Headphones, why 2.5mm? found 2.5->3.5 adapters Options

[yodabob]

OK, so here's another "weird" thang. The headphone jack on the SL6000 is a 2.5mm, not a 3.55mm which is the internationally recognized freakin' standard. I guess you could pound it in with a ball peen hammer, which I'm tempted to do, but there is an adapter available. Apparently the Treo 600 uses the same f****d up size, so here's a link to the stupid thing. Aaaarrrggghhhh !

http://www.handspring.com/products/Product...jhtml?id=410006

[smammon]

Well, seeing as we have some intelegence in the hardware here it would seem to just depend on the software. Considering what computers do it's not really a huge leap that they could switch what's connected to one or two conductors on a jack based on what software is running...

Heck, even with my amaturish "understanding" of electronics and audio signals I'd think that at headphone level audio (at most) you don't even have to make it switch. Logically, one conductor must be both mic input and a channel output so just cap (ok probably a bandpass filter since it's audio) the outupt side so you aren't driving that with mic audio. You could always let the output go to the mic side. Won't have any effect unless there is software attempting to record it. Might even be used as a kind of mixer to lay music behind a voiceover...

Just to prove it to myself I just tried it all again. Plugged in a $10 cellular headset and recorded a voice memo - then played it back. Pulled that out and inserted my radioshack adapter and stereo headphone (without closing the voice memo app) and launched the media player. Then proceded to listen to Clapton in stereo whilst launching Hancom and opening a file. The music didn't even skip - and that is something my 1.7gHz Windoze box can't seem to manage.