I have noticed phones with a handset (like the one in the image) have a little cover that resembles something like a cold camera shoe under the bottom of the handset’s top speaker holder. Is there a use for it? It has a line bump in the middle, but it doesn’t go all the way from both sides, it leaves a gap. I have also seem some of them have extra space on the top of the cover, and some don’t.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If you’re talking about this thing, it serves two purposes. It is the hook that opens and closes the line (hangs up and picks up the phone), and it is used by this thing

    to keep the handset from falling off the base when it’s mounted on a wall.

    • hperrin@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Or maybe you meant this thing. Yeah, it keeps the handset in when the base is mounted vertical. You can see that it’s slanted in the back.

      That’s so it slides in and out on this other slanted lip on the handset instead of getting caught on it. You can take the handset off just by pulling it directly away from the wall.

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Btw, on Trimline phones it is reversible for if you’re not hanging it on a wall. It looks like this when you pull it out.

      • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Exactly this. It’s called a “hook” and when the phone is “off the hook” that’s the thing it is off of. Being off the hook means the phone is powered up and connected to the local loop. When the phone is “on hook” that means it is disconnected from the loop and awaiting the pulsed ring signal.

        Desk phones have a reversible hook so that it keeps the button depressed when the phone is in the cradle but doesn’t catch when you attempt to pick it up.

        On modem signals in the old days, the + was equivalent to “flashing” the hook, or quickly disconnecting and reconnecting to the loop, and the AT command H1 told the modem to go “on hook” while H0 told it to go “off hook”.

        Back before the DTMF network, when everyone used pulse modulated phones, the “pulses” were caused by going in and off hook in a specific pattern. You could actually make a phone call from a rotary payphone by flashing the hook in the pattern that mimicked the rotary dial pulsing the line as it rotated back to home position.

        In the really old days, the hand crank served much the same purpose, but actually supplied electricity to the local loop; when the phone was on hook (which was a big metal thing the earpiece sat in) someone else turning the crank would make all the phones on the loop ring; you picked up if the ring matched the number of rings for your extension.

        • hperrin@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yes! Another phone nerd!

          One small clarification. There’s not really anything special to the pulses for pulse dialing. One pulse for the number 1, all the way to nine pulses for number 9, and then ten pulses for a number 0.

          • froh42@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            In the 80s there was a way to cheat phone booths in Germany: With a small tool that had an adjustment screw you could position the hook switch to an exact position where the phone booth had already connected the line but did not yet power up the rest of the machinery (including coin counters)

            You could then call arbitrary nunbers by pulse dialing using the hook switch (the rotary dial was still powered down)

            Basically a EU pulse dial version of phreaking.

            My father, who died this year, used this a lot too make “free” calls in the 80s.

        • Mwalimu@baraza.africa
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          11 months ago

          Me, deep in the night, reading about modem signals and off the hook. I love forum threads. They have taught me more than I can imagine.

        • SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          So that’s how you used the old hand crank phones, I never know. I thought you turned the crank to get power into the phone and then told the person working the switch bord who you want is to talk to. And that when you were telling you sometimes needed to re turn the crank to get more power.

        • hperrin@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          And the even older design that didn’t even have a bell integrated in the base. The bell was in a separate bell box.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Or one of these real old designs that didn’t even have a bell. It has a buzzer that’s barely audible (it might even just be the phone’s speaker, idk). Also, the microphone and the earpiece aren’t in a convenient handset.

            This one is a replica made in probably the 1970s or 1980s. It’s funny, when it was made it was a replica of something vintage, but now it actually is vintage.

        • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 months ago

          Well, cannot be wall-mounted like the one in your picture but those phones did get wall-mounted in slightly different shape. 1000038469

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Like and follow for more astonishing technologies from bygone eras!

        (Do people really no longer have phones on their desks or what?)

  • XbSuper@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    You’re description only leaves me with more questions. I have no idea what you’re talking about, and therefore have no answer.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    Lots of people in this thread answering the question but they’re kind of just guessing what you’re talking about.

    Perhaps you could circle the bit in question because it’s either a holder for the headset or a way to mount the entire device onto a wall or something else depending on if we’ve interpreted your words correctly.

    • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      You probably grew up in the age of rotary phones too, hu? The last one I used was only … uh… 35 years ago, I think.

      • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        An old hack that not many knew was that you could tap the hang up switch to dial numbers. Example, tap 3 times = 3, tap 10 times = 0.

        Rotary phones did the same thing which is why you had to wait for the whole thing to spin back, it was tapping the line to dial out.

        • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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          11 months ago

          Trainer at my Judo club used that to call my parents with the gym-phone that had its disc locked with a padlock, when I got injured. He was great.

  • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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    11 months ago

    English is not my first language and I don’t understand what camera shoe mean. But I think I know what you’re asking for. That phones can be mounted on a wall and what you’re asking for is there so the handset doesn’t fall off.

    • yenahmik@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s ok. English is my first language and I don’t understand what OP means by “cold camera shoe.”

    • criticon@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      This is the camera shoe for a Sony DSLR

      Edit: note that this is a “hot” shoe because it has contacts that can power accessories. A cold shoe is just a mount. You can use to to attach a flash or a microphone for example

    • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Thank you for providing a source, even still I’ve never heard the words “cold camera shoe” before, and nowhere is it written in the screenshot you provided, but apparently some people in this thread know what a “cold camera shoe” means And I find this all very amusing.

      and additionally amusing that OP knew to use those words to describe the thing even though OP didn’t know what the thing was intended for! Cuz I mean I know what the thing is intended for but I never knew it was called a cold camera shoe 😆

      • FrickAndMortar@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, same! I thought I had a pretty good guess from the context, but “cold camera shoe” is a new term for me. Glad Lemmy has such a great community though, there are some awesome responses in this thread!

    • al177@lemmy.sdf.org
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      11 months ago

      The intersection of people who aren’t five figures into photography and know what a hot shoe is, and people who recognize a wall mount phone trend old.

      • pushECX@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        LOL, you definitely don’t have to be five figures into photography to know what a hot/cold shoe is. Most consumer and prosumer cameras have one.

        • al177@lemmy.sdf.org
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          11 months ago

          20 years ago the pocketable digital cameras that took over the consumer market didn’t have hot shoes. 30 years ago the compact point and shoot viewfinders that were the weapon of choice for vacationing didn’t have hot shoes. Today neither are relevant and are all outclassed by smartphones, and there is hardly a consumer camera market.

          You don’t have to spend five figures for that exposure, but it’s going to be an intentional hobby.

  • azdle@news.idlestate.org
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    11 months ago

    It’s for a hook to keep the handset on when the phone is mounted flat on a wall. It can usually be slid/folded down or removed when its not need.

  • oleorun@real.lemmy.fan
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    11 months ago

    It holds the receiver in place. Generally the ridged end is used for wall hanging installs, the flat end stores it away until needed since the desk is horizontal.