Pairing Your Mac & Your Mobile



by Gerrit Dalman

There's been a lot of talk lately about Apple's inroads to the cell phone market. Most of it is about the upcoming Motorola phone that will feature a mobile version of iTunes. While that does sound pretty neat, most of the things I'd like to do with my phone and my Mac are already here thanks to Apple and some clever programmers.

Most cell phones today connect to the Mac out of the box via either a USB cable or a wireless Bluetooth connection. If you have Bluetooth on both your phone and your Mac, the latter is the better option.

If either is not Bluetooth capable, finding a USB data cable for your phone on eBay or at a local accessory vendor is easy and should be cheap. Don't pay extra for the software that comes with some data cables either, it's Windows only and everything you can accomplish over USB is included in Mac OS X anyway.

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You'll be able to access most of the really useful features with a USB connection thanks to iSync. Once you've connected your compatible device setup is as simple as selecting "Add Device..." from iSync's "Devices" menu.

Then you decide what data you want synchronized with your phone. All phones will accept contacts from Address Book and date book info from iCal. For me, those are the most important things for my phone to have. I just have to remember to sync it with my computer occasionally to stay current.

That's even easier if you're using Bluetooth, because syncs can be automatic and free of wires. Because of the standards-based nature of Bluetooth, it also supports a few additional capabilities.

After selecting "Set up Bluetooth Device..." from the Bluetooth menu and completing the simple assistant, you can sync just as described above. You can also send text messages and dial phone numbers directly from Address Book.

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Selecting "Browse Device..." from the same menu will even let you copy files to and from your phone. That includes pulling photos off of your phone to be put into iPhoto or loading your favorite MP3 onto your phone to use as a ring. With a lot of new phones you can even play movies. In fact, iMovie has Bluetooth support that allows you to share your favorite iMovie scene directly to your phone.

With some extra software there are even more amazing things you can do with you phone. Salling Clicker, for example, allows you to use your Sony Ericsson phone as a media remote for iTunes, DVD Player, or even Keynote. BluePhoneElite becomes a sophisticated call center for any Bluetooth phone.

Ultimately the coolest geek application of Bluetooth is using your phone as a wireless modem for accessing the internet from anywhere you have cell coverage. Apple even built that option right into the initial setup for Bluetooth devices to make it as easy as checking a box.

So the next time a Windows user asks why you prefer Macintosh computers, you can think of yet another set of outstanding features that are built-in to your operating system of choice and made easy by Apple.