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

Comments

what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing?

[CrudPuppy]

so when they make it so it's not loud enough to damage hearing, can I sue them for not making it loud enough for hard-of-hearing people to use? (grin)

Re:what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing?

[drix]

The conflict I am experiencing right now between moderating you down for be a completely humorless fucking moron and just calling you one, is immense.

Guess I chose B.

Re:what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing?

[tambo]

You're still free to use your iPod at deafening levels if you like...

Not if someone has enabled this feature: "Parents can even set a lock code that prevents the volume from going above a certain amount."

Just what the world needs: another techno-crutch that will absolve parents of the annoyance of actual parenting. Let's not talk to kids about the effects of loud noises on their hearing - that's too difficult. Instead, let's be passive-aggressive pricks and preempt their judgment with parental-surrogate crippleware.

Of course, it will take the recipients of such devices 0.003 milliseconds to punch "amplified headphones" into RadioShack.com and come up with six hits. They will then tune in at twice the volume as a predictable act of rebellion. So the kids are still deaf, but the parents can shrug and say, "My conscience is clean, and that's what really matters." And of course, they can then sue Radio Shack, and lobby Congress for laws that criminalize the sale of amplified headphones to minors.

And of course #2, this "feature" will undoubtedly manifest primarily as an obstacle and annoyance to (1) people who buy an iPod from eBay but discover that it's been capped at 0.5 decibels, (2) kids whose buddies (or playground bullies) enable this "feature" as a prank, and (3) people who inadvertently trigger this feature and then can't disable it.

I hate the direction our country has taken - and the fact that our technologists have fallen victim to the same pathogenic thinking.

- David Stein

Re:what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing?

[iminplaya]

...another techno-crutch that will absolve parents of the annoyance of actual parenting. Let's not talk to kids about the effects of loud noises on their hearing - that's too difficult. Instead, let's be passive-aggressive pricks and preempt their judgment with parental-surrogate crippleware.

I like Ballmer's method better.

Re:what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing?

[Alaska Jack]

Overreact much?

Seriously, I'm about as libertarian as they come, but your reaction here is way off the scale.

"Just what the world needs: another techno-crutch that will absolve parents of the annoyance of actual parenting."

Or a tool that parents can use to help them "actual[ly] parent".

"Let's not talk to kids about the effects of loud noises on their hearing - that's too difficult."

This makes total sense. After all, everyone knows that if you want a kid to do something, all you have to do is talk to them.

"Instead, let's be passive-aggressive pricks and preempt their judgment with parental-surrogate crippleware."

Pre-empt whose judgement? You can't mean the parents', because this tool just gives parents an additional choice. You must mean the kids'. But that doesn't make any sense either -- sometimes, pre-empting a kid's immature, inexperienced judgement with your own, hopefully more mature and informed judgement is exactly part of what you call "actual parenting."

Relax, big fella.

    - Alaska Jack

What???

[techmuse]

Huh? Can you repeat that story?

Re:What???

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

This is Slashdot, they probably already have and will again within the next 24 hours.

Wasted effort, stupid feature

[Salo2112]

Back in my day, the Sony Walkman was going to deafen us all. Frankly, I would imagine people today are just as capable of operating the damned volume control as we were then.

Re:Wasted effort, stupid feature

[MustardMan]

By lowering the maximum volume, you essentially have more accurate control of the volume range you're actually using. Using half the wheel to go from 0-50% isn't as good as using the entire wheel to do the same range. There's also a parental lockout control, so parents who were afraid to let children use the ipod now have the option to set a max volume and lock it.

The whole slashdot "I won't use this so it's automatically stupid" mentality is incredibly childish. Why this was modded insightful is a mystery to me. Of course, most moderation around here is a mystery to me.

Ipod volume limit remover

[dalmiroy2k]

How long until "Ipod volume limit remover" is released so kids can crack their Ipods?

Re:Ipod volume limit remover

[themadplasterer]

They already have, it's provided by apple.

Apple instructs that if you forget you combination for parental volume control simply restore the ipod. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303 414

Good thing for parents

[Darthmalt]

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.

Obligatory ST quote

[esampson]

Parents can even set a lock code that prevents the volume from going above a certain amount.

This iPod can go up to 11.

I must be getting old

[Timesprout]

cos I think this is a good idea. My nano is proper fucking loud, uncomfortably so, esp with the apple ear buds (I prefer bang & olfsen for the quality) and that level of noise directed straight at your eardrum cant be good for you.

Plus theres the fact that if you play you ipod at full blast near me while I am trying to sleep on the train in the morning you are liable to be smacked in the face and your ipod will be fucked out the window.

Darn, I was hoping I could _increase_ it...

[dpbsmith]

Don't the people who worry about iPod volume levels realize that headphones differ enormously in sensitivity?

I have a pair of wonderful Sennheiser HD570 headphones which, unfortunately, are much less sensitive than those that come with the iPod. Using these headphones, perhaps 2/3 of my music sounds about right with the iPod volume set to its maximum. If I could just boost the output up about 6 db or so, it would work with all of them.

Mr Cynic

[ackthpt]

A lock code? It'll be hax0r3d. huhuh *snort* huhuh *snort* huhuh ...

There. That should summarize about half of the responses.

my, cynical today, aren't we?

Actually, let me add to your prediciton: It'll be hax0r3d, then /. will carry posts, then Apple with threaten the author of the hack page, then /. will carry the story of that, plus the author's valiant struggle for freedom to reprogram crap you bought and the evils of DMCA reverse engineering provisions.

Patent

[mtenhagen]

If think they should make a system where the user can decide for it self what the volume should be by using a "-" and "+" button. Hereby giving the user full control of the volume level.

Should this be patented that would be true inovation!

Pointless in this implementation

[iabervon]

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.

God forbid people learn to use the volume control

[Mr. Freeman]

What makes it so hard for someone to simply turn down the volume themselves?
Or is it that we now have to assume that all teenagers don't know how to work the volume control by themselves.

Other MP3 players are still capable of playing music at any volume with no way to restrict it, what about them?

If people are going to complain about the potential for loud volume then they might as well complain about pencils being too sharp, fans spinning too fast, the sky being too blue, etc.

Fantastic

[countach]

This is a fantastic idea if for no other reason than it is easy to accidently change the volume when it is in your pocket. The click wheel is too sensitive and you can end up blasting your head off accidently. This is even more so with in-ear earphones which only need the volume half as high for the same amount of decibels in your ear drum.

So let's not hear any talk about this being a silly idea. It's not.

iPod needs a lower 'low'

[smenor]

My principal complaint with the iPod's volume control is that it isn't fine-grained enough.

When there's a lot of ambient noise, the granularity isn't a big deal.

It really bugs me if I'm in a quiet environment, though. There's a sharp jump from 0 volume to a level that's already uncomfortably loud for me.

Re:Yes but...

[ColaMan]

The problem with earphones is that you miss a lot of physical cues that the music is too loud.
For example :

If you're sitting in front of your stereo and your innards are thumping in time to the music, you get the idea that it's probably a little loud. You don't get this physical effect wearing earphones.

If the person next to you at a party is moving their lips but you can't hear them, you get the idea that it's a little loud. With earphones, you think "Oh, I've just got earphones in."

All these kinds of missed cues help you to tell when the volume's too loud. If you played music back in a room at the level you normally can achieve with earphones, you'd have people cringing.

Re:1st post?

[Caiwyn]

It's not just sad, it's dangerous from a legal standpoint. It's practically an admission of guilt. Expect a settlement, because there's not a chance in hell they plan to fight this in court now.

It doesn't absolve parent of anything

[sdo1]

ust what the world needs: another techno-crutch that will absolve parents of the annoyance of actual parenting. Let's not talk to kids about the effects of loud noises on their hearing - that's too difficult.

Ah, spoken like a true non-parent (I'll be shocked if you're the parent of anyone old enough to be effected by this). This doesn't absolve parents of anything. You can explain and reason with a teenager all you'd like and the second they're out of your sight, it's time to ignore everything the parents said. You can't hold their hand every minute of every day, but you're still responsible for them and that means not just talking to them, but being proactive in their lives and putting down certain boundaries.

Do I let my kid have free reign on the TV? No, I'm a parent and part of that is, as you said, parenting. Discussing with them what they're watching and why and putting down limits on what I think is appropriate for their age, not what THEY think is appropriate. Since I can't take the remote from them every minute of every day and be in the room with them every time it's time to watch TV, I lock out the channels I feel are inappropriate.

I see this as no different. My 6 year old wants and iPod. Younger and younger kids are getting them. And if he got one, I could explain to him and reason with him the dangers of loud music, but he doesn't have a sense of what's too loud, so I think this would be a great solution. If I explain to him not to touch the open bottle of sleeping pills on the counter, is that good parenting, or is leaving them there just plain irresponsible? Putting them in a locked cabinet doesn't absolve me of actual parenting. It's just being proactive and looking out for my child's best interests. Parenting is a continual series of teaching, learning, and guidance. Sometimes they do the right thing, other times you need to step in.

It's not a substitute for parenting. It's just another tool.

-S

Re:1st post?

[Jonny_eh]

But this problem has existed in nearly every decent portable music device going back to the Walkman. If anything, Apple should be given credit for being proactive.

Alas, should, and will are probably different here.

So do they still go up to 10????

[sokoban]

Steve Jobs: The numbers all go to nine. Look, right across the board, nine, nine, nine and...
apple fanboi: Oh, I see. And most mp3 players go up to ten?
Steve Jobs: Exactly.
apple fanboi: Does that mean it's quieter? Is it any quieter?
Steve Jobs: Well, it's one quieter, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
apple fanboi: I don't know.
Steve Jobs: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
apple fanboi: Put it up to nine.
Steve Jobs: Nine. Exactly. One quieter.
apple fanboi: Why don't you just make ten quieter and make ten be the top number and make that a little quieter?
Steve Jobs: [pause] These go to nine.

Did anyone actually install this update?

[Keyslapper]

Cause I did.

Guess what? No Volume Limit.

Ok, I skimmed over the documentation first time round, and it was late, but now I'm looking at the Apple site directions, verifying my iPod software version (20G iPod w/Color Display, v1.2.1) and there's no bloody Volume Limit.

Now, I know I don't need it - unlike many people these days, I at least try to take responsibility for my own actions. I don't leave it loud enough to be uncomfortable - generally low enough that I can hear people talking around me. Still, I'm a nerd, and more importantly, a parent and uncle. My daughter, niece, and nephew all have shuffles, so I should at least know how to work it for them, and of course, I was just plain curious how the new bell worked.

So, did anyone else go looking for it? Did you find it?