Joe Auricchio

Sharp’s new 904SH 3g phone has a VGA display

Yes, folks, VGA. As in 640×480 pixel. On a cellphone.

Mobile is truly coming. It’s already in Japan, it just hasn’t broken here yet. The technology is rapidly arriving, both in client capability and connections. We only need some decent business models to make the mobile internet explode. (I’ll probably write more about this soon)

We’ve come a long way in a short few years from my Treo’s 320×320 (which is unbearably painful for pretty much every site on the web except Google.com). 640×480 landscape will be quite nice.

Unfortunately, this means we web designers need to relearn all the old habits and forget the “everybody has 1024″ mindset of the last few years. While that’s true for most desktops, the world is changing, and desktops are no longer the only thing that matters.

As reported in the GoogleBlog, Google Talk will now interoperate with all Jabber (XMPP) servers. This rocks. This rocks a lot, folks.

We’re one big step closer to a free and open IM system.

Get everybody you know to start using Google Talk or Jabber.

An article on yesterday’s Slashdot warns of the dangers of hearing loss from earbuds.

I’ve played some music in my time, and a I’ve done a whole lot of listening, usually with headphones. My father used to run a small recording studio out of our home, so I’m acquainted with the dangers of volume.

I recently measured the decibel levels I listen at, and found I’m usually between 70 and 80, which should be fairly safe. The article mentions an audiologist found people in the wild listening at 110-120 decibels. I tried to turn my headphones up to that level and they simply would not go that high; they topped out around 95dB. I tried listening at that level. It was far, far too loud. I can’t imagine how anybody could enjoy that. I certainly can’t imagine how anybody could enjoy four times that volume. (115dB – 95dB = 20dB; each 10dB = twice the perceived loudness)

I have been guilty of really cranking it up now and then, especially in my car. Mostly good ’70s rock and roll (Chicago, Vanilla Fudge, Ten Years After, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida) and some modern stuff: tunes that are meant to be loud, dammit!. But not really that loud, and for a few minutes at most. We’re going for “powerful”, not “deafening”.

Have you ever heard 110 decibels? It’s immensely loud. 120dB is frightening. But even 85 can cause damage.

So folks… turn your earbuds down! Better yet, go get yourself an HD 201. Your ears will thank you.