<b>"Phone" problems and Mac OS 8.1

Internet Phone Internet Phone's Audio Source does not work correctly with Mac OS 8.1. In particular, Gary Swanson writes: "When I select Audio Source from the Options menu, I am told that my computer does not support this." He contacted VocalTec about this and they replied: "We have found that Mac OS 8.1 is missing some sound module that is needed to work Internet Phone. It is recommended that you use OS 8.0. Keep an eye on our web site for any further developments." Internet Phone also has problems with G3 Macs (see previous posting).

MegaPhone William Stone writes that Megaphone would not work after updating to Mac OS 8.1. He would get a message that said "the application may be damaged or not work on this machine." He contacted Megaphone tech support (now run by Bing software, not Cypress) about this and they said that they knew of the problem and suggested going back to Mac OS 8.0 as a work-around. Doing so worked.

Wayne Loy claimed that, with MegaPhone installed and after updating to Mac OS 8.1, he could no longer get sound from his internal Global Village modems. He writes; "Bing said they hoped to have a solution within the week."

David Lawson writes that he could fix the Global Village sound problem "via the new SoundSource Strip control strip module included with 8.1.The sound input source must be set to either CD or CD-TV-Video (if you have Apple Video System installed). Leaving Sound In selected will mute the modem speaker under 8.1, though this wasn't a problem in earlier OS versions. The muted modem speaker will not let you hear any sounds made by MegaPhone."

ApplePhone David Monroe writes "On my 5500/250 running Mac OS 8.1, dialing with ApplePhone causes sound input to switch to Sound In rather than BuiltIn Mic. It doesn't seem to matter which source I select, dialing always switches to Sound In. Apple suggested reinstalling ApplePhone, but it seems to be the Monitors & Sound control panel causing the problem." This is yet another in a continuing series of sound-related problems reported for Mac OS 8.1 (see previous posting and Mac OS 8.1 Special Report).

Update: Some users report not having the described problems with MegaPhone or ApplePhone. Others confirm them.