| Gordon Henderson 2007-12-14, 1:11 pm |
| In article <5sfb6aF189bgjU1@mid.individual.net>,
Ivor Jones <ivor@despammed.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>"Gordon Henderson" <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote in
>message news:fjtf5q$23oq$1@energise.enta.net
>: : In article <L6ydnYql-aE1dPzanZ2dnUVZ8umdnZ2d@pipex.net>,
>: : Michael Chare <MunderscoreNEWS@chareDOTorg.uk> wrote:
>: :
>: : : I've yet to try using a laptop as a telephone but the
>: : : laptop has a speaker and a microphone so it might
>: : : work!
>: :
>: : Don't.
>
>I disagree, see below.
So you'd rather sit in a room with the sound coming out of the speakers
for everyone to hear and shouting into the on-board microphone, praying
to high heaven that there will be no echo then?
>: : Get yourself a cheap USB "phone" and use that instead,
>: : or even a headset to plug into the laptops audop
>: : sockets, although I've had issues withthat as laptop
>: : audio hardware is "iffy" at best. (Or maybe I just have
>: : cheap laptops!)
>: :
>: : The cheapest I found recently was to buy a tesco
>: : package (or any "skype usb phone) and throw the CD,
>: : etc. away and just use the hardware, but that was
>: : awhile back, so things might have improved by then.
>: :
>: : The biggest issue with a USB "phone" is that the keypad
>: : probably won't work unless you're using their own
>: : software, but it's not much hassle to use the on-screen
>: : keypad of the various packages - eg. Zoiper, xlite, etc.
>
>As someone who does this on a semi-regular basis, I can tell you that a
>USB phone is not much good. I get far better results with a headset and
>the onboard soundcard in my laptop.
Good for you. Both my laptops seem to have rubbish audio hardware
(actually it's the microphone in thats more rubbish) and headsets (even
a posh Plantronics one) really aren't good at all, but the cheap USB
"phone" I have is excellent.
Gordon
|