I had a nearly disastrous event with the Amber Alerts on the iPhone--
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.
Amber alerts on the phone are foolish. Either you are not in a place to do something about it, or you are doing an activity where the phone would be distracting.
Amber alerts playing at full volume without any regard as to what the current output device actually is is exactly why I have them disabled on my phone now.
Same thing happened to me a few years ago. I have a giant subwoofer sound system in my car and usually play music loud on the freeway. That alert scared the hell out of me. Easily could have caused an accident!
It’s a good idea in theory. I turned it off after I had amber alerts for people very far away and for missing children for years and was getting 1-2 per week.
Too many alarms leads to alarm fatigue. Ultimately the recipient of a message determines its priority not the sender.
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.
I turned off all these alerts, finding the shock of the "flash flood warning" klaxon much more hazardous to my wellbeing than the chance of being swept away by the raging floodwaters of Philadelphia.
Safety features in headphones seem rather lacking in general.
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.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 18.1 ms ] threada 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.
And that devil as you have said is-- context. If my velocity is over 5 mph, perhaps I don't need the loudest sound there ever was? :)
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.