Apple’s volume limit indicates flaw, lawyers say

Apple Computer’s release Wednesday of a software update to limit the volume level of its iPod music player confirms the product is flawed, U.S. attorneys involved in a class action suit against the company said.

A free software update allows owners of the iPod nano and the latest models of standard-sized iPods to set a maximum sound volume level, including a setting that lets parents establish limits for their children’s devices, Apple said.

Attorneys from the firm of Hagens Berman Sobol & Shapiro, representing iPod owners in a class-action suit filed in January, claim that U.S. iPod users have not had access to the same protections offered European consumers in 2002, thus endangering the hearing of those users.

Although the lawyers welcomed the new limits, they say that the software update does not protect owners of earlier generations of iPods, nor other models, such as the iPod Shuffle. They say that Apple does little to educate consumers about the potential damage iPod use can do to hearing, with some models able to reach 130 decibels, they said.

In 2002, Apple limited the sound level of iPods sold in the European Union to 100 decibels to comply with a French law.