In the past couple of weeks there have been several stories about ipods causing hearing loss. The problem is that excess sound volumes can damage your ears. Well Duh!! Of course excessive volume can make you deaf. This is not a new phenomenon. This has been known for decades. That’s why for example when you walk into noisy factories you will find boxes of ear plugs everywhere. Your hearing can damaged by turning up the volume in a car with dozens of speakers and a trunk full of amplifiers. It can also happen when you listen to a 25 year old walkman at too high a volume.
But there is a really simple solution to all of this. Every one of these personal audio devices, from the ipod to the creative zen has a remarkable mechanism to prevent hearing loss. It is commonly known as the volume control. All you need to do is turn it down a bit, then you are good to go. Of course this “problem” primarily affects owners of ipods because upwards of 80% of all digital audio players sold to date happen to be ipods. Microsoft and there hardware partners have been utter commercial failures in this market.
Now however a lawyer has filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the ipod is defective because it can damage hearing. The suit doesn’t target any other manufacturers. All the other manufacturers with any market share at all happen to support Microsoft’s audio file format. They are just as capable of causing hearing loss. So why aren’t they being sued? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the lawyer in the case is on retainer to Microsoft? From Ipoding.com comes this:
What the Washington Post fails to mention in their story is that the attorney, Steve W. Berman, is on retainer at Microsoft:
More recently, Microsoft recognized Mr. Berman’s experience and expertise when the company retained him to be part of the core national team representing the company in antitrust class actions arising from Judge Jackson’s Findings of Fact in the Department of Justice antitrust case against the company.
Naw! No lawyer would ever do anything that slimy would they?
Did you know Apple keyboards are the only ones that will give you carpel tunnel? Better sue.
Really, if Microsoft were to spend as much money on improving their products as they spend on pursuing litigation like this, they might actually someday become the innovative technology company they’ve always claimed to be.
Well, that depends on how much money there is to be made, no?