American Medical Association Studies Apple iPod Ear-Bud Volume Warning

The American Medical Association (AMA) will consider recommendations to make to manufacturers, regulators and consumers on dealing with the threat of hearing loss from Apple iPods and other portable music players with in-the-ear headphones. Read more

Beltone Touts New Hearing Aid As Smallest And Lightest In Its Class

Beltone has introduced the Beltone Marq, an open-fit receiver-in-the-ear hearing aid that the company describes as the “smallest and lightest hearing instrument of its kind.” Read more

New York Times Style Section Puts Hearing Aids Front And Center

When The New York Times devotes nearly the entire front page of its Style section to new hearing-aid designs and baby boomers’ attempts to get over the stigma and start hearing well again by embracing the new technologies, you know the industry has entered a new era. Read more

AdRants: Do Hearing Aids Really Need ‘Dolce and Gabanna Treatment’?

AdRants, a top web site covering the advertising industry, picked up our recent post on how Phonak is using some over-the-top advertising imagery in an attempt to make the new Phonak Audeo hearing aids more cool. The AdRants story is worth reading because it points out that the evolution in perceptions of hearing-impaired people is on the same positive track we’ve seen with other conditions — as when things once labeled “disabilities” are now labeled “challenges.” Read more

Startup Bionica To Market New ‘Personal Communication System’

It’s not every day a new hearing-aid company is launched from the ground up. A group of entrepreneurs in Providence, Rhode Island, yesterday announced they formed Bionica Corp. to develop and market a new “Personal Communication System.” Read more

Phonak PR On Slow-Growth Hearing-Aid Market Misses The Point: It’s Not The Product, It’s The Price!

Phonak has cranked up its PR engine for the launch of the snazzy new Audeo hearing aid family, scoring a beautiful piece in BusinessWeek magazine on the wonders of its expensive new digital hearing aids with their jazzy colors and names. Read more

Phonak Aims Its Colorful New Audeo Hearing Aids At Aging Hipsters

There’s a marketing bug going around the hearing-aid industry. First Oticon caught it with its Delta hearing aids, whose array of pop colors would have made Andy Warhol proud. Now Phonak has caught the bug with its Audeo hearing aids, which come in 15 hues ranging from “Crème Brule” (brown) to “Pinot Noir” (crimson) to “Pure Passion” (red) to “Green with Envy” (light green). Read more

CapTel Captioned Telephone Service Finally Gets A Hearing In Massachusetts

Since I last wrote about CapTel captioned telephone service, a dozen additional states have started offering this vital lifeline for hard-of-hearing consumers. To my chagrin, my home state of Massachusetts now is one of only six states in the union that have not approved it. Read more

Sebotek Patent Infringement Suit Challenges Big Hearing Aid Companies

Sebotek’s patent infringement suit against several of the world’s largest hearing-aid manufacturers is a David-and-Goliath challenge to protect its intellectual property. It also throws a big element of uncertainty into a significant and fast-growing segment of the market for open-fit behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids. Read more

Hatis Assistive Listening Devices Make Hearing Aids Phone- and iPod-Friendly

To listen to an iPod or communicate successfully on the phone, even on my most powerful amplified phone, I need to hear with both ears. I’ve found the best way to accomplish that trick is with a line of products from Hatis that plug into my iPod and my phones. Read more

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