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FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

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Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#141

Post by chipotle_coyote »

freedomben wrote: post #98
car wrote: post #66

With the AirPods now officially becoming hearing aids, it will hopefully reduce the stigma and attitude towards hearing aids and allow many more people to realize how bad their hearing actually is. I have been wearing hearing aids for a few years now (Phonak). I've also used the AirPods Pro with the accessibility audiogram feature (basically making them hearing aids), which is really good and has also been around for…

> In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery. Also will entrench the user in a walled garden ecosystem from a very specific giant tech company that isn't big on making their products compatible with other companies.

That's an argument against buying an iPhone and AirPods Pro together as a combination instead of buying a hearing aid, but

- it's not an argument against using AirPods as an aid with mild hearing loss if you're already an iPhone user

- it's not necessarily a great argument against buying an iPhone and iPods Pro anyway, given that hearing aids can easily run hundreds or even thousands of dollars more than that combination

- the vast majority of smart phone customers, both on and off HN, have either factored "walled garden" into their buying considerations at this point or never will

- let's not pretend Samsung is not already trying to figure out how to cram this into their next Galaxy Buds for Android users anyway, which will somehow work best with Samsung phones, not so well with other Android phones, and not at all with iPhones, but nobody will really complain about it because whatevs, it's not Apple

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#142

Post by echoangle »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #126
echoangle wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would a phone lockscreen indicator work? If someone walks up to you in a store with AirPods in, how are you seeing the indicator on the phone in their pocket? The situations where I can look at the lock screen of the phone of the person I'm speaking to are pretty limited.

Good point. But LEDs would probably take too much battery power. Not sure if the new color eInk would be useful.

Quick maths on the LED thing:

According to Wikipedia, AirPods Pro Gen 1 have 0.16 Wh of battery per AirPod (There's no data on Gen 2). With 5 hours listening time, that gives a power draw of 0.032 watts or 32 milliwatts. This answer https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/640179 (I know, not the best source, but I'm just guesstimating anyways) gives a current of 1 mA at 5 V for an indicator LED. So the LED would need 5 mW. That increases power draw to 37 milliwatts and gives a new battery life of about 4 hours and 20 minutes. If using 5 mA, which the answer calls "blindingly bright for some clear LEDs, even from 10 feet away", the LED would draw 25 mW and reduce listening time to only 2 hours and 50 minutes. The answer is also about non-diffuse LEDs so the indicator would only be visible from a narrow angle, but since it would point forward, that's probably fine. Making it diffuse would reduce perceived brightness again.

Brightness could be fine indoors, but outside with direct sun is probably harder. Since you would have the LED on both AirPods, you could probably expect that at least one of them is in the shadow at any time though.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#143

Post by kstrauser »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #95
_fat_santa wrote: post #92

This is huge. Previously if you were hard of hearing, a pair of hearing aids could cost upwards of $2,000. Now Apple just brought that price down to ~$250. Even if you use them everyday and assume a shelf life of 1.5yrs (which is roughly mine and others' experience with AirPods), you would be replacing your Airpods for 12 years before the cost caught up with a single pair of hearing aids. Even if you think Airpods ar…

> This is huge. Previously if you were hard of hearing, a pair of hearing aids could cost upwards of $2,000. Now Apple just brought that price down to ~$250. Woah there fella. Hearing aids last a very long time before needing a new battery. AirPods needs to be charged several times a day. That's a bit of an inconvenience. As is some hearing aids are made to fit one's ear. Where as AirPods are 3 sizes fits all.

You could buy 2 pairs and swap them out. That would still be a 75% discount over the $2000 pair.

This will help more people hear. It might not be the best possible solution, but it surely beats not having it.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#144

Post by systemtest »

vel0city wrote: post #122
systemtest wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no issues using my AirPods on Android. Automatic device switching doesn’t work but that doesn’t work on my Sony headphones either.

The new hearing aid features are gatekept behind an iOS app. You can't tweak the hearing aid settings without an Apple device.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds only have 360 audio and the better audio codec if you use a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Doesn't even work on other Android devices let alone iOS. And as far as I know you can't tweak the hearing aid features of Galaxy Buds on any device.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#145

Post by galleywest200 »

xucheng wrote: post #15

Interestingly, in the end of the article, the FDA links to an old article hosted on web.archive.org[1] even though the linked article was originally published by FDA themselves. Considering the linked article was only published at 2022, a merely 2 years ago, maybe the FDA should do more to prevent dead links. [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20221028042729/https:/www.fda.go...

This could also make is more difficult for new administrations to "disappear" documents from government sites by storing them on an archival site.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#146

Post by [deleted] »

systemtest wrote: post #144
vel0city wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new hearing aid features are gatekept behind an iOS app. You can't tweak the hearing aid settings without an Apple device.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds only have 360 audio and the better audio codec if you use a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Doesn't even work on other Android devices let alone iOS. And as far as I know you can't tweak the hearing aid features of Galaxy Buds on any device.

[deleted]

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#147

Post by vel0city »

systemtest wrote: post #144
vel0city wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new hearing aid features are gatekept behind an iOS app. You can't tweak the hearing aid settings without an Apple device.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds only have 360 audio and the better audio codec if you use a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Doesn't even work on other Android devices let alone iOS. And as far as I know you can't tweak the hearing aid features of Galaxy Buds on any device.

If you can't actually tweak audiogram settings, they're not really hearing aids. In fact, Samsung doesn't sell them as hearing aids and from what I can tell never use the term "hearing aid" in any of the marketing, branding, or feature listing of the devices.

They're not FDA approved as hearing aids, so they're not hearing aids.

Either way, pointing to another company being shitty isn't really a good justification of the first company being shitty.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#148

Post by talldayo »

cruffle_duffle wrote: post #127
righthand wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Good thing most people carry those around for other purposes. That $1000 tiny computer in their pocket just swallowed yet another thing that was once discrete.

By definition and per every observable statistic, most people do not carry iPhones around.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#149

Post by talldayo »

Angostura wrote: post #60
mgerdts wrote: post #22

I’m conflicted on use of AirPods as hearing aids. I use one hearing aid and have normal hearing in the other ear. I often listen to things on my phone over the one hearing aid. It would be nice to have stereo. For this reason, AirPods for both listening to stuff and hearing assistance would be great. On the other hand, when I see someone wearing AirPods I assume they are listening to something else or are otherwise t…

The fact that Airpods don’t look like hearing aids is a key advantage for some people. it’s especially important to some young people for whom there is a bit of a stigma around wearing them.

It's a huge double-edged sword. I don't think twice about people wearing hearing aids at the movies or walking down a busy parking lot. If I see someone with Airpods doing the same thing, I'm going to assume they're not using the rare FDA-authorized feature and instead are fully noise-cancelled.

Hell, there's an entire meme of "Oh no, they have their Airpods in!" that certainly won't abate after the release of a rarely-used feature.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#150

Post by cruffle_duffle »

jajko wrote: post #136
cruffle_duffle wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing most people carry those around for other purposes. That $1000 tiny computer in their pocket just swallowed yet another thing that was once discrete.

I don't carry around any Apple device, neither do most of people (including various IT folks in various banks) I know. You can't tweak its settings without one.

Fair. I was more referring to smart phones in general. The argument was “you need a $1000 device for this $200 thing”. But if other manufacturers come out with similar hearing aids, I’d expect most to work with either iOS or android and would require one of the two $1000 devices to work.
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