FDA’s hearing-aid change is music to ears of the frugal
Why are the new over-thecounter hearing aids so much cheaper than the traditional kind? Because you don’t have to pay an audiologist.
Two-thirds of a hearing aid’s typical $5,000 price goes for an audiologist’s professional fitting, follow-up treatment and maintenance. But last October, the Food and Drug Administration’s ruling went into effect, allowing you to buy them without a medical exam, prescription or professional fitting.
The Bose company, wellknown for home theater and earbuds, gets great reviews for its hearing aids. Their over-the-counter Lexie models range in price from $749 to $999. Around 97% of users say they can hear music better, including treble tones they haven’t heard in years, according to lexiehearing.com. Around 91% say they can hear conversations better.
Jabra is another great choice. They also have a good reputation for audio equipment, and offer a free hearing test at JabraEnhance.com. But be prepared. When my friend and I tried it with a headset first, as they recommended, we were shocked by our poor scores. When he switched to earbuds designed for music, his rating went from the lowest to the second highest. I switched to a bare phone pressed against my ear and zoomed up to a rating of “good.” So it makes a huge difference what equipment you use.
The Jabra Enhance Select, for $1,195, is a medical-grade hearing aid that’s practically invisible. It comes with an audiologist’s help, as well as a 100-day free trial. The Jabra and the Bose work with an app on your smartphone.
ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT
Teachers are up in arms about the possibility of cheaters using artificial intelligence on tests. But the
website they’re talking about, chat.openai.com, or ChatGPT, is far from perfect. Even when it’s accurate, it isn’t up to date. Its information only extends to 2021.
The website CNET allowed AI to write 75 articles on finance, according to Engadget. But the articles were riddled with mistakes. For instance, instead of saying that you’d earn $300 on a $10,000 investment at 3% interest, they said you’d earn $10,300.
WEIRD STUFF
My brother’s FaceTime video call was hijacked. His friend saw a tough-looking guy instead of my brother’s face, and the guy yelled obnoxious criticisms at him. We looked all over the web for an explanation and couldn’t find one. But I did find other FaceTime complaints, like this one:
“In the early hours of the morning I received a synchronized FaceTime call from nine mobile numbers at once, with someone laughing at the other end. I cannot delete it,” said a guy on Apple’s support site. Apple says this can happen if you open mysterious emails from unknown people, download files that are not Apple-verified, or “jailbreak” your phone, which involves unauthorized tinkering.
NEW PHONE DATA TRANSFER
A reader writes: “If I get a newer phone, how can I transfer the data onto it? It makes my hair hurt to think of reentering all of that.”
No worries. Just about everything transfers automatically, and all the apps get reinstalled, as long as you’re using your phone’s backup system. On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name or picture, choose iCloud and make sure “iCloud backup” is on. Android users can open the Settings app, select Google, then Backup.
But you may also have to turn on backup for apps outside the Apple or Google universe. In WhatsApp, for example, if you didn’t agree to a backup when you installed the app, tap the three dots in the top right, then “settings.” Then tap “chats” and “chat backup.”
SCROLLING SCREENSHOT
Normally, a screen capture only goes so far. It can leave out the best part of the text messages you want to save. So here’s how I captured everything on my Motorola phone when scrolling. I held down the lower-volume button, pressed the power button, and tapped the double-arrow icon on the lower left of my screen. Then I tapped a red button to stop the capture. On other Android phones, you have to keep tapping to keep the capturing going. For iPhones, see CNET’s “How to take a scrolling screenshot on your iPhone.”
MONITORING THE ELDERLY
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon have invented a way to monitor the elderly without invading their privacy. See how it works at DensePose.org.
For example, rather than stick a video camera in the bathroom to be sure Grandma is safe, DensePose somehow uses two routers. What you see is a kind of cartoon outline of her shape as she moves, filled in with grid lines and splashes of color to make it fully three-dimensional. The cost is only $60, much less than LiDAR and other radar systems, which are around $700.
YOU SNOOZE, YOU WIN
In Gmail, my favorite button is the “snooze.” It looks like a little picture of a clock.
It’s great for emails I’m not ready to answer. If I click the clock, I can choose any date for their return. Sometimes, it’s something I don’t have to tackle for a month or more.
INTERNUT
“Robot chisel sculpts masterpieces.” Search on that phrase to see a video of the “Robotor” in action at Mashable.com. The Robotors, based in Italy, make great works of art. They look something like the works of the Old Masters. Joy Schwabach can be reached by email at joy.schwabach@gmail.com.