Mobile phones can often be a pain in the neck, but some can also now produce a distinct pain in the ear, Sneak has learned. No, not the monophonic mangling that is the latest pop-chart ring-tone, but a glitch in Siemens 65-series handsets that can cause them to emit an ear-splitting warning tone. "Because of a software error, if a telephone call is automatically cut off because the battery has run down, the disconnection melody could possibly start to play loudly," Siemens has warned. How loudly? "In extreme cases, this volume could lead to hearing damage," Siemens confesses. So quite loud then.

01 Sep 2004