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iPod Update to Address Volume-Level Concerns
aardwolf64 writes "In an apparent response to the hearing loss lawsuit against Apple, the company has released an update to the iPod nano and 5th generation iPod that allows the user to set the maximum volume level. Parents can even set a lock code that prevents the volume from going above a certain amount." Apple also has instructions at their site on how to implement the changes
If my 12 year old brother had an iPod I would definatley use this on his. I wish his cd player had one. He doesn't understand so constantly turns it WAAAYYY up. Loud enough that I can hear everything he is listening too perfectly. Don't get me wrong I'm 21 so I like loud music however I almost never turn my ipod up over halfway when I'm listening to the headphones.
This just lets you set the maximum volume setting. But if there's some maximum volume setting you don't want to exceed, just don't set the volume higher. The real issue, in my opinion, is that you're likely to have tracks that have different average volumes, and if you play a quiet track, you'll turn it up, and then the next loud track damages your hearing. Using this feature to limit it, you play a quiet track, and you can't hear it. Or you adjust the maximum while playing a medium-volume track, and the loud tracks damage your hearing anyway. What they need is something to calculate RMS volume levels and automatically adjust the volume to even out tracks and limit the loudness of the output independant of the input.
They already have, it's provided by apple.
3 414
Apple instructs that if you forget you combination for parental volume control simply restore the ipod. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30