telephone

[maryannemoll]

hi! question again, please. can i use my ibook G3 laptop as a telephone?

if not, what do i need to have before i can do this?

thanks.

[jorweeck]

what do you mean by your G3 turning into a phone? Can you give an example of it?

[Kenneth]

Wow, thats the first time I've heard anybody ask this.

Well, I'm not sure if your iBook has an internal mic, probably not. So you need a USB mic like iMic. As to dialing... hmmm, I don't know any software that can do this aside from the fax feature...

Why would you want to do this anyway? Why not just get one of those small cheap portable telephone sets complete with small head sets at Greenhills?

[maryannemoll]

well, my G3 has a built in microphone and it has speakers too, and can accomodate an audio out jack. and it haas a modem, which i sometimes use for fax. so it can dial for fax and can dial for dial-up internet, too.

i was wondering if i can just use it as a phone. like, dial manually from a telephone software or something, and then hold a conversation with someone like i would do when on a regular phone. para di na palit ng palit ng unit (phone, computer, phone, computer, ad infinitum.)

[maryannemoll]

i have an internal mic. i use it to record voice narrations on powerpoint.

[maryannemoll]

it sounds silly nga, ano? he he. i just think that it could be done.

and even if i get the el cheapo phone with headset thingee, it's still another phone. i'd like to see if i can turn my laptop into a phone. ('cause it sure as hell can turn into a lot of things.) :lol:

[penmanila]

think she's talking about voice over internet ptotocol (voIP) or internet telephony. am not so sure how well this has been implemented for the mac, if at all, but i think directx has some experience with this.

[extremyks]

or just plain speakerphone

[jorweeck]

You have a point Mary. ^_^ but I doubt there's a software for that.

[Mykolant]

There's a group called Netvoice (http://www.netvoice.com.ph/) and they allow voice networks to run on standard and distributed IP-based networks.

They have a free calling software which can be downloaded from their site. Net2Phone CommCenterSM is software that allows you to place low cost phone calls from your computer to a telephone or another computer.

Unfortunately, its an .exe file so it works for PCs only.

Hopefully, Netvoice would be smart enough to offer a downloadable software for Mac users.