decibels
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Sony sneaks out a quieter PS4 Pro
Unless there are very significant changes involved, updates to gaming consoles are rarely released to any fanfare, silently slipping on to the market with minor tweaks designed to rectify any teething problems associated with that model's launch. That the latest release of the PS4 Pro was so discreet is fitting, then, because its revision has made it the quietest PS4 Pro yet.
Video: iPhone 5 speaker is loudest iPhone speaker yet
Lucky iPhone 5 owners (I'm not one of them yet) can be proud to know that their new device is the loudest iPhone yet. The folks over at iClarified thought that it seemed a bit louder than older versions, so they did the right thing and tested the iPhone 5 -- and every other model of iPhone ever built -- with a decibel meter. What they found is that the iPhone 5 speaker is indeed the loudest yet, pumping out an impressive 100.3 dBA when a pink noise file was played in the Music app. That's greater than the previous winner, the iPhone 4S, which tipped the meter at 97.9 dBA. Remember that the decibel A-weighting (dBA) is measured on a logarithmic scale, so that seemingly insignificant 2.4 dBA difference actually corresponds to an 18 percent increase in loudness. You can check out their tests in the video below, along with some catchy music to (mostly) mask the pink noise blasts. I plan to do my own testing with Gangnam Style once I receive my iPhone 5 to see if I can ruin my hearing even more than it already has been. [via BGR]
FCC tells advertisers to CALM down, lowers the volume on commercial breaks
Pretty soon, you won't have to scramble to lower the volume during noisy commercial breaks -- that's if you even watch live TV. After making its way through Capitol Hill, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (or CALM) -- which aims to keep the sounds coming out of your flat panel even-keeled -- has just been adopted in a ruling by the FCC. Starting next December, ads and promos will have to remain in-step with the audio levels of scheduled programming. While the affected parties have a full year to get their acts together, the main burden of enforcement lies with broadcasters and MVPDs like Comcast and Verizon FiOS. So, come next holiday season, you'll be able to tune in and tune out without being blown away.
CALM Act approved by Congress, should make TV commercials slightly less obnoxious
We did say it'd take an Act of Congress to lower the volume on televisual commercials and, shockingly enough, that's exactly what we've got now. The House of Representatives has given its nod of approval to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which, having already cleared the Senate, is now on its way to President Obama's desk for final validation. Once signed into effect, the new legislation will require that all advertisers modulate their volume down so it's no higher than that of the program you're watching, and it'll be the FCC's duty to ensure that they all adhere to the new rule. A year's leniency will be allowed for all those who struggle with figuring out how to turn it down from 11, but after that we should all be able to watch the dying medium that is live television without dreading the commercial breaks.
SoundMeter for iPhone
Do you need to make basic sound level measurements? For example, do you want to prove that your next door neighbor really is playing music loud enough to make your ears bleed?Faber Acoustical is coming to your rescue with their US$19.99 SoundMeter for iPhone. They discovered that both the built-in and headset microphones of the iPhone have a flat enough frequency response to make them useful for measuring sound levels. To quote the technical part of their press release, "SoundMeter measures average sound levels with fast, slow, and impulse time weightings. Peak, maximum, and equivalent sound levels are also available. All sound levels may be measured with Flat, A, or C frequency weighting." Got that?Faber notes that SoundMeter doesn't meet ANSI or IEC standards for precision sound level meters, but it works very well as an inexpensive level meter for hobbyists. They recommend not using the built-in mic on first-generation iPhones (the headset may be used instead), and SoundMeter should be calibrated prior to use.Faber Acoustical also produces two other really impressive iPhone apps, SignalScope and SignalSuite. SoundMeter for iPhone is available in the App Store now (click opens iTunes). [via prMac]
Samsung's silent and speedy SpinPoint S166 series of disks
Samsung is offering-up a heap of marketing spin along side their new 3.5-inch SpinPoint S166 series of hard disk drives. This time however, there's real truth to their ballyhoo. The new series of SATA 3.0Gbps drives feature a 7,200rpm spin, 8MB buffer, and manage to damp the noise level down to a mere 24/27.5 decibels at idle/seek. That's damn quiet for traditional desktop storage spinning at that speed. Watch for the drives to ship worldwide in 80GB and 160GB capacities sometime this month.
