Parents sue Apple over AirPods, alleging Amber Alert damaged son’s hearing

a few years back, I was traveling at 70mph down the 55, heavy traffic, iPhone paired via bluetooth to my car. I was listening to music I think at a low volume.

Then, a sound as loud as an earthquake shook the car. I was beyond terrified. I jerked the steering wheel from the startle reflex and very nearly hit the divider.

It was of course, an Amber Alert, and an irresponsible one at that. I say that because it was for a county 300 miles north of where I was.

I don't know if it is still this way-- but the Amber Alerts used to play at full volume no matter what the phones settings are.

I am unsure of the wisdom of potentially startling every human being within a few hundred miles, at basically the same time.

The majority of Amber Alerts are over parental child abduction and custody disputes. The authorities used to reserve it for when the child is in danger but now use it loosely. And over way too broad of a geographic area. And with no consideration to disrupting the sleep of millions of people. The alarm is more appropriate for something that's an immediate risk to life and limb of the message recipient - like a tornado warning or flash flood. Does it really need to shriek? And be an immediate alert? A notification upon the next phone pickup would be less objectionable.

Noise cancellation tech especially is prone to causing these sudden loud tones if you somehow manage to cause a feedback loop. I fell asleep with WH-1000XM4s once soon after getting them and was treated to deafening feedback at a very unreasonable amplitude. Returned them.

Apple has actually been the exception there, not only do they limit the amplitude, they also detect feedback loops (also often caused by trucks backing up) and stop noise cancelling until the source of feedback is gone.