Use iTunes as a phonebook

Apr 01, '04 09:50:00AM

Contributed by: rgovostes

TouchTone phones uses a system called Dual Tone Multifrequency dialing, which turns the digits you press into sounds which your phone company uses to determine who it is you're calling. You usually use the buttons on your phone to generate these, but you can also use your computer's speakers to play the sounds into a phone.

First you'll need to grab the tones necessary. Here are some MP3 tones which you can use (control-click and save to disk): 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * #

Now make a playlist in iTunes and give it a name. Drag each needed tone to the playlist, in order. For example, I will make one for the "Directorate of Time" of the United States. The Directorate's time-by-voice announcer in Washington, DC is 1-202-762-1401, so I'd drag the needed sounds to the playlist.

Finally, get your phone (hopefully it's portable!) and turn it on. Hold the receiver up to your speaker and start playing tones. After it's done, with any luck, the phone should be ringing. It may take some experimentation to see how far away from the speaker you need to hold it. It should be noted that there is a minimum of a 60 millisecond pause between each tone. If, for some reason, iTunes switches between the sounds too quickly, you might have to record a short 'padding' sound to go between them.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one, and it seems like the long way to dial the phone, but it's interesting nonetheless...]

Comments (12)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040327160730360