Originally published at: Don’t Go to 11: Insights from the Apple Hearing Study - TidBITS
Apple has shared data from the Apple Hearing Study showing that a troubling percentage of participants are exposed to harmful levels of sound and are suffering hearing loss. Turn down that volume!
And I thought the article was saying don’t move to macOS 11.x !! Had me worried for a moment.
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I wonder how many times we’ve made the Spinal Tap “these all go 11” reference?
Reminds me of a project I worked on in the distant past. Back in the 90’s Visix Software (no longer in business) developed a Java-based rapid prototyping system for their Galaxy application environment.
The internal project name for it was “Eleven”, because “it’s one louder”. When it finally shipped, it was sold as “Vibe”.
Sadly, there’s virtually nothing left of Visix Software on the Internet and at least two other companies have since used the same name (!). But here are some press references I was able to find:
I worked in Apple retail for 15 years. It was almost impossible to get managers to turn down the overhead Sound system In order to talk to customers without raising voices. The store’s background music sound pressure was generally in the 65-75db range. W.H.O. Recommends sound levels of 50db or less. I challenge Apple to keep sound levels in their granite, stainless steel, and solid wood table stores within W.H.O. Recommended levels, rather than “it meets osha standards” ie less than 80db.
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What a cop-out answer. OSHA standards are designed to prevent causing injury, not create a comfortable and productive work environment.