Hearing aids and the iPhone - Tip of the day

Did you know that the iPhone uses US FCC Hearing Aid compatibility ratings? Given a value from one (least compatible) to four (most compatible), the iPhone is rated on a per-network/per-bandwidth basis for both acoustic coupling (standard hearing aids) and inductive coupling (telecoil hearing aids).

The iPhone 4 offers perfect "4" hearing aid scores on the 3G network (850/1900 MHz) and on Verizon's CDMA network. When operating using 2G networks, the iPhone experiences some quality loss, particularly with acoustic coupling on 2G networks at 1900MHz, where it drops from a 3 down to a 2 rating.