MacBook Bluetooth

[Reno404]

So we MacBook users are blessed with Bluetooth. Hurray. Here's my ignorant question: what is it good for?

Does it allow to use some accessories? Some special features?
What's the coolest way to use Bluetooth? Tell me what you think.

 

[matttrick]

grab a BT mighty mouse and you are feeling sexy

 

[zwida]

My favorite is phone syncing. It feels awfully cool to me.

 

[kretzy]

Lots of bluetooth peripherals are out there which allow for a wireless desktop. A lot of PDAs, mobile phones and other gadgets can also be connected via bluetooth.

 

[MacAnkka]

The most common thing that I use Bluetooth for is to connect my Wacom Graphire Bluetooth drawing tablet to my MacBook wirelessly. Then there are the already mentioned mice, keyboards, PDAs and phones.

 

[uchuff]

I use Bluetooth to transfer files between my phone and macbook, I also use Bluetooth Dial-up networking to use my phones data connection to browse the web on my macbook occasionally. At some point I will probably get a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Generally bluetooth is useful for close networking systems, the standard describes several use cases some of which are described above, others include headsets, printing and music streaming.

 

[Peace]

You can also use Bluetooth the synch between your iMac and MacBook.

 

[calculus]

I use it to transfer the photos I've taken with my phone. I also use it to synchronise my diary with the one on the phone.

 

[NicP]

I use it to send SMS messages through my phone, way easier on a keyboard than a phone keypad

 

[drummerbooker14]

mice and keyboards, phones

 

[sierra oscar]

on this subject - my current iMac isn't bluetooth enabled. When I purchase my new portable which will be - will those USB bluetooth devices you can buy - be fine to sync my two machines? Will this be a smooth and successful process?

or...as I have .mac - should I just sync my Macbook with my iMac through there? I currently use my iDisk for this purpose too.

 

[brikeh]

I would NEVER buy a computer if it didnt have BT or Wlan. I use BT all the time.

 

[net26]

get yourself a BT headset and skype away
(that, appart from my mouse and keyboard, is the main thing i use it for on my g4 mac mini which doesn't have a mic input)

 

[stcanard]

1) BT sync of the address book and calendar on my phone

2) When I'm on the road I can connect through GPRS and work without having to take my phone out of my pocket, let alone fumble with cables

Plus there are the neat abilities to be able to access iTunes remotely through a phone menu, and have my screen saver automatically lock when I walk out of range. But those are the toys, wireless sync and GPRS are the real uses for me.

 

[rtharper]

get yourself a BT headset and skype away
(that, appart from my mouse and keyboard, is the main thing i use it for on my g4 mac mini which doesn't have a mic input)

How well does the headset work? Any degradation of quality versus a hard-wired headset?

 

[mkrishnan]

on this subject - my current iMac isn't bluetooth enabled. When I purchase my new portable which will be - will those USB bluetooth devices you can buy - be fine to sync my two machines? Will this be a smooth and successful process?

or...as I have .mac - should I just sync my Macbook with my iMac through there? I currently use my iDisk for this purpose too.

You DO NOT want to sync the files on your two macs using Bluetooth. It will take you weeks. Bluetooth is not fast enough for that. It's okay for pushing around one or two files at a time. But not megabytes of data. And certainly not gigabytes of data.

The best bet is to use an ethernet cable -- you can just hook it directly from the ethernet port of one Mac to the port of the other.

.mac is a good solution too, as long as you don't have too much to sync. I'm not sure about your computer... my home directory is on the order of 35 or 40 GB....

 

[rtharper]

The best bet is to use an ethernet cable -- you can just hook it directly from the ethernet port of one Mac to the port of the other.

Make sure you use a crossover cable when doing this without a hub.

 

[sierra oscar]

thanks mkrishnan - ethernet cable it is (I've about 40 gig of transferable data)

rtharper: not sure what a 'cross over' cable is though and reference to a hub - can you elaborate?

think I'll go the ethernet route first off - and keep syncing through .mac with incremental changes after that.

 

[DwightSchrute]

Buy a Bluetooth keyboard and Mighty Mouse. They're incredible. I just hooked mine up today and I'm digging them.

 

[mkrishnan]

Make sure you use a crossover cable when doing this without a hub.

A crossover cable has a couple of wires swapped in the middle so that the in on one end comes from the out on the other end and vice versa, loosely. But this is not necessary if both computers are recent Macs. I know at least my iBook G4 and iMac G5 do not need a crossover cable. The ethernet ports are auto-sensing and will configure and communicate appropriately on a normal ethernet cable.

The only thing you may have to do is turn off airport (if both computers have it) on one computer to force them to communicate via the hard wire, since that will be much faster.

 

[sierra oscar]

thanks

 

[rtharper]

But this is not necessary if both computers are recent Macs. I know at least my iBook G4 and iMac G5 do not need a crossover cable. The ethernet ports are auto-sensing and will configure and communicate appropriately on a normal ethernet cable.
[/QUOTE]

Well isn't that handy...is it just mac NICs or is this common, now? I haven't done direct ethernet connections in quite a few years so this is like, breaking news for me.

 

[mkrishnan]

Well isn't that handy...is it just mac NICs or is this common, now? I haven't done direct ethernet connections in quite a few years so this is like, breaking news for me.

I think it's common, but to be honest I've never tried it on a Windows computer before.