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.

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.

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?

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.