I was recently asked to join an expert round about hearing loss. The question is what tips I would give about hearing aids. See my answer here.
All posts by Helga Velroyen
How to use Bluetooth Hearing Aids with Linux
It’s been a while since there was new content of this page, but I have something for you. As I seem to be one of the few hearing aid users that uses Bluetooth hearing aids with Linux operating systems on my computer, I am getting random emails about how to make it work.
I thought it might be nice to actually write that down for everyone, hence I am hereby publishing a tutorial: How to use Bluetooth Hearing Aids with Linux.
You also find this in my newly introduced “Resources” menu item at the top.
I hope this is useful for you. Give me feedback about it (see Contact)!
What sucks about Bluetooth Hearing Aids?
A while ago I wrote an ode to Bluetooth hearing aids and described how they changed my life. While that is totally true, it is not the whole truth. Not everything is super cool about Bluetooth hearing aids. In this article I’ll list the annoying quircks that you might encounter when when you buy Bluetooth hearing aids. While I still think they are an awesome piece of technology, I want you to have the full picture.
Note: I assume that most of these problems are not necessarily problems of the implementation in the hearing aids itself. A lot things things that are annoying are due to Bluetooth itself, how it is implemented in the sending device (the phone, the laptop) and how other devices in the room might interfere with the hearing aids. Hence I am not necessarily blaming the hearing aid manufacturers here, but if there is something they can do about these things, I would be grateful for an update.
Continue reading What sucks about Bluetooth Hearing Aids?How Bluetooth Hearing Aids changed my life
While this might be unusal for my American-English speaking audience, I am the type of person who uses phrases like “changed my life” only for things that literally changed my life. Life-changing events happen usually not that frequent, but today I want to talk about one of them. Late 2019 I got my new hearing aids, the Phonak Audeo Marvels. Those have built-in Bluetooth technology and that really changed my life.
Continue reading How Bluetooth Hearing Aids changed my lifeStar Wars for all
I am a bit late to the party, but I found this super wholesome video (related to this blog’s topic). Don’t blame me if you got something in your eye afterwards.
Why rechargeable Hearing Aids aren’t there yet
When I tested hearing aids for my latest purchase late last year (2019), I was specifically curious about hearing aids with rechargeable batteries. Nowadays several manufacturers offer those. I wanted to do my part for the environment, and hence not having to buy new batteries all the time was on my wish list. However, it turns out that the offering of hearing aids with rechargeable batteries on the market does not do it for me yet. Sadly, it seems I have to wait till the next cycle. See my report.
Continue reading Why rechargeable Hearing Aids aren’t there yetReview: Phonak Audéo Marvel
A while ago I had the chance to test Phonak’s Audéo Marvel hearing aids. In Europe, they are one of two hearing aid models which provide built-in Bluetooth streaming for Android. Built-in here means that no additional physical adapter is needed to connect the hearing aids to the phone. Here’s my review.
Continue reading Review: Phonak Audéo MarvelReview: ReSound LiNX Quattro
I recently had the pleasure of testing ReSound’s hearing aids LiNX Quattro. These are one of the few hearing aids on the European market that offer streaming via built-in Bluetooth and support Android phones. Built-in here means that no physical adapter is needed to connect the hearing aids to the phone. Here’s my review.
Continue reading Review: ReSound LiNX QuattroMusic Not Impossible
I recently stumbled upon this video about an awesome project: a tactile harness with various vibrating parts designed to experience music “physically”. Watch the video of the story here:
Although designed with the Deaf and hard of hearing in mind, I find this a really awesome idea for anyone. I think anyone who loves music might be interested into experience it on an even more intensive level. I would be very curious to try this out 🙂
My take on Hearables
Recently I was interviewed by Peggy Sylopp, head of the research project “Hear how you like to hear“. The project is about people’s view and need of hearables and Peggy gave me the opportunity to express my opinion here. I enjoyed the conversation very much, I hope you do too. Here’s the video (in German):
This was published as part of an article in the “Make” magazine and on heise.de: