It pains me to say, but I am a bit hard of hearing – must be all the years I spent playing games, listening to music, and watching movies with my headset on, the volume turned up all the way to eleven. The problem with being hard of hearing is that you don’t, or at least I don’t want others to notice it. How many times of you saying “pardon, what was that?” until the people around you will pick up that you’re a bit hard of hearing?

If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPod, you can let the Apple-developed device help you out. All you have to do is get the right app and your iPhone can become your own personal hearing aid. Such an app is the Ginger Labs-developed soundAMP R.

Ginger Labs explains how the app works:

“Sounds are picked up by the microphone, amplified and processed in realtime by soundAMP, and sent to your earbuds. You may use a headset with microphone; these come with most Apple devices. Or you may use the built-in mic simply by using headphones. The built-in mics on these devices are directional and produce higher quality sound. You're in control with soundAMP. You can adjust volume by sliding the volume button. You can adjust background sound levels for each situation by moving the Zoom slider.”

Remember I said above that if you say “pardon, what was that?” too many times others will realize you’re a bit hard of hearing? The nice thing about using soundAMP R to turn your iPhone into your personal hearing aid is that you can tap the Instant replay button and the app will repeat what was just said. The app doesn’t just amplify sound, it records sound as well. Which means you can also use it to record whatever you want – meetings, lectures, anything.

If you would like to get the soundAMP R app, you can grab it from the App Store.
If you would like to learn more about the soundAMP R app, visit the Ginger Labs site.