Mac mobile phone superguide
- Article 40 of 53
- iCreate, September 2005
Isn't it about time you started getting the most out of the computer in your back pocket? Rob Buckley guides you through the pitfalls of using a mobile phone with your Mac and offers advice on choosing the right mobile phone
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iSync is occasionally unreliable so make sure to make a back up of your data every so often, just in case something goes wrong. But usually it behaves itself. Good iSync.
If you want to do more than sync your iApps, iSync is only slowly becoming more useful. There are some third-party programs that plug into iSync and add syncing between programs other than the iApps, such as Entourage, but these are rare and frequently badly behaved. But with the advent of Tiger, there’s now a standardised way for developers to add syncing capabilities to their programs. Microsoft, for one, has promised to release an iSync-compatible version of Entourage by the end of the year, and others are sure to follow.
If you’re confined to USB, your main other use for your phone is going to be Internet connections. If you’re out and about, the nearest Starbucks is miles away and your hotel phone line is more unreliable than a Microsoft software release schedule, your mobile is potentially your saviour. Plug the right settings into your Mac, press Connect and you’ll be jacked into cyberspace in no time. You’ll be sitting in a Travelodge, making cups of coffee from individual sachets, but you’ll be penetrating the corporations’ Black Ice before they realise.
It’s those “right settings” we mentioned that are the slightly tricky part. To use your phone for Internet access requires a little bit of technological know-how. Your Mac has a set of scripts for working some phones, but they’re a bit fiddly and are designed for dial-up rather than 3G or GPRS connections. There are far better scripts available at www.taniwha.org.uk, which is by far the most valuable web site around for Mac users with mobile phones. Find the set appropriate to your phone, download it and install it. Then read the Read Me on what to type into Internet Connect or the Bluetooth Setup Assistant (Walkthrough two shows you where you need to do this).
Speeds will vary. If you have a 3G phone, you’ve a broadband connection for your Mac right there – albeit it an expensive one. If you have GPRS, you’ve the equivalent of a home dial-up connection. But if dial up via your mobile of if you’re using infra-red for your connection? Think semaphore.
If you do get stuck with dial-up via your mobile, which will always work, wherever you are, as long as you have some kind of mobile phone signal, you will at least have the reassurance that it’s as simple to set up as a landline connection. Type your ISP’s phone number and your ID and password into Internet Config, press Connect and stand by for a complete lack of action. So try to minimise the amount of data you then try to download: use IMAP rather than POP for your email if possible, since that only downloads headers rather than the whole message; and turn off images in your web browser or use text-only versions of web sites. Otherwise, the Internet is going feel like pages from Ceefax.
GPRS and 3G are a lot better, for obvious reasons, and that’s what you should aim for if possible. With more or less the whole of the UK covered, except around tall buildings, the Mull of Kintyre, etc, it’s a good assumption to make that wherever you go around the country, you’ll be able to get a reasonable Internet connection. However, since GPRS-roaming is pretty much still theory rather than practice and 3G roaming is so science fiction, it’s up there with personal rocket packs and protein pills, you’ll need to reconfigure your Mac manually to use any mobile phone network abroad. Before you go, print out all the settings from www.taniwha.org.uk for the different countries you plan on visiting. Then, when you find out what phone network you’re on, set up a new access point on your phone with the appropriate settings and reconfigure Internet Connect to use this new access point.
If that all sounds like so much jargon, you’re almost certainly better off getting a taxi to that Starbucks: it might well be cheaper, too.
You’ve practically reached the limits of your phone if you’re lumbered with a USB or infra-red connection. But if you chose Bluetooth as your connection method – and blessed are the Bluetooth users – there are some extra things you can do with your phone using your Mac that will make you curse yourself for even thinking of using anything else.
If you’re fed up with mobile phone keypads, a Bluetooth connection will be a godsend. Once you’ve paired up your (supported) phone with your Mac, if you open up Address Book, you’ll notice there’s a new button in the toolbar. Either click it or wait until the little ants have stopped running across it and it has turned into three blue dots. Address Book is now connected to your phone. If you select a contact and click on the label next to a phone number, you’ll get a menu that allows you to dial it or send a text message to it on your phone. Type away, full speed, and laugh heartily at the poor souls labouring away with their predictive texters. Or something. It’s fun, anyway.
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