What is the thing that resembles a camera shoe under the handset holder found on telephones with a handset used for?
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.
It's a slot on a camera that you can use to attach accessories, like a microphone or flash. A hot shoe provides power to the accessory, a cold shoe does not.
Its a non-powered version of a hot shoe, both of which are the thing you use to mount an external flash that's on the top of a lot of (all?) full sized cameras.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'm pretty old and even have a camera that uses these things, and took a class on photography; never heard them called a shoe until reading this thread. 🤷🏻♂️
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.
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
Not sure if this is what you’re describing, but phones like the one you pictured have a reversible tab for use if you mount the phone to a wall - if the tab is sticking up, it keeps the receiver from falling off the cradle.
Here’s a site selling them, but it has a diagram showing where it’s located:
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 😆
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!
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.
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.