Having your iPhone (or other iDevice) blasting at full volume is not only annoying for others, it can potentially damage your hearing. If you’re using an iPhone (or iPod), you can restrict and lock the volume with a simple tweak. More »
We’ve all been there: you’re starting up your computer at night, or in class, and you cringe in embarrassment as your computer’s startup sound reverberates loudly through the room. Here’s how to prevent that from ever happening again. More »
Mac: While there are plenty of free utilities out there to record audio, few let you record system audio without having to jump through hoops. Piezo simplifies the process with a one-click method to record audio from any application. More »
Windows only: Free application Sweet Dreams adjusts the system volume on your PC on a schedule, perfect for letting the music lull you to sleep without leaving it on all night long. More »
Windows only: Turn off Windows clinks and clanks while you click around your computer in one shot using the simple SoundOff utility. When you want to listen to music without hearing the sounds of your operating system, click the SoundOff system tray icon to switch Windows’ sound scheme or turn Windows sounds on or off. Of course SoundOff’s only useful if this is something you do often; otherwise you can hit up Control Panel, go to the Sounds and Multimedia applet, select the Sounds tab, then change to No Sounds. SoundOff is a free download for Windows.
SoundOff [via Life Rocks 2.0]Linux only: Control the volume of individual Linux applications and other sound-producing items with PulseAudio Volume Control, a free download for Linux systems. That in itself is a pretty handy feature, given how often many of us watch and listen to streaming, Flash-based media, but PulseAudio’s volume control applet remembers your settings when you log in, lets you kill sound support to particular apps, and control microphone and other input volumes in a similar manner .The Volume Control applet requires use of the PulseAudio sound driver, enabled by default in Ubuntu 8.04 (now in beta) but installable in nearly any Linux distro. PulseAudio Volume Control is a free download, available in source packages and in some repositories; hit the via link for the Ubuntu installation line. PulseAudio Volume Control [via Tombuntu]
Windows only: Last week we highlighted how to mute your Mac on a schedule, and this week weblog Inspect My Gadget details how to set up similar functionality in Windows. The post suggests a few tools that might do the job, then settles on adding a scheduled task to Windows to mute your computer using a freeware utility called Mute. It requires a minimum of setup but works perfectly, which is always nice. Like the idea of all that automation? Check out how you can get more from Windows Scheduled Tasks. How-to: Schedule your speakers to automatically mute overnight [Inspect My Gadget]
