[flagged]
This is a regulatory issue, so you can stop the baseless hating.
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Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
11–20 of 202 posts
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely ignorant question, but what does it come down to? What if I released this feature but didn't call it "hearing aid", nor positioned it as medical device? Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
Does it look like a duck? Does it quack like duck? In-ear devices with speaker and mic that look like hearing aids that perform hearing aid function for those with hearing loss? Hearing aids. Phones, that look nothing like glasses or contacts, and don't serve the same purpose? Obviously not. Don't be silly. Judges aren't.
I really wasn't trying to be silly. I feel like other medical things in the US are regulated differently based purely on how they're marketed. How about an Apple Vision Pro with optical zoom on the exterior cameras?
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#13[flagged]
It would be illegal for them to sell AirPods in many countries without these lockouts. The sale of medical devices is heavily regulated in most places. Headphones: legal. Hearing aids: not. Blame the government, not the company that's following the rules laid down.
Why should anyone blame the government when it's obvious that Apple cared about those regulations and filed the paperwork in some countries but not in others?
OP is still right here. The argument stands.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely ignorant question, but what does it come down to? What if I released this feature but didn't call it "hearing aid", nor positioned it as medical device? Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
Does it look like a duck? Does it quack like duck? In-ear devices with speaker and mic that look like hearing aids that perform hearing aid function for those with hearing loss? Hearing aids. Phones, that look nothing like glasses or contacts, and don't serve the same purpose? Obviously not. Don't be silly. Judges aren't.
we could all use some civil disobedience for the good of our kind;
“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be illegal for them to sell AirPods in many countries without these lockouts. The sale of medical devices is heavily regulated in most places. Headphones: legal. Hearing aids: not. Blame the government, not the company that's following the rules laid down.
Completely ignorant question, but what does it come down to? What if I released this feature but didn't call it "hearing aid", nor positioned it as medical device? Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
Regulated devices have very specific definitions like is represented as O, or does x or z and a and b, or x and b. Things like that. The definition typically hinges on very specific parameters and ALSO what it is called. That way no one can sell an inert plug as a “hearing aid”, and no one can sell a hearing aids as “conversation enhancing devices “ to evade certification requirements if they meet the bar feature-wise to be a hearing aid.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be illegal for them to sell AirPods in many countries without these lockouts. The sale of medical devices is heavily regulated in most places. Headphones: legal. Hearing aids: not. Blame the government, not the company that's following the rules laid down.
Completely ignorant question, but what does it come down to? What if I released this feature but didn't call it "hearing aid", nor positioned it as medical device? Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
A malfunctioning hearing aid/earbud can potentially cause permanent hearing damage. Unless it explodes, a misbehaving phone can't damage your vision.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#17[flagged]
So your theory is what, malice? Apple makes AirPods the cheapest hearing aids by a long shot, except for some customers that they hate? The problem is simple: hearing aids are regulated products, and countries tend to insist on individually certifying them. Getting the right to market AirPods as hearing aids in the US wasn't cheap, I'm sure. There needs to be international harmonization of these regulations. It isn't…
OP didn't say it's about hate, and why would you assume OP meant hate? There are many other obvious reasons. Like the market share for example.
To hate requisites that you care enough...and that you are not a corporation...
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it a regulatory issue? Could it be the hearing aid feature has an AI/voice recognition component trained on certain languages when it runs the "enhancement"? (no idea, just wondering, since the apple page had zero details)
The FDA has to certify the devices for use as hearing aids in the U.S Other countries have similar regulatory bodies the certify the use of a medical device. Hearing aids (and things sold as it) are medical devices.
So what?
You file the paperwork, pay for it and you get the certification.
They decided that they won't do that in India.
This is all.
They even did that in Germany and the whole world know how much of a hassle it had to be...but Germany has a more significant market share and potential than India so....we all know it's just about the money.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it a regulatory issue? Could it be the hearing aid feature has an AI/voice recognition component trained on certain languages when it runs the "enhancement"? (no idea, just wondering, since the apple page had zero details)
The FDA has to certify the devices for use as hearing aids in the U.S Other countries have similar regulatory bodies the certify the use of a medical device. Hearing aids (and things sold as it) are medical devices.
Fair enough - that certainly explains the situation in the US, where they were allowed. It just seemed surprising to me that every country in the world has medical device certification for anything that calls itself a hearing aid, forcing apple to restrict it to just 2 or 3 countries. You'd think in some it would be linked to what's covered by state medical care, or sold with a particular emblem or... Actually, couldn't find the rules for india at all, but probably 'cause I was searching in english.
But maybe it was just easier for them to block everyone by default pending lawyer review of each country, one at a time.
... I wonder also why they couldn't sell it as a non medical "hearing enhancement" with a disclaimer that it had no medical certification in your country, but perhaps that would also invite lawsuits.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#20Does this reset itself after a certain amount of time or is it one and done? I'd be worried about the feature being removed when the iPad or airpods decide they've been in India for too long.