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Apple Facing Lawsuit After AirPods Allegedly Ruptured Child's Eardrums With Amber Alert
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Off topic, but don't you guys get tornados and severe thunderstorms down there? That's the main stuff I get flash flood alerts for up in the Northeast, mostly in summer when those heat-driven supercell storms ramp up.
While prolonged listening to a child screaming and if it happens really close to the ear can cause damage, the tensor tympani muscle usually reacts quick enough to dampen sounds such as a scream (gunshots or explosions moves too fast):
The tensor tympani muscle is a tiny muscle in the middle ear that helps dampens external sounds falling on the ear.
I don't think so, because it's not black or white like that when it comes to how sensitive a person's ears are.
There is another setting under:
Sound & Haptics - Headphone Safety - Reduce Loud Sounds
I wonder if that would work?
Sound & Haptics - Headphone Safety - Reduce Loud Sounds
I wonder if that would work?
I hate those alerts... first thing I turned off.
Scared the crap out of me in the car once. Way to loud.
If this is legit, I truly feel for this kid.
I lost most of my high frequency hearing in my left ear and some in my right due to a quick loud sound when I was 5.
My hearing loss was preventable. Leaving a 5 year old in charge of keeping his ear protection on was a stupid move by my parents.
My ears were blown out by a Blue Angles F4 back in 1975. Watching them practice a day before their air show at a Navy base in Spain when I was a kid.
My dad thought it would be cool to let me watch the practice. It was, up until an F4 did a high speed, low pass about 100 feet above me (we weren't supposed to be in that location). An F4 is nice and quiet on approach. Once he went past, the boom got me while I was not wearing my cans. Couldn't hear anything for a couple of weeks. He wasn't super sonic, but close enough and in full after burn. I still remember the boom and then hearing nothing but ringing and some slight muffled sounds for weeks. Permanent nerve damage.
Scared the crap out of me in the car once. Way to loud.
If this is legit, I truly feel for this kid.
I lost most of my high frequency hearing in my left ear and some in my right due to a quick loud sound when I was 5.
My hearing loss was preventable. Leaving a 5 year old in charge of keeping his ear protection on was a stupid move by my parents.
My ears were blown out by a Blue Angles F4 back in 1975. Watching them practice a day before their air show at a Navy base in Spain when I was a kid.
My dad thought it would be cool to let me watch the practice. It was, up until an F4 did a high speed, low pass about 100 feet above me (we weren't supposed to be in that location). An F4 is nice and quiet on approach. Once he went past, the boom got me while I was not wearing my cans. Couldn't hear anything for a couple of weeks. He wasn't super sonic, but close enough and in full after burn. I still remember the boom and then hearing nothing but ringing and some slight muffled sounds for weeks. Permanent nerve damage.
As far as I understand, these people you mention sustained relatively insignificant losses though. Unless the losses are significant enough it makes little sense to embark in a lawsuit.
The claim in the eardrum case mentions permanent hearing damage which, when quantified for monetary compensation, could easily go in the hundred thousand of dollars. A lawsuit makes a lot more sense in that scenario.
A child's ears are far more sensitive than an adult. It's amazing to see people try to vilify a family for suing a company that has a product that hurt their kid. Who care if he had a pre existing condition or whatever (pure speculation). There is no need to have that alert to be so loud because different people react differently to sound and no 12 year old kid is going to lie to their parents about hearing loss because they wanted to sue. Hearing loss can be quantified and measured by an audiologist.
Glad to see I'm far from alone in turning these off. Not only are they way unnecessarily loud and obnoxious, when I did leave them on I never got a single one even remotely relevant to me. Sorry, I'm not the one to ask to be on the lookout for a particular make and model car in a city 50 miles away.
I didn't know that the alert tone sounded through the headphones though. If that's true, even if it didn't permanently damage this poor kid (kind of hard to believe the everything they claim) they should still be sued to stop that because it's horrible.
I can't believe no one has noticed how completely counterproductive this is, but then again so is just about all the "think of the children" type stuff. We absolutely should but it's always so poorly implemented.
I didn't know that the alert tone sounded through the headphones though. If that's true, even if it didn't permanently damage this poor kid (kind of hard to believe the everything they claim) they should still be sued to stop that because it's horrible.
I can't believe no one has noticed how completely counterproductive this is, but then again so is just about all the "think of the children" type stuff. We absolutely should but it's always so poorly implemented.
I definitely would like to learn more from the guy who can't rotate his profile photo.
Honestly he is a correct. These amber alerts are garbage. Absolute garbage attempt at anything practical. It is just crying wolf and we all know how that story ends. Waste of everyones time, it is such a stupid ****ing idea, just government implementing MORE CONTROL over our lives and devices.
Lawyers and insurance companies 100% care about any pre-existing conditions or else you could have diabetics suing candy companies every time they have a hyperglycemic episode.
As a 12 year old, I definitely would have lied about how I hurt myself if it was something stupid that I shouldnt have been doing.
There will no doubt be multiple tests on the phone in question the Airpods and the kid to see exactly what happened. If indeed this kids hearing was adversely affected solely by this single instance of an alert it will be investigated, settled outside or sued for in court.
Even the loudest custom in ear monitors are only capable of 120db for short periods without causing permanent damage to the drivers and would require an external amplifier to get close to those levels.
Actually I could accept that this actually happened, and that it really did blow his eardrum, and it really did cause permanent hearing loss, and it really is something one could reasonably sue for...
But come on, it's so obvious that they are overstating and exaggerating the consequences as far as they think they can get away with. Legal hyperbole.
But come on, it's so obvious that they are overstating and exaggerating the consequences as far as they think they can get away with. Legal hyperbole.
The consequences that can be from tinnitus, hearing-loss and ear problems are difficult for people without these conditions to understand. I know pretty well – I've been on both sides.
It sucks really bad to have a high-pitched (albeit relatively low in volume in my case) sound in your ear that makes a piercing feeling in the head. I also have some slight ear pain at times and ear fullness. Going on for over a year now.
It's like constantly being reminded of the ear being present when you normally just have ”hearing” without thinking about the ears themselves – kind of hard to explain, but let me tell you it is a true impactor of quality of life. My whole perception of reality is ”filtered” through this.
And still there are people that have it far worse, I'm sure.I feel really sorry for the kid.
FYI: He wasn't "at home" according to the lawsuit. In fact the locale wasn't specified - however the lawsuit provides a picture showing an "Off site" location.
Why is everyone so quick to defend the parents here?
Right now there is zero actual proof this ever happend. The lawsuit is total absent any medical proof of this. In fact there's nothing in the lawsuit that states the parents took the child to any medical specialist at any time.
Anyone can file a lawsuit and claim anything they want. Not one bit of it has to be true.
Yet there's so many people already running with pitchforks at Apple just because this lawsuit was filed.
Or the writer is intentionally overstating and exaggerating to play on your emotions…
You forget, here in MR Apple is god to many people (Cult of Apple) and thus if vilifying a family means defending the good name of Apple then those people will.
Child might have sensitive hearing - irrelevant to CofA
Childrens hearing is less developed than an adults - irrelevant to CofA
CDC & WHO state 120db and over can damage a childs hearing - irrelevant to CofA
Ear drums burst at 155db-165db and air pod not spec that high therefore impossible for child to burst eardrum - all CofA support this.
Fact lost on the CofA that 155db-165db is the level of an adult, not a child.
I expect more to come from CofA in defending Apple on this issue.
A test of the air pods would prove if they was at fault. An audiologist would have all the necessary gear to prove if what happened did happen. Mannequin heads of adults and children are used which have inbuilt electronics in the ear sections the simulate the human hearing. Test sounds are put through equimpent under test to see if they are designed per the manufacturers spec. All it would take is for the lawyers to take the air pods in question to an audiologist, run the same amber alert sound through the air pods and monitor what the test head recieves. If Apple states that air pods reduce the sound of amber alerts if they are set to active on the iphone then the audio test would be able to prove it.
I've seen such mannequin heads in the offices/labs of various ear specialists I have visited when my hearing was affected back in 2000 so I know they are available. Also the test where they get you to sit in a sound proof booth and put on a special set of headphones where they put various test signals down to see if you can hear them or not, this can be replicated with the mannequin heads to test the air pods.
I've seen such mannequin heads in the offices/labs of various ear specialists I have visited when my hearing was affected back in 2000 so I know they are available. Also the test where they get you to sit in a sound proof booth and put on a special set of headphones where they put various test signals down to see if you can hear them or not, this can be replicated with the mannequin heads to test the air pods.
The SPL needed to perforate a TM is no different between an adult and a child this age. Their TM's aren't structurally different. They're 3 layers, epithelial (outer), connective (middle) and mucosal (inner).
Yes, CrOfA come out swinging based on the headliner and guilty until proven innocent. So let the evidence show apple is automatically guilty and should pay out.
Yeah, I feel bad for the kid, but lol at anyone who thinks the 12yo with an iPhone is telling the truth that the volume was "set at a low volume" when the alert sounded.
Unless your a medial expert (which i would require proof), I will stick with what the CDC and the WHO say rather than a stranger in a forum.