Pump down the volume

I was in an crowded elevator at the La Salle College of St. Benilde the other week, and I was a bi t puzzled at the muzak being piped in. It wasn't too clear, but I could tell it was a noisy metal band blasting away. Metal muzak? I listened closer and was s tartled to realize that it wasn't from the elevator sound system - it was comin g from earphones plugged into the ears of a student at the back of the car. Dear God, I thought. Is he deaf? If he isn't yet, he will be soon. iPods are capable of hitting 100 decibels - t he equivalent of standing 10 ft from a pneumatic drill running full-tilt-boogie - and just listening at that level for 15 mins can seriously damage your heari ng, say experts. New models of iPods can run for more than 12 hours straight, s o you can imagine the potential for damage. Even if you don't crank it up all t he way, the cumulative damage from listening at high dBs for 21 hours a week, t he average amount of time a typical user keeps the buds plugged in, can be very disastrous. Telegraph.co.uk reports that Apple is f inally acknowledging the problem and has recently put in a patent for a system that automatically adjusts the volume to safer levels in forthcoming iP ods and iPhones. Apple's patent states

Since the damaging effects on users' hearing is both gradual and cu mulative, even those users who are concerned about hearing loss may not behave in a manner that would limit or minimise such damaging effects."

Apple's system will calculate the listening levels and length of time the music has been blaring and will gradually lower the audio output to less harmful lev els. It will also calculate the "quiet time" between turning it off and then tu rning it on again so that the level can be raised higher after a significant re st period for the user, although it has been determined if this automatic level control can be optionally shut off. Ok, ok, we hear ya. We're turning it down.