Resources

Ear Gear Delivers For Cochlear Implants And Mini Open-Fit Hearing Aids

I wrote about Ear Gear hearing aid retention and protection systems a while ago and noted that if I’d been using them when I was cleaning out my gutters last fall I never would have lost my hearing aid. Read more

And Then There Were Six: GN Store Nord Puts GN ReSound On The Block

I wrote about the “seven sisters” of the global hearing aid industry a while ago, but now it appears there will be six. Consolidation among the largest manufacturers continues as GN Store Nord considers selling GN ReSound, the world’s third-largest hearing-aid brand, to one of the other majors. Read more

Buy Or Build? Starkey Turns Semiconductor Design Over To AMI

Buy or build? That’s a question that always confronts system manufacturers. It makes sense to buy standard components, but you want to own the designs for components that give your product a performance edge. Starkey Laboratories has answered the question about a major component in its hearing aids by selling its chip design group to AMI Semiconductor, Inc., which produces DSP chips for a number of hearing aid manufacturers around the world. Read more

Let’s Boycott Super Bowl Advertisers Who Don’t Supply Captions

What do BlockBuster, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Expedia.com have in common? Their Super Bowl ads this year didn’t have captions. They must not want our business. Captionless ads have been bothering me ever since I began noticing how many advertisers don’t supply them, even after the first of the year when the FCC began requiring broadcasters to caption all their regular programming. The number of captionless ads on SuperBowl XL was especially disappointing. Read more

Varibel Hearing-Aid Glasses Integrate Eight Directional Microphones

Hiding hearing aids in a pair of glasses is an idea almost as old as hearing aids themselves. But Varibel, a Dutch company, has truly put new wine in old bottles by integrating eight sophisticated directional microphones into the frame of new hearing-aid glasses that the company says effectively double the boost in hearing you get from directional microphones in normal hearing aids. Read more

Oticon Introduces Kid-Friendly Amigo FM Assistive Listening Devices

Hearing the teacher’s voice without the stress and strain of speech-reading can mean the difference between long-term success and failure in school, especially for younger children. When hearing-aid manufacturers target school-aged customers, they do well by doing good. Read more

Apple Should Do More To Help Prevent Hearing Loss Among iPod Users

Ever since Apple was sued by a Louisiana man claiming his iPod caused irreparable hearing loss, I’ve been scratching my head about vendors’ responsibility to prevent hearing loss versus individuals’ responsibility to take care of their own health. Read more

Vortis Cell Phone Antenna Reduces Hearing-Aid Interference

A start-up company based in Glasgow, Scotland, has developed an innovative antenna technology eliminating the electrical interference that can make cell phones impossible to use with hearing aids. Dual-antenna array technology built into the Vortis Technologies Ltd. antenna radiates electrical signals in a figure-eight pattern out and away from the user’s head and hearing aids. Read more

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