Tech Queries

Why do many headphone manufacturers say that they can damage hearing? Is it just a case of paranoia?
— Parakram Josh

Depending on how loud you listen to music and for what duration, a pair of headphones can lead to permanent hearing damage. The risk is higher with headphones than with loudspeakers because of the isolation and proximity between your eardrums and the speaker drivers.

Basically, the louder the sound, the less time it takes for the damage to occur. For example, a set of powerful headphones or earphones can even produce 110db of sound pressure, equivalent to what you would find in a discotheque with large speakers. Find out if the audio source you're using has a volume limiter function and use it .

My camera can click RAW images. What is the advantage of RAW over normal JPEG images?
— TM Menon

RAW images are uncompressed, and often used by professional photographers. JPEG files are compressed, and that’s why you’ll notice that they have a much smaller file size for the same image as compared to RAW. The advantage of JPEG is that they offer acceptable quality, wide compatibility and you can fit a lot more images onto a memory card. RAW images cannot be opened by normal image viewers, and the camera will usually include a disk with some software to view and edit RAW files.

If you can’t be bothered about opening and editing images, just stick with JPEG. The main advantage of the RAW format is that it offers a higher quality image, and a lot more room for you to post process the image on a computer.

What is the easiest way to convert videos to play on the iPod Touch?
— Rommi Jain

To convert video files specifically for the iPod Touch, head to www.videora.com and download the appropriate converter software. Apart from the iPod Touch, they also offer converters for other Apple devices like the iPhone (all versions), iPad, other mobile phones and game consoles.

The converter offers a ‘simple’ mode, where you don’t need to be bothered with any conversion settings; just select a file to convert, select a location to save it in and click ‘convert’ . Depending on the hardware of your computer, this can take time. You can also try getting the VLC Player app (by Applidium) from the App Store. You can then transfer videos without conversion to the iPod using iTunes.