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iPod Update to Address Volume-Level Concerns 264

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the still-listening-to-their-customers dept.
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
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iPod Update to Address Volume-Level Concerns More

iPod Update to Address Volume-Level Concerns

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  • what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing? (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrudPuppy ( 33870 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:16PM (#15021800) Homepage
    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)
    • No, the volume limit is user controlled.

      You're still free to use your iPod at deafening levels if you like, it's just easier to avoid doing so without thinking now.
      • 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-surroga

        • ...lobby Congress for laws that criminalize the sale of amplified headphones to minors.

          You already get carded [wikipedia.org] at Wal*Mart [walmart.com] if you buy cough syrup [dextroverse.org] or fuel injector cleaner [inhalants.org]!
        • ...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 [slashdot.org] better.

        • Re:what about those of us who are hard-of-hearing? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Alaska Jack ( 679307 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @10:00PM (#15022829) Journal
          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

        • It doesn't absolve parent of anything (Score:5, Insightful)

          by sdo1 ( 213835 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @10:13PM (#15022883) Journal
          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

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

          I'm usually bothered by parents that don't... parent. But I disagree that this is a problem. Of course a good parent would teach them not to blare loud music over headphones. But a good parent would also give their children safe products. There's nothing compelling you to use the product, and you could always reflash the iPod to clear the lock. I liken it to those plastic covers on electrical outl

        • 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.

          I don't see why this is a problem, as long as parents use it sensibly and with the knowledge that it's not failsafe. It's a safety device. Giving parents an ability to control it is even

  • I think this move mainly covers themselves legally, but you can't say it's a bad feature - so long as you can choose to limit it, only if you want, or are a parent. Sometimes it's good to have your earphones loud! The risks are so much less than smoking, but a lot of us still do that.

  • What??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by techmuse ( 160085 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:21PM (#15021849)
    Huh? Can you repeat that story?

  • Wasted effort, stupid feature (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Salo2112 ( 628590 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:22PM (#15021854)
    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.
    • What? Speak up, I can't hear you! :D
    • You couldn't listen to a walkman 8 hours a day, so it'd be much harder to damage your hearing. With the stock headphones, settings above about 1/3rd of the indicator will cause permanent hearing damage if used for over an hour a day.
      • I regularly listened to a walkman for over 8 hours a day. There wasn't a time limiter built in, you know. But then, in my day men were real men and carried more than 1 set of batteries.

    • Re:Wasted effort, stupid feature (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MustardMan ( 52102 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:46PM (#15022027)
      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.
      • And another thing - the wheel on an ipod is relatively sensitive. This is a good thing most of the time - it gives precise control and lets you quickly set the ipod exactly where you want it. However, it's also relatively easy to bump the thing and accidentally blast yourself with a painful shot of sound. Setting a maximum would eliminate this possibility.
      • Great, until you get to some cuts from a CD that was mastered at lower-than-average levels. Then you can't even "crank it up" to a good, listenable level.
    • 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.

      Yeah, but back then, a lot of people took responsiblity for their own stupidity. Now, it seems like it's the company's fault.

  • Ipod volume limit remover (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dalmiroy2k ( 768278 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:23PM (#15021857)
    How long until "Ipod volume limit remover" is released so kids can crack their Ipods?

    • Re:Ipod volume limit remover (Score:5, Informative)

      by themadplasterer ( 931983 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @08:25PM (#15022323)
      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 [apple.com]

      • And coming next updater - a password-protected-to-disable warning pops up in iTunes if the iPod has been restored overriding a parental volume lock.

        Personally I'd just use it so the crappy iBuds I can't be bothered to replace don't distort when I crank it. Or surprise the hell out of myself when something in my pocket sets off the clickwheel when I forgot to put on hold. Hopefully they didn't mess around with the icon numbers again so I can skin the firmware with minimal discomfort... I'm sick of the la

    • How many parents are going to step out onto a noisy street to set the max volume on the iPod?

      You know they're going to set it in their quiet house. Then, when the child goes for a walk down the street, the music will be inaudible.

      While I try to keep my iPod playing as soft as I can stand, I'm not going to turn it up every time a car goes by and then turn it down. I also refuse to simply miss content while loud noises are happening. So, I just tend to listen at a moderately loud level.

      I am still amazed every

  • Good thing for parents (Score:4, Informative)

    by Darthmalt ( 775250 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:23PM (#15021863)
    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.
    • I'm shocked, dumbfounded, in fact.

      Tell him to turn it down already. Its been said before, but using technology to solve the symptoms (very high volume) instead of fixing the problem (not enforcing the idea that loud = dangerous) is a pretty bad, if not useless, idea.

      I put this in the same class of ideas as seatbelt laws and lables on hairdryers warning the user not to operate them while in the shower.
      • Tell him to turn it down already. Its been said before, but using technology to solve the symptoms (very high volume) instead of fixing the problem (not enforcing the idea that loud = dangerous) is a pretty bad, if not useless, idea.

        You probably think that safety lock mechanism on guns is pretty bad idea too, eh? Of course one may use technology to make use of an appliance safer.

        • If I have to tell you kids one more time, I'm turning the car around and we're going home.....

          YOU WILL NOT USE LOGIC AND COMMON SENSE WHILE LIVING UNDER MY ROOF

          (or is that posting under slashdot's moderators?)
      • I put this in the same class of ideas as seatbelt laws

        To be fair, seatbelt laws aren't just for the benefit of the seatbelt wearer - in a collision, your two hundred pounds of meat moving at 60mph is just an unsecured load like any other, and presents a danger to others, inside and outside of your vehicle. This is also why rear-seat belts are important - they save the lives of front seat passengers.

  • Obligatory ST quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by esampson ( 223745 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:23PM (#15021866) Homepage
    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 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:24PM (#15021867)
    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.
    • 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.


      You are aware that your iPod has a volume control, correct?

  • Yes but... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by FuzzyBunnyFeet_83 ( 964601 )
    Sounds nifty... but will it let me make it louder?

    • Re:Yes but... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ColaMan ( 37550 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @08:42PM (#15022421) Journal
      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.
      • You actually nailed another point as well.

        Most people's headphones are 10-100x better than their home stereo speakers. This lack of coloration and distortion also enables you to turn the music up louder without feeling the onset of pain.

        Listening to music on my crappy yamaha speakers (don't laugh plz) can get painful... but putting on the Sennheisers (HD457's) at work is a totally different experience, and while I can tell the music can be louder with the Senns without distortion, it's easier to push beyon

  • Darn, I was hoping I could _increase_ it... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:26PM (#15021885) Homepage
    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.
    • It would be nice (and probably profitable) if somebody came out with an inexpensive SPL meter which could be used to test individual earphones in order to determine a safe maximum setting. Something simple with red, yellow and green LEDs for instance.

      Hell, Apple stores could have a proper SPL meter which customers could use to setup their ipods.
      • It would be nice (and probably profitable) if somebody came out with an inexpensive SPL meter which could be used to test individual earphones in order to determine a safe maximum setting.

        It's actually pretty difficult to accurately test headphone sound levels because the sound level will depend on the volume of air in the ear canal (for ear buds) or under the cup (for over-ear headphones) as well as the leakage around the head phone. This is dependant on the size of the ear and the pressure of the head b

    • have you considered a mobile amp [headphone.com]?
    • Really? I have a pair of Sennheiser HD570's and my iPod drives them quite well. Cranking the iPod is painful. I have a 2Gen iPod. Additionally I use my old HD280 Pros with my iPod when I mow the lawn (they're closed). They work well.

  • Patent (Score:5, Funny)

    by mtenhagen ( 450608 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:28PM (#15021894) Homepage
    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!

  • don't these things have a variable volume control? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hackstraw ( 262471 ) * on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:29PM (#15021898)

    Eh?

    But I guess that it is relatively easy to go past your comfort zone once you get acclimated to a certain volume and many different songs have different RMS values to them, so mixes can be difficult, even with a max threshold.

    Also, I hope that the lawsuit goes the way of the fat people suing McDonalds. Food and headphones are nothing new, and overusing them is personal responsibility.

    Next week, I might drink 8 or so gallons of water, die, and then come back and sue the waterworks of my town. That will teach them not to sell water anymore.

  • Hearing damage is a function of volume + time (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dzimas ( 547818 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:30PM (#15021906)
    The problem is that a short period of extremely high volume does the same damage as prolonged listening at moderate volumes. And humans are extremely bad at perceiving volume -- I often crank my iPod higher than I should when on the train with lots of ambient noise. So the iPod volume limiter is a cute idea, but in practice it should lower the volume if I leave my earphones stuffed into my head for an entire afternoon.

    The best thing is to educate yourself on the dangers of loud music (heck, ANY loud ambient noise can be dangerous as well). I'm from an older generation and did some permanent damage to my hearing with a string of Sony Walkman players and car stereos.

    • I often crank my iPod higher than I should when on the train with lots of ambient noise....in practice it should lower the volume if I leave my earphones stuffed into my head for an entire afternoon.

      Humans perceive relative volume. I've often gotten in the car and turned on the radio only to discover that I had left it set unreasonably loud. Of course, when I was listening to it before, it was on the freeway with lots of background noise, and now I've spent the last 30 seconds walking through a parking lo
  • a set of battery boosted earbuds with an independent volume control....

  • Pointless in this implementation (Score:5, Informative)

    by iabervon ( 1971 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:34PM (#15021930) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • I believe the iPod and iTunes already supports the "Sound Check" feature which does just what you describe.
    • Dammit, I just spent 4 mod points on this story, but I find I must respond to this comment.

      iTunes has an automatic volume adjuster that will analyze all your music and equalize the volume. It works amazingly well. Is it perfect? No, but it's pretty close to. And at the same time, songs that are SUPPOSED to be louder ARE louder - but songs don't have that track to track variation just from different recording.
    • They have this - it's called "SoundCheck"

      To switch on Sound Check on your iPod:
      In the main iPod menu, click on Settings - Sound Check - On

      If you wish to switch off Sound Check on your iPod, follow these steps:

      To switch off Sound Check on your iPod:

      In the main iPod menu, click on Settings - Sound Check - Off

  • God forbid people learn to use the volume control (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mr. Freeman ( 933986 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:40PM (#15021975)
    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.
    • Teenagers are, for the most part, stupid. They don't have the maturity and experience that usually comes with age. I certainly did my share of stupid things when I was a teenager.

      Hearing loss can be insidious. I damaged my hearing by long-term occupational exposure to the noise from diesel generators. It didn't seem that loud at the time.

    • I myself am suffering from hearing lose after not realizing that i could adjust the volume in my car for about 9 months now. Sure Hondas are nice cars, but you think they would make this little fact a little more known. They should also tell you that you don't have to push the right pedal down all the way when you want to make the car move. I've gotten in several accidents and have many tickets already. I'm currently looking for some people to start a class action lawsuit against this company putting out pr

  • Fantastic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by countach ( 534280 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:40PM (#15021983)
    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.

    • Re:Fantastic (Score:3, Informative)

      by kindbud ( 90044 )
      The iPods have a little lock switch to prevent any controls from being accidentally activated. On my Nano, it's on the top edge.
    • So let's not hear any talk about this being a silly idea.
      Don't worry. You'll be deaf by the time people come up with the idea. :P
    • They already had more than enough protection against hearing damage:

      #1. The click wheel lets you change the volume from full to mute with one quick turn of the thumb.
      #2. The "Hold" switch prevents the volume from changing when it's in your pocket.
      #3. The "Sound Check" option, which normalizes the volume of all the songs.
      #4. If you're among the white-earphone-wearing masses, the headphones that come with the iPod are so crappily designed that they fall right out of your ears if you take off the little black

  • iPod needs a lower 'low' (Score:4, Interesting)

    by smenor ( 905244 ) on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @07:53PM (#15022080) Homepage
    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.
    • I just downloaded the update, and was happy to find that upon setting a low maximum volume (about 10%), the control granularity has actually increased: the far right of the bar is now 10%, allowing me to carefully adjust it between 0 and 10%.

  • Note: The volume of songs and other audio may vary depending on how the audio was recorded or encoded. Volume level may also vary if you use different earbuds or headphones.

    This appears to be functionally useless as it only allows you to set the max on the volume slider. With a varied collection of music, some will blow out your ears at 75% while others will need to be 95% to even follow the words. Any kid wanting more hearing loss simply has to remaster their sound files.

    I was honestly hoping for a m

    • You can't increase the volume of a sound file unless said sound file was improperly recorded. The DAC in the iPod uses 16 bits, and you can't add any extra volume. You can add the perception of more volume by compressing the dynamic range, but that doesn't affect hearing loss. What you want is normalization, and the iPod already has that feature (it's called Sound Check and it requires iTunes to be configured in a certain way).
  • Look... we all know that Apple hasn't done all the best things with their iPod, but I am for this 100%

    For those of you who keep bashing people for "being idiots", you can shut it... not everyone can be as enlightened as you. Apple has provided their customers with more control... I am sorry if you are against that, but I have no reason to go against this. I am afraid that you guys are a little to quick to complain...
  • Of course if you listen to it too loud you will hurt your hearing.. Idiots.. Suits like that should cause the moron to goto jail.. not some million dollar award.

  • What the hell happened to the legal system in this country? First some lady dumps hot coffee in her lap and sues McDonalds for a win - despite the fact that common sense tells you "coffee hot, drink later". Next, smokers sue big tobacco for a win, despite the warning labels and old people on oxygen still dragging on that coffin nail, and now people are turning up the volume, going deaf, and suing Apple. It seems to me that this is just hindering the natural selection process, and muddying the gene pool w
  • I have an iPod nano and the maximum volume level is unlistenable because there is way too much distortion.
  • - Kids will edit an MP3, half the volume, upload it, and then show mom/dad that the maximum volume is too low. This might only work so long, unless the mom/dad isn't too technologically inclined and can be lead to beleave the iPod volume degrades over time.
    - Kids will download a hack to reset the password.
    - Kids will flash the firmware or reset the bios or otherwise erase the user preferences, thus unlocking the volume control. This one is probably real easy.
    - Kids will edit ALL their MP3s and turn the
  • While this is a good idea, there are other technological measures that can be used to make headphones safer - notably, using noise cancelling technology so people don't need to turn their headphones up so loud in the first place.

    I suspect the money it'd cost would be paid back by lower treatment costs for hearing loss down the track.

  • Sosumi.wav (Score:2, Funny)

    by billcopc ( 196330 )
    I think I've found the solution to my income problems: I'll move to the states and sue every company that's ever made any product I've ever used for any whimsical reason that comes across my amphetamine-enhanced cranium.

    First I'll sue Ginsu for that time I cut the tip of my thumb while stabbing into a can of beans, and lost sensation in part of my finger. It's Ginsu's fault that I was being a dumb alpha male, of course!

    Then I'll sue Microsoft for that time I smacked my laptop onto my forehead in frustratio
  • I have an 4G iPod (colour) and upgraded to the last version of the software last week. It killed it. Updates were extremely slow and nothing I did helped; until I reverted to the previous version. I notice this release says "all other versions are the same". I think I will give it a miss......
  • an update to the iPod nano and 5th generation iPod that allows the user to set the maximum volume level.

    I'm glad to see Apple gave people the option. My iRiver H340 firmware had an update which reduced the maximum volume substantially, I believe which was in response to some French law suit about hearing loss and portable music devices. Being Australian, I always flashed mine with the fimware which came with it, the EU firmware.

    Gladly, I found that I could just flash my H340 with the Korean firmware and sti
  • i think it would be better to have a switch that reduces the dynamic range of the music. i think a lot of people turn the volume up until they can hear the music clearly, including the details. in a loud environment, this forces people to jack up the volume so high the louder parts of the music become too loud. of course getting sealed headphones is still better, but this would help no matter what headphones u use.

  • So do they still go up to 10???? (Score:5, Funny)

    by sokoban ( 142301 ) on Thursday March 30, 2006 @04:14AM (#15024576) Homepage
    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? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Keyslapper ( 852034 ) on Thursday March 30, 2006 @10:18AM (#15025735)
    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?

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The rule on staying alive as a program manager is to give 'em a number or give 'em a date, but never give 'em both at once.

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