Whether it’s a movie theater, dinner party, or your annual review at work, there are times when you definitely don’t want your mobile ringing out. Thanks to a bunch of hidden features and apps, it doesn’t have to happen to you. Here are three simple ways to keep your phone’s disturbances in line.

Mac: Not all apps have the same base volume, and sometimes one app likes to really scream at you while another is too soft. Volume Mixer allows you to independently control the volume of apps.

If you can’t hear the dialog in a particular movie or your ears are suddenly assaulted with blaring music, you need to be able to adjust your computer’s volume as quickly as possible—with a trackpad gesture, for example. With the aid of a third-party utility you can get this set up pretty easily, and we’ll show you…

Finally, after being in the works for about a year, the FCC has enacted a ban on unbearably loud television ads. You know, ads like this, or even this.

Battery and volume indicators are the bane of my existence—they never work as expected! Sure, there are complicated issues at work such as logarithmic scales and perception, but those excuses don't ease my headache. [Reddit via Geekosystem]

Clearly, this is not the best Apple launch in history: After the pre-order debacle, the yellow tinted screens, the pixel constellations, and the antenna problems, now it's the turn for the swapped volume buttons. Oh, you Foxconn rascals, you! [9-to-5]

It can suck having to listen to the sounds blasting from other people's computer speakers. But no matter how bad the music or how annoying the game sounds, I don't think anyone's gotten stabbed over the issue until this kid.

A newly published Apple patent reveals that the company has worked out a system that would auto-adjust the volume of the iPhone or MacBook speakers based on the levels of ambient noise.

It's been a while since we brought you some news from Ultimate Ears (the cat eating through the cable to my UE Super.Fi's doesn't count, sadly). But now UE has released its newest offering, and it's for the kids: the Loud Enough earphones. "They've gone barking mad!" you might say, citing expense and the potential…

A recently uncovered Apple patent details the possibility for automatic volume control in iPods, which we assume Apple hopes will safeguard them from legal action, whilst protecting the hearing of frequent users. The safety measure will determine how long the music player has been in use, and at what volume; if it…

Dolby's Volume technology (capital V) is designed to be added to TVs, DVDs, and other equipment in order to normalize volumes when watching TV. Instead of being bombarded by loud ads—purposely introduced by ad makers to have volume only on the LOUD end of the range—Dolby Volume makes sure all sound gets outputted at…