telephone that works with iBook?

Hi. Does anyone know a model of telephone that can be connected to
landline (through RJ11) and also can be plugged in into iBook and act as
microphone + speaker?

The difficulty is: iBook have a special socket for both audio playback
and capture (unlike other notebooks that has two sockets one for
microphone and the other for playback).

It would be great if you also tell me what key word to use to search for
such compatible telephone. I also wish to know the name of the kind of
special jack socket on iBook (is it "Nexus TP120"?) and whether or not
it's compatible with iPod (so I can also look for 'ipod' compatible
product).

Zhang Weiwu <zhangweiwu.RemoveThis@realss.com> wrote:

> Hi. Does anyone know a model of telephone that can be connected to
> landline (through RJ11) and also can be plugged in into iBook and act as
> microphone + speaker?
>
> The difficulty is: iBook have a special socket for both audio playback
> and capture (unlike other notebooks that has two sockets one for
> microphone and the other for playback).

You have been misinformed.

No iBook has an external audio input.

The audio output is a standard headphone jack, with the addition of a
composite video output pin in early iBook G3 models (September 2000 to
April 2002). The video pin occupies half of the area normally occupied
by the ground pin on a 3.5mm plug. If a standard audio plug is used, the
video pin is shorted to ground and the computer disables the video
output.

If you want audio input with an iBook you typicaly need a USB peripheral
like the Griffin iMic, which has microphone and line level inputs.

Once you have that, you will be dealing with two standard 3.5mm sockets
so presumably you can find a compatible phone.

> It would be great if you also tell me what key word to use to search for
> such compatible telephone. I also wish to know the name of the kind of
> special jack socket on iBook (is it "Nexus TP120"?) and whether or not
> it's compatible with iPod (so I can also look for 'ipod' compatible
> product).

Apple supplies the 4-pin cables which are used with some iPod and iBook
models. I haven't seen an official specification of the connector type,
but it is a moot point as it doesn't have an audio input pin.

--
David Empson
dempson.RemoveThis@actrix.gen.nz