Products
Gennum Abandons Hearing-Aid Market With DSP Chip and Headset Spinoffs
Gennum Corp. of Canada, long one of the leading suppliers of digital signal processing (DSP) chips and other technologies to the hearing-aid and headset industries, is abandoning the hearing-aid market with the spinout of its hearing instrument design and manufacturing operations to a private equity group and the sale of its consumer Bluetooth headset business to a consumer... Read more
Note To Steve Jobs: Why Isn’t The Apple iPhone Hearing-Aid Compatible?
I can’t believe Apple failed to make its iPhone compatible with either hearing aids or cochlear implants. I’m in the market for a mobile phone again and just discovered the lack of compatibility. Given all the hype surrounding the iPhone launch, I’m surprised there haven’t been more complaints. Read more Read More →
Microbattery.com Offers Hearing-Aid Battery Ratings Along With Low Prices
I’ve finally wised up and decided to get my hearing-aid batteries from a less expensive source than my local pharmacy. There are a lot of battery sites on the web, but the best I’ve found for hearing aids so far is Microbattery.com. Read more Read More →
Jawbone Bluetooth Cell Phone Headset Is A Hearing Aid In Disguise
Since its introduction late last hear, the Jawbone earpiece for Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones has seemingly taken the world by storm. It is offered in many major consumer electronics outlets as well as at Apple stores as an iPhone companion, by AT&T Wireless and at Best Buy stores. Read more Read More →
Bernafon Brite Hearing Aids Win Prestigious Red-Dot Design Award
Shortly after my 80-year-old mother-in-law got a CIC (completely-in-the-canal) hearing aid, we got a panicked phone call one evening. “I just ate my hearing aid,” she screamed into the phone. Read more Read More →
Agilent Makes It Easy To Design Hearing-Aid Compatible Cell Phones
Now there’s no excuse. Agilent Technologies has come up with a design system enabling manufacturers of mobile phones to easily ensure their handsets meet all the hearing-aid-compatibility (HAC) standards mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Read more Read More →
Siemens Gets Active With New Cielo And Nitro Hearing-Aid Families
Siemens Hearing is the quiet giant in the hearing-aid industry. While Phonak makes noise with its splashy Audeo ads, while Oticon promotes its stylish candy-colored open-fit hearing aids, while Widex keeps itself busy being the “blingi-est” hearing-aid company, and while GN ReSound makes headlines not getting itself acquired, Siemens Hearing just goes about its... Read more
Songbird Hearing Gets Re-Start Financing For Disposable Hearing Aids
Songbird Hearing, the disposable hearing-aid company which mysteriously suspended operations several years ago, has recently received venture capital financing to re-start its operations. NewSpring Capital and The Provco Group of Pennsylvania have put $4 million in new financing into the New Jersey company, according to the VentureWire newsletter. Read more Read More →
$50,000 Widex Hearing Aid Is One Of The Nuttiest Promotions I’ve Seen
I stumbled across a news release purporting to be from the Widex people in the U.K. promoting a gold- and diamond-encrusted hearing aid with remote controller priced at 25,000 UK pounds ($50,144 U.S. dollars). Advertising itself as the “blingi-est” hearing aid in the world, it is a version of the new Widex “M” family of hearing aids. Read more Read More →
NBA Basketball Legend Kevin McHale Supports Cochlear Implants For Kids
By Jake Copithorne Former Boston Celtics great and current Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager Kevin McHale has recently made news for his 5-for-1 NBA mega-trade, but it’s his 4-for-1 deal that’s been turning heads outside the basketball world: four cochlear implants for the cost of one. In partnership with four other board members, McHale has co-founded the Help... Read more
Future Cochlear Implant Patients Might Preserve Some Residual Hearing
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new, less-invasive means of implanting electrodes into the cochlea that may ultimately do less damage to hearing nerves in the cochlea and preserve more residual hearing in the patient. Read more Read More →
‘Boomer Babe’ Says Phonak Audeo Hearing-Aid Ads Are Okay With Her
The Phonak Audeo hearing-aid advertising campaign is the gift that just keeps giving. I ridiculed the campaign when it first broke, but shame on me. Read more Read More →