hearing

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Makerbong? 3D printing is getting stoned.

- Bloomberg's next ban may be loud headphones.

- A petition to change the national anthem to R. Kelly's 2003 hit "Ignition (Remix)."

- 404 Archive News: 404 Redditor fanbanlo posted a link to download 1,217 archived episodes of the show. Canoy took care of a search for all 404 episodes on CNET.… Read more

Now that I've spent the past week using Able Planet's newly released behind-the-ear "personal sound amplifier," I've learned that I don't hear as well as I like to think. Everything sounds crisper and perkier with the device.

Of course, that isn't necessarily what I want in every environment. I'll spare you the details, but you don't really need to amplify sound when you're going to the bathroom. Nor should crossing your legs in corduroys or pulling a slice of bread out of the plastic bread bag feel so... tingly. With the rather clumsily named PS1600BTE, sometimes the smallest background noises become so bright that it's downright distracting.

In the intended noisier environments, however, these amplifiers feel like magic, even to someone who likes to think she's got stellar hearing. What's interesting is that it wasn't until I removed the device from each ear that I realized how much duller and more jumbled the sounds in noisy environments were. The PS1600BTE is like icing on a cake I didn't know existed.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--My stepfather doesn't have the best hearing, and phone calls can be a trial. He tends to crank the speakerphone volume to MAX.

Clarity, a division of Plantronics, is trying to help the tens of millions of people with hearing loss with its new Ensemble phone, which displays real-time captions of what the other person on the line is saying.

Developed with ClearCaptions, the Ensemble is an amplified phone with a 7-inch touch-screen tablet display for the captions.

While there are other caption phones on the market, the Ensemble is being billed as the first of its kind with a tablet interface, and is on display at CES 2013. … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Can phones come back from the dead to nibble at your bottom line? If you're Samsung, that's become a very real threat.

The company faces both an injunction on some devices found to infringe on Apple's patents as part of a jury verdict here in August, as well as adjustments to damages on devices it has long since put to pasture.

"They're seeking an injunction on all 29 products, even though Samsung only sells three products," Samsung's attorney argued.

Those three products consist of about 77,000 units of … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Depending on who you ask, the $1.05 billion in damages awarded to Apple against Samsung was either too much or too little, but both companies today had much to say about some of the details in how that decision was reached.

At the heart of it, there's a disagreement on Samsung's side about how the jury came to decide the damages for the Prevail, one of Samsung's devices that was found to infringe, and made up $57.9 million of the tally. The only problem, Samsung argues, is that the jury was … Read more

With a verdict that landed almost entirely in Apple's favor, you'd think we'd be all wrapped up with the trial between Apple and Samsung that concluded in August.

You'd be wrong.

There's still quite a bit up in the air, some of which will be sorted out as the two companies return to a Northern California district court tomorrow afternoon for a hearing.

On the docket are a number of issues that have been the focus of more than 200 court filings since the late August jury verdict, which left Samsung on the hook for $1.05 billion in damages. … Read more

Google Talk is an instant-messaging service from Google that you can use to send messages, files, or e-mail or make VoIP calls to people on your contact list. Since Google Talk is based on an open protocol (XMPP), it can be used to connect to any device that supports this protocol; this currently means Windows, Android, and BlackBerry devices, although other clients are bound to appear soon.

Google Talk reads your Gmail contact list, and the tight integration between Google Talk and Gmail allows you to send IMs to contacts in your Gmail account. Any chat conversations you have through … Read more

I met Julie Glick a few months ago with some folks from Ultimate Ears at a Head-Fi meeting in NY. UE was promoting a new set of custom-molded in-ear headphones, the Personal Reference Monitors, which are just now entering full production. In her NYC office, Glick can fully demonstrate these unique headphones, which are not only custom-molded to your ears but fine-tuned, soundwise, to your liking. Ultimate Ears technicians use the frequency curve you create to build your Personal Reference Monitors. I crafted my EQ curve in Glick's office; it was a lot of fun to design my sound. … Read more

Drawing upon a little-known California law, Facebook is reportedly looking to hasten the payout of its Instagram purchase.

Typically with deals like this companies have to first register with the Securities and Exchange Commission but if the social network is able to use the California law it could save the company time and money. Only six states, including California, allow for this SEC exemption.

According to the Financial Times (subscription required), Facebook has scheduled an August 29 "fairness hearing" with the California Department of Corporations in San Francisco to discuss the terms and conditions of the proposed payout.… Read more