All this crap arguing about faxing aside, is there a real answer to this question about telephony? I would sure like to know if there's a way to use a Mac as a proper phone.
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How can it be that there is no program to allow me to use Mac as speakerphone?
- Thread starter radman2020
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All this crap arguing about faxing aside, is there a real answer to this question about telephony? I would sure like to know if there's a way to use a Mac as a proper phone.
imac as speakerphone
Radman2020, I'm not exactly sure what you are looking for in the way of a speakerphone or in fact what you mean by speakerphone. However, here is what I did when I took a distance education class and I had to interact with the professor and other class members during a 2 hour lecture and discussion:
I opened up an email account on google and I used their free telephone service to connect to the class. The telephone service is a part of your gmail account; you have to look for it; it is sort of hidden. Your iMac has a built in microphone and two speakers. It worked just fine for me and the google-phone service was at least as clear as my cell phone and my arm didn't get tired holding the phone for 2 hours. Hope this helps.
Radman2020, I'm not exactly sure what you are looking for in the way of a speakerphone or in fact what you mean by speakerphone. However, here is what I did when I took a distance education class and I had to interact with the professor and other class members during a 2 hour lecture and discussion:
I opened up an email account on google and I used their free telephone service to connect to the class. The telephone service is a part of your gmail account; you have to look for it; it is sort of hidden. Your iMac has a built in microphone and two speakers. It worked just fine for me and the google-phone service was at least as clear as my cell phone and my arm didn't get tired holding the phone for 2 hours. Hope this helps.
I just checked, Windows 7 does not have the same dialer application as windows XP. Windows XP allows for full voice and contact integration, windows 7 just dials the phone. Windows 8 doesn't have either.
There are work arounds to this according to the internet, but generally speaking, MS has also long abandoned voice calls. Especially considering Windows XP is no longer supported.
The OP indicated he is in the medical industry, and this makes sense. The medical industry operates about 10 years behind the time when it comes to technology. And rightfully so, they have to move ahead securely and safely. But that doesn't mean that it commonly used outside of the industry. Example is buying houses. Around 6 or 7 years ago, you often had to fax over contracts. Now you can do most of it via email and using authorized signatures. The vast majority of industries have moved away from them, or to online services that can do the same thing.
Although I do agree that they are in use by some places, if this is something that the OP was required to have; then he should have really spent some time verifying that it can do this job before plopping down his money. The problem is finding a current windows machine that can do it; without having to buy an external modem and 3rd party software.
Moving ahead with technology is very important, being tied to old items, regardless of their usefulness, can cause tons of problems. Yes, there are people out there that still use Windows 16 bit applications; and thus they stick with their old OS. I worked with a company that still ran their production lines on Apple IIe's; they had a stock of them for when one broke. Does this mean that Apple should keep making them? Heck no.
Years ago I worked for a company that made components for PC's. This was during the windows '95 era. We had a customer complaint that we didn't supply CPM drivers for our hardware. Not DOS, but CMP! Seriously the guy sounded just like the OP; there are tons of people using CMP and if you don't support it well you'll just go out of business. We later discontinued our DOS driver support, and had the same series of calls. Eventually the company was purchased by a much larger one.
The point is, often people don't see beyond their current needs, and assume that everyone else's needs are the same. They aren't. Progress has to be made, industries HAVE to move forward or fade away into obscurity. It is their job to predict the future, and move toward it. It is the consumer's job to follow or stick with what they are comfortable with, but if they chose the latter they have to realize that at some point, they will be obsoltetted.
There are work arounds to this according to the internet, but generally speaking, MS has also long abandoned voice calls. Especially considering Windows XP is no longer supported.
The OP indicated he is in the medical industry, and this makes sense. The medical industry operates about 10 years behind the time when it comes to technology. And rightfully so, they have to move ahead securely and safely. But that doesn't mean that it commonly used outside of the industry. Example is buying houses. Around 6 or 7 years ago, you often had to fax over contracts. Now you can do most of it via email and using authorized signatures. The vast majority of industries have moved away from them, or to online services that can do the same thing.
Although I do agree that they are in use by some places, if this is something that the OP was required to have; then he should have really spent some time verifying that it can do this job before plopping down his money. The problem is finding a current windows machine that can do it; without having to buy an external modem and 3rd party software.
Moving ahead with technology is very important, being tied to old items, regardless of their usefulness, can cause tons of problems. Yes, there are people out there that still use Windows 16 bit applications; and thus they stick with their old OS. I worked with a company that still ran their production lines on Apple IIe's; they had a stock of them for when one broke. Does this mean that Apple should keep making them? Heck no.
Years ago I worked for a company that made components for PC's. This was during the windows '95 era. We had a customer complaint that we didn't supply CPM drivers for our hardware. Not DOS, but CMP! Seriously the guy sounded just like the OP; there are tons of people using CMP and if you don't support it well you'll just go out of business. We later discontinued our DOS driver support, and had the same series of calls. Eventually the company was purchased by a much larger one.
The point is, often people don't see beyond their current needs, and assume that everyone else's needs are the same. They aren't. Progress has to be made, industries HAVE to move forward or fade away into obscurity. It is their job to predict the future, and move toward it. It is the consumer's job to follow or stick with what they are comfortable with, but if they chose the latter they have to realize that at some point, they will be obsoltetted.
I still have a phone next to my computer. To use the computer as a speakerphone never entered my mind. Why would I want to do that? I have to say when the technology to provide 'true' speakerphone capability has progressed so far that I can have a very small device sitting on my desk that has the sole function of providing awesome speakerphone capabilities. It even connects to a Bluetooth headset if I need it to, and it just rocks at doing its function. I don't want to burden my computer with yet more software that it has to juggle. I remember in the 'old days' when Symantec had WinFAX, and that software made the computer nearly unusable because it was such a hog. It didn't work all that well either, but it was cheaper than buying a dedicated fax machine at the time. I think, as I remember, WinFAX integrated with Outlook contacts and had some telephony capabilities, but it was such a pig that I ended up running it on a dedicated system, thus making the idea of a fax machine seem better in the long run...
But, yes! Time marches on. Old technology dies, or is discarded inspite of the best intentions of the company that produced it. Remember Zip drives? Talking about 5.25" floppy disks reminds me of the eight inch disks I used at my first job. Acoustic coupled modems too. RS-232, and IEEE 488 are largely gone now too. Windows 3x, and DOS machines are history. DEC PDP's and VAX's are too. That doesn't mean they are totally gone. People that still need this list of antiques can find some support 'out there' for some of it... It's nothing I'd want to be involved in.
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Hah! I remember CPM. What I wouldn't give for a program like pip now... Ahh, those 'good old days' when computers had 16k of RAM and ran at speeds that would drive people insane now...
But, yes! Time marches on. Old technology dies, or is discarded inspite of the best intentions of the company that produced it. Remember Zip drives? Talking about 5.25" floppy disks reminds me of the eight inch disks I used at my first job. Acoustic coupled modems too. RS-232, and IEEE 488 are largely gone now too. Windows 3x, and DOS machines are history. DEC PDP's and VAX's are too. That doesn't mean they are totally gone. People that still need this list of antiques can find some support 'out there' for some of it... It's nothing I'd want to be involved in.
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Hah! I remember CPM. What I wouldn't give for a program like pip now... Ahh, those 'good old days' when computers had 16k of RAM and ran at speeds that would drive people insane now...
If the OP is in the medical profession and wants to use the iMac as a speakerphone, wouldn't this compromise user privacy? You don't want people nearby to be able to listen in if you are discussing a patient's medical needs or history.
I recently had to register at a hospital in the West Suburban Boston area. The registration area was packed with desks and hospital agents and patients jammed together. While I was sitting there trying to give my info quietly, I could hear clear info fromt two different people sitting next to us giving out their personal private info, addresses, SS numbers, and medical problems. How in the world do the hospitals protect privacy when they practically broadcast the info?
I recently had to register at a hospital in the West Suburban Boston area. The registration area was packed with desks and hospital agents and patients jammed together. While I was sitting there trying to give my info quietly, I could hear clear info fromt two different people sitting next to us giving out their personal private info, addresses, SS numbers, and medical problems. How in the world do the hospitals protect privacy when they practically broadcast the info?