If they don't do that, isn't it just a matter of someone cranking the volume too loud, or is the low battery warning allowed to exceed the regular max. volume level?

Re:Maximum volume

[Flexagon]

Didn't even old 500 phones have a current limiter across the earpiece to prevent just this sort of thing? (I.e., a phone ring voltage somehow arriving while the handset is at your ear.) This isn't a new problem.

Re:Maximum volume

[whereiswaldo]

The problem is, what is too loud for your ear when the cell phone is in use, is too quiet to hear when its on your belt under a jacket/sweater, so you wouldn't hear it ring/text message/low battery/etc.

What if you're not wearing the jacket?


Ok, good point. Some thoughts:

- what gives the phone the "right" create noise pollution no matter what you're doing? Maybe you have something else much more important going on at the moment? If you've left your phone in your jacket which you're not wearing, presumably you're not expecting an important phone call.

- why not put a separate speaker on the backside of the phone which can emit piercingly loud volumes?

Anyway, under no circumstances should hearing damaging volumes be used where the user puts their ears. I think that much can be said.

Re:Well, I wish Microsoft follows suit...

[ravenspear]

Will MS suspend sales of Windows and Office until all the bugs are ironed out?

Why not simply suspend purchases of Windows and Office? Switch to something better.

Design Defect

[Detritus]

The driver and transducer should have been selected so that there was no possibility of dangerous sound levels, no matter what the software decided to do.

My old phone did something similar

[drawfour]

I had a Samsung SCH-8500, SprintPCS. Sure it made sounds when the battery died, but it was usually a quiet beep. However, at times (and for causes unknown to me) it would beep really really loudly in my ear. Me being the idiot that I was, I never got it replaced. Probably should have. It may have been a heat problem (talking too long), but I'm not sure. It was loud enough to be painful.

Anyway, I now have a Sanyo PM-8200 and I'm quite happy.

What the..?

[Azureflare]

Does the hardware for these phones not have a built in filter to protect the user from this type of thing?

Isn't there hardware in these devices that prevents very loud noises/extremely high pitched noise? I mean, how hard is it to put a volume hardware filter on these devices. There's no reason to have something as loud or as high pitched as was being described, is there?

As a side note, what if an mp3 is corrupted on my mp3 player and the corrupted data causes an extremely high-pitched tone to be emitted for a long duration...? Do mp3 players have hardware (like a volume filter, or a high pass filter) that would prevent me from going deaf?

Seriously

[Anonymous Coward]

Whats the big deal, I can read it.slashdot.org just fine. Maybe you should get your eyes checked out.

Re:No...

[gl4ss]

the thing is that you have the phone pressed against your ear, speaking to someone and *beep* it makes a sound you would hear to the next room.

it's a stupid double idiotic design issue, first a) the phone makes a very irritating noise when it's battery goes out(meaning that actually the phone turns off itself long before the batt is really really empty, now they might have some reasons like reducing memory corruption, preserving the batt health or something like that) but the second design flaw is the more stupid one: it makes that shutdown noise even if you're making a call(and the batt runs low).

personally I'd rather have the phone go down in silence and IF there's _any_ juice left let the phone wait untill the call is finished before turning off in a controlled fashion(also, it's less annoying if it just goes off without all the racket).

Three words...

[Gordonjcp]

... Use A Mute.

Yes, I know it screws up your tone a little. Better to lose tone than lose hearing. Plus, your neighbours with thank you for it.

Re:Where's the QA

[Anonymous Coward]

low battery" beeps can be pretty damn ear-splitting when they happen when you're in the middle of a call

Actually, I think you will find that the low battery beeps tend to occur at the end of your call. I.R. Pedant.

Re:Mod parent down!

[jb.hl.com]

My advice; ignore any link on this whole fucking site with the word "goat" or "tub" in the URL.

That fixes it.

Possible explanation here

[Archimonde]

Older siemens mobile phones had two speakers. One was normal speaker and the other was just for ringing. When batteries reached minimum the ringing speaker sounded with ear piercing beeps but fortunately the speaker was placed on the side of the phone.

Todays phones have one speaker for both communication and ringing. So siemens probably sticked to their software design and implemented it in the modern phones. The result is obviously not so satisfying considering those high pitched tones resonating in your ear.

Re:No...

[zerblat]

Actually, I think it's pretty useful that cell phones warns you when your battery is running low. At least on the Nokias I've used, the warning sound means you have a few more seconds to go, meaning you can end the conversation in a meaningful way. Or say stuff like "My cell phone is dying, call Alice inst...".

Of course, the warning signal shouldn't be loud enough to make you deaf...