"Optical Out"?!

[chicken]

On the back of the iMac G5 (which my boss just purchased for me to use, last month, yay) above the headphone jack Apple has imprinted the phrase "Optical Out". HUH? Don't they mean "Audio Out"? Is this a typo, a joke, or me being stupid?

Comments

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Uh... I'm sure it's for one of those optical brain scan devices they use to spy on your internet usage at work.


...or something. *grins the humongo grin of the totally clueless*

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Uh... I'm sure it's for one of those optical brain scan devices they use to spy on your internet usage at work.

OH, feck! *leaves LJ quickly* ;-)

[jwgh]

Does it actually work as a headphone jack? High-end digital audio stuff will often have optical in and out; it's a lossless (or at least less lossy; I'm not sure of the details) way to transfer digital audio. (Good minidisk players tend to have this option for instance.)

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does work as a headphone jack just fine. The "thingy" looks like the bottom one in your picture.

OH, and BTW, Kerri reminded me about your previous radiator troubles. Our radiators were just "bled" and now we finally have heat! Damn landlords.