SoundOut The experience of using your headphone can sometimes become a little stressful if you become isolated from your immediate environment. Someone calling, the doorbell ringing, a baby crying and many other situations can all be missed because the music or audiobook you are listening to with headphones has isolated you from these sounds.
Now there is SoundOut! A neat app for your iPhone or iPod Touch 2G or higher. You can download the app from the store into your device and your headphone experience will change significantly.
This is how SoundOut works. While you are listening to your headphones, SoundOut is listening to everything else using the integrated microphone on your headset or on the iPhone. When SoundOut detects a sound significantly louder than the general sound level in the area it mutes the music, then plays through the headphone the last moment of sound prior to the mute. For example, if someone in your house calls out “Charlie dinner time”, the music stops or mutes in the headphones, and you will hear a moment of “Charlie dinner time”, then a preset period of silence, followed by an automatic restart of the music.
A great idea from one of our customers is to use SoundOut to listen for the phone while working and listing to music.
You can also make your own sound to interrupt the music.
SoundOut is adjustable to allow for a personal experience:
The first slider adjusts the volume of sound needed to activate the SoundOut; the second slider adjusts the length of time the SoundOut mutes before resuming normal playback.
SoundOut v1.1 FAQ (revised March, 2011)
Q: Why does my audio playback sound different on an original iPhone?
A: The on-board microphone of the original iPhone samples sound at 8 kHz, and in play-and-record mode (the mode SoundOut uses), audio playback uses the same sample rate as the microphone sample rate. To get around this difficulty, connect audio accessories which contain a microphone to the headset jack on the original iPhone By using a microphone attached to the headset jack, the audio sample rate should be significantly higher. A specific accessory example is the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic, but there are other accessories that would probably work as well.
Q: How do you monitor the environment for sound?
A: When we monitor the environment for sound, we make up to two 30-second recordings that are examined for sound above a certain threshold. When SoundOut is terminated, we delete the 30 second recordings.
Q: Why does the SoundOut background become red and why does the title display “SoundOut Monitor Disabled”?
A: SoundOut was designed for use on a stationary surface. If SoundOut detects that the iPhone or iPod Touch is moving, the SoundOut monitor function is disabled. SoundOut monitoring will resume when the iPhone or iPod Touch remains still for a few moments.
Q: Why doesn't SoundOut resume during or after the title displays "SoundOut Monitor Disabled"?
A: When the SoundOut monitor function is disabled, all previous timers set to resume audio playback are cancelled.
Q: Why does playback pause when I snag my shirt with the microphone?
A: Snagging the microphone generates a loud sound which is interpreted as an interruption most of the time. One can use headphones without attached microphones while using the on-board microphone within the iPhone to get around this difficulty. This technique is recommended only for the iPhone 3G and higher or iPod Touch 2G and higher.
Q: Could SoundOut integrate with third party music services such as Pandora?
A: SoundOut uses libraries that are published by Apple to access songs available through the iPod app. While we have investigated technically whether code libraries are available from third party music service providers, at this point, we have no plans to enhance SoundOut.