Methods and apparatus to enforce a power off state of an audience measurement device during shipping

A tangible machine readable storage device comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

• place a media detector in a shipping power mode in which the media detector is at least partially powered down;
• collect audio data at the media detector;
• compare a first threshold to a difference between a first characteristic of the audio data at a first frequency and a second characteristic of the audio data at a second frequency;
• determine whether the comparison of the first threshold and the difference indicates that the media detector is likely in a package;
• and
• maintain the media detector in the shipping power mode when the comparison indicates that the media detector is likely in the package.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a media detector to collect information for identification of media to which the apparatus is exposed;
• a memory to store the information collected by the media detector;
• and
• a packaging detector to:
• collect audio data;
• compare a first threshold to a difference between a first characteristic of the audio data at a first frequency and a second characteristic of the audio data at a second frequency;
• and
• when the comparison of the first threshold and the difference indicates that the apparatus is likely in a package, power down the media detector and maintain power to the memory.