Made for iPhone Hearing Aids – A Game Changer for One Man

By Nobuko Ito, Au.D.

Love Story

When I met my husband in 1999, I was really astounded. Well aside from his rugged good looks and his hearty laugh, I was really surprised that he did not even own a cell phone. He had a “beeper.” You know, one of those little square things that people used to clip on to their belt? It would go off with a buzz and when you looked at it, it would have a little digital message on its display. The sender would put in a phone number for you to call, or some short message. That was “high tech” during the early 1990’s, but by 1999 everyone had a cell phone. “Nope,” he declared proudly when I asked him if he owned one. In response to my surprised look, he said “don’t need one.” As I was to discover over the years, he had a stubborn streak of independence and refusal to follow trends. But trends have a way of becoming everyday life, especially when we find out how convenient they are. Little conveniences like sending a short “I’m on my way” text or finding each other inside of a store became indispensable tools to make life easier. Once he started using it, he took off! 

A Modern Man

Today, my husband is never without his iPhone, and he keeps the iPad by him at home. His new hearing aids are paired to both the iPhone and iPad, and these are his favorite activities:

1. Listening to rock music streaming to his hearing aids from his iPhone. He comments that music sounds really good, “the way it used to sound” for him. 
2. Watching replays on his iPad of his favorite team, the UCLA Bruins. Since the sound is streaming from the iPad to his hearing aids, he can do this while our sons are doing homework without disturbing them at all. 
3. While driving, he streams the GPS directions directly to his hearing aids from his iPhone. This way he has no interference from car noise or wind noise and he can understand the voice at a low volume. 
4. Getting phone calls from his iPhone streaming into his hearing aids. The incoming call is in stereo and is “calibrated” to his hearing loss, so it is super clear for him. He can carry on a conversation on the phone without ever saying “what?” and the conversation is private (he didn’t know that everyone could overhear every word from the caller before, when he used to turn up the volume in order to understand them).  
5. Watching movies on his iPad at the airport. Instead of killing time waiting for departures, he actually looks forward to sitting at the gate and watching movies streaming to his hearing aids. “Really clear!” he proclaimed the first time he did it. 

My husband continues to surprise me. Who would have thought? Instead of living with the strain of hearing loss, he has chosen to embrace and enjoy new technology. So proud of him, my modern man! To find out more, visit Bluetooth hearing aids.