bob wrote:
Recliner wrote:
Clank wrote:
Basil Jet Wrote in message:
Thanks for that, but it doesn't change the fact that earphones with a
microphone in the cable *are* a mobile phone accessory.

I use mine with my laptop for Skype/Teams calls and the like as
often as I use them with my phone. (Actually, if it's the
microphone that is suddenly important, far more - I make voice
calls on my phone once in a blue moon.)

Yes, it's probably time to resurrect the old, prematurely-coined, PDA term
for what we still call phones.

The modern smart phone rolls the functions of PDA, mobile phone and
personal music player together into a single device, onto which is added
internet data connectivity. If you go back and look at the presentation
where Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone he makes a big play on this
bringing together of multiple previous category of devices into a single
thing. That the term phone has been the one that won out of the various
elements that went into what a modern phone does is something of an
accident of history.


Yes, indeed. I was thinking of the PDA term as originally promoted by Apple
in the early 1980s, which foresaw Alexa-style ideas.