Knowing what you can sync, as described in the previous section, is not enough, of course: you have to know how to hook things up so you can sync. Whether you want to sync your Mac with an iPhone, a PDA, or another Mac, at some point you must establish some sort of connection between them—or with an intermediary that can connect to both. Fortunately, your Mac loves to make connections.
That’s not to say that all connection methods are simple matters of plug-and-play; though some are, others are more like plug-and-do-a-lot-of-other-stuff-and-then-play. And then there are some connection methods, like Bluetooth, that don’t involve any plugging at all.
In this section, you can find the connection methods you need to sync your devices, and, where necessary, the details of what you need to do to get them to play.
You’ll connect over a network either to use Apple’s .Mac syncing capabilities, to sync your Apple TV, or to use some third-party syncing utilities.
To use Tiger’s Mac-to-Mac syncing capabilities with .Mac, you need two things:
A network connection to the Internet
A .Mac account
The first part is easy: Tiger loves networks. Boot your Mac, and it will try to find a network any way it can, and once it finds a connection, it will try to connect to the Internet through it. Your Mac needs the Internet connection both for syncing structured information via .Mac and for iDisk file syncing (the only Apple-supplied method for file synchronization) as described earlier in Syncing between Macs.
The second part is also easy: give Apple $99.95 a year for a .Mac account (or $179.95 for a .Mac Family Pack). With a .Mac account and an Internet connection, you can take advantage of Tiger’s .Mac syncing features to sync the various items listed in Table 1.
You can purchase a .Mac subscription through Tiger’s .Mac System preference pane:
Open System Preferences. You can choose it from the Apple Menu or open it from the Dock.
Click .Mac. You’ll find it in the Internet & Network group if you have System Preferences set to organize by categories (the default).
In the .Mac pane, click Account.
In the Account view, click Learn More. Your default Web browser launches and takes you to Apple’s .Mac site, where you can sign up for the service.
If you don’t like paying retail and don’t need immediate gratification, you can purchase a .Mac subscription package from Amazon.com, which usually provides a nice discount.
Tip
For everything you ever wanted to know about Apple’s .Mac service, I recommend you purchase a copy of Joe Kissell’s Take Control of .Mac (http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/dot-mac.html).
Of the Apple devices that you can sync with your Mac, the Apple TV requires the most connections:
A network connection to your home network
A video connection to your wide-screen TV
An audio connection to your TV or your entertainment center’s audio gear (though that isn’t required for syncing)
A power connection
The Apple TV requires the network connection so it can sync with your Mac, it needs the video connection so you can see and respond to the Apple TV’s configuration prompts, and, of course, the Apple TV needs the power connection to operate.
The power cable is the only connection cable provided with the Apple TV; you have to purchase the video and audio connection cables yourself. The slim manual that accompanies the Apple TV can help you figure out which cables you need for audio and video, and it provides clear illustrations of how to hook them up. If you have somehow misplaced your copy, you can download a fresh one from http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/AppleTV_UserGuide.pdf.
Tip
The Macworld Apple TV Superguide, (available at http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/mw-apple-tv.html), provides detailed information about connecting and using an Apple TV.
Unlike the iPod and the iPhone, which use a direct connection to the Mac when they sync, the Apple TV syncs to the Mac over a home network, using either a wired or wireless network connection.
Tip
The moment Apple TV connects to the network it looks for a network-connected copy of iTunes (version 7.1 or above), so before you begin setting up your Apple TV, make sure that the Mac with which you want to sync it is connected to the network and that iTunes is running.
If your home is suitably wired, you can plug a network-connected Ethernet cable into the back of the Apple TV. For most home networks, once the cable is connected, the Apple TV joins the network automatically.
If you happen to have a more complex network (that is, if your network does not automatically assign network addresses using DHCP [Dynamic Host Control Protocol]), you must enter the appropriate network information into Apple TV, using the Apple Remote to respond to the configuration prompts displayed on your TV screen. If you didn’t set up your network, you need to get the network information from the person who did. The network information you manually supply includes:
The IP address you want to assign to the Apple TV
The subnet mask
The router address
The DNS address that serves your network
The Apple TV is really designed with wireless networking in mind—specifically, it’s designed to work with Apple’s line of AirPort base stations, although it works with many third-party wireless routers as well. You do need a router that is fast enough, though, meaning that it has to support one of these protocols:
802.11g: This protocol sends information at a maximum theoretical rate of 54 million bits a second; in actual use speeds average about half that. The AirPort Express Base Station, often used to stream music from iTunes to audio equipment, uses this protocol.
802.11n: This protocol sends information up to five times faster than 802.11g. The latest AirPort Extreme Base Stations use this protocol, as well as the most recent Mac Pros and MacBooks.
Note
The Mac that the Apple TV syncs with should use one of these two protocols as well, unless it is connected to the network over Ethernet.
When the Apple TV detects your wireless network, it displays a series of screens that you use to join the network. You select the network (or specify it by name if your network is hidden), and enter the network password using the Apple Remote that comes with the Apple TV.
Once connected to your network, the Apple TV looks for copies of iTunes running on computers connected to the network, using Apple’s Bonjour networking technology (Bonjour allows devices on a local network to detect one another and to establish connections without your having to type in network addresses or engage in other network configuration fiddling).
Once the Apple TV finds one or more running copies of iTunes, it asks you to select the iTunes library with which it should sync. Selecting a library pairs it with the Apple TV, and from then on the Apple TV will sync with that library every time you open it on the computer—until you instruct the Apple TV to choose a different library or turn syncing off.
Note
Although the Apple TV can sync with only one iTunes library at a time, it can stream music over your network from as many as five other libraries on the network.
To pair the Apple TV with an iTunes library:
From the list of iTunes libraries displayed on your TV, use the Apple Remote to select one. The Apple TV displays a five-digit code on the TV screen.
Note the code, and go to the computer running the iTunes library that you selected.
In iTunes, enter the five-digit code in the dialog that appears.
Once paired with an iTunes library, the Apple TV immediately starts syncing with that library. Don’t worry that you haven’t yet set up how you want to sync the Apple TV with your iTunes library. When you do get around to it, your new settings take effect immediately (see Sync an Apple Device with iTunes). In the meantime, your Apple TV harmlessly and happily will be sipping sweet multimedia nectar from the selected library until it is full—or the complete library is synced.
Surprisingly, given how network friendly Macs are, the only Apple product that takes advantage of a local network connection when using Tiger’s syncing capabilities is the Apple TV.
Nonetheless, local network connections can still have a syncing role to play depending on the kind of syncing you need: some third-party software will sync files and other information between Macs over a local network connection. Depending on the software, you can sync between Macs on a local network or across the Internet—or both.
In the majority of cases, third-party syncing utilities that work over a network connection tend to address the weak spot in Tiger’s syncing offerings: file syncing.
What’s more, third-party software can also take advantage of Tiger’s sync services to provide many of the same capabilities that .Mac syncing provides, but, unlike .Mac, without requiring an Internet connection or a .Mac account: for example, the utility SyncTogether by Mark/Space (http://www.markspace.com/) uses a local network and Bonjour (described in After you connect the Apple TV) to sync two or more locally networked Macs.
The network setups required to use third-party syncing solutions, and the utilities that employ them, are described in Sync with Third-Party Software.
FireWire, Apple’s high-speed connection technology, looms less large in Apple’s syncing plans than it formerly did. You may need to use it to connect your Mac to an iPod, or to connect two Macs to each other.
The only non-Mac devices that commonly synced with a Mac using a FireWire connection were iPods, and, now that the current generation of iPods lack FireWire capability, syncing over a FireWire connection has become even less common.
For connecting the earliest model iPods that use FireWire, you need a FireWire cable with a six-pin connector at each end. Later FireWire-compatible iPods require Apple’s proprietary Dock Connector to FireWire cable.
Given the rapid evolution of iPods, and the resulting plethora of models, you may not be able to tell the players without a scorecard:
Go to the page “iPod: Minimum System Requirements” at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60971 to see a complete chart of iPod models that lists which ones use FireWire.
Go to the page “Identifying iPod models” at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61688 to see which iPods connect directly with FireWire cables and which ones require a dock connector.
You’ll need a FireWire connection if you wish to sync files with another Mac in target disk mode using a third-party syncing utility, as I describe in Sync Files with Third-Party Applications.
When you use target disk mode, one of the Macs becomes the host and the other the target. There’s nothing special about the host Mac: it behaves just like a Mac always does. The target Mac, however, acts like an external disk drive: you see the target’s internal hard disk on the host’s Desktop. When a Mac acts as a target, it no longer has a mind of its own—the keyboard and mouse or trackpad no longer control the Mac, and the only thing you see on its screen is a big, floating FireWire symbol.
Here’s how you set up target disk mode:
Shut down the Mac that you want to use as the target.
Connect a FireWire cable between the target and the host Mac; you don’t need to shut down the host Mac.
Start the target Mac while holding down the T key. Keep holding the key down until the FireWire symbol appears on the target’s screen. If all goes well, the target’s hard disk should appear as a mounted volume on the host Mac.
When you want to end target disk mode and use the target as a Mac again, do this:
On the host Mac, drag the target’s disk icon to the Trash icon in the Dock (the Trash icon becomes an Eject icon), or select the target’s icon and choose Eject from the Finder’s File menu.
Press the target’s power button to turn it off.
Disconnect the FireWire cable connecting the two Macs.
When you next restart the (former) target, it will once again behave like a Mac instead of a hard disk.
Tip
To find out more about target disk mode, consult Apple’s page at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583.
USB, Intel’s Universal Serial Bus, is fast becoming the 21st Century standard for connecting consumer devices to computers: Apple’s latest Mac mini, for example, comes with only one FireWire port but four USB ports. Many mobile phones and handheld devices, including the iPhone, as well as recent models in the iPod family, connect using USB. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t.
USB’s ubiquity has bred complexity: even though the USB standard dictates just a few USB connector types, it seems that most USB-using devices require their own special cables with proprietary connectors. Thus, if you want to sync your USB-compatible phone and your Mac, you can’t use just any USB cable, but the cable that came with your phone. Even iPods and iPhones aren’t immune to the proprietary-connector-syndrome: to hook your Mac and your iPod nano up, for example, you’ll require Apple’s special Dock Connector to USB cable.
To find out if your iPod can connect via USB, and what it takes to make that connection, consult “Identifying iPod models” at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61688. Also, “iPod: Minimum System Requirements” at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60971 provides information about connectivity requirements of different iPod models.
When it comes to mobile phones and other handheld devices, consult the device’s manufacturer to find out whether you can, or should, connect the device to your Mac with USB when you want to sync it. If you can’t get that information from the manufacturer, however, you may find your device listed on Apple’s iSync Compatible Devices page at http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/isync/devices.html; the page points out some devices that can, or must, connect with USB.
Sometimes it’s not the device that connects to your Mac with USB, but a dock or cradle; the device itself connects to the dock, either as an optional convenience or, more rarely, as a requirement. For example, the iPhone and recent iPods either can connect directly to Macs using the proprietary Dock Connector to USB cable, or they can connect to a dock, which, in turn, connects to a Mac using the Dock Connector to USB cable. On the other hand, to sync some older Palm devices, you must place the Palm device in a Palm HotSync cradle that connects to the Mac using USB.
USB comes in two different Mac-compatible flavors:
USB 1.1: Introduced in 1997, this relatively low-speed connection (12 megabits per second) works fast enough to transfer the syncable contents of a typical mobile phone in a reasonable amount of time. USB 1.1 appeared on the first iMac, and was standard on most Macs until 2003.
USB 2.0: Introduced in 2000, the high-speed version of USB (480 megabits per second) took 3 more years to appear on Macs. This version is more than fast enough for file syncing. If you have a Mac made since early 2003, it has USB 2.0.
The amount of electrical power supplied by USB ports can vary. For example, the USB port on most Mac keyboards supplies much less electrical power to connected devices than the one on the Mac. You may need to plug your device into a high-powered USB port on your Mac, or into a port on a powered USB hub, if you see a message like the one in Figure 1.
You shouldn’t be surprised to find your mobile phone sporting this wireless connection technology: a consortium of mobile phone manufacturers invented Bluetooth (the inventors, by the way, used a frequency-hopping spread-spectrum technique patented many years earlier by actress Hedy Lamarr—but that’s another story). Mac OS X has supported Bluetooth since Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, which, not so coincidentally, was the same version of Mac OS X that introduced syncing.
These days, most Macs have Bluetooth built in, but Macs lacking the built-in variety can easily add it with a low-cost USB Bluetooth adapter, such as the D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth Adapter (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=34).
If you don’t know whether your Mac has built-in Bluetooth or not, here’s a simple way to find out:
Choose About This Mac from the Apple menu.
In the About This Mac window, click More Info.
In the Contents pane of the System Profiler window, in the Hardware section, click Bluetooth. If the Hardware section is closed, click the triangle beside its name to open it.
Macs with built-in Bluetooth will show you a bunch of technical data in the pane on the right side of the System Profiler window. Macs without built-in Bluetooth will say, “No information found.”
If your Mac has Bluetooth built in, you can turn it on or off in the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences. The first view in that pane, Settings, has a button at the top for controlling Bluetooth power.
Note
For Macs using a Bluetooth adapter, the Bluetooth preference pane’s Settings view in System Preferences does not provide a Bluetooth power button, nor does the Turn Bluetooth On (or Off) menu item appear in the Bluetooth status menu.
Tip: Show the Bluetooth Status Menu
Tiger also provides a Bluetooth status menu with commands for turning Bluetooth on or off, setting up Bluetooth devices, accessing your Mac’s Bluetooth preferences, and performing several other Bluetooth-related tasks. To place a Bluetooth status menu in your menu bar, in System Preferences open the Bluetooth preference pane’s Settings view and check the box labeled Show Bluetooth Status in the Menu Bar.
If you use a Bluetooth adapter, the act of plugging it into a USB port turns Bluetooth on, and removing the adapter turns it off.
Here are a few facts and concepts to help you understand how Bluetooth devices and your Mac interact.
Bluetooth provides a low-speed wireless connection (of about 2 megabits per second) between devices. Although its range can exceed dozens of yards in certain situations, it usually extends only 5 to 10 yards—and less if there are walls or other obstacles between the devices.
For your Mac and your Bluetooth device to sync, they must first make contact with one another. That process is called discovery.
Here’s how discovery works: the Bluetooth device initiating the contact—and, in the case of iSync, that device is your Macintosh—broadcasts a request for nearby Bluetooth devices to announce themselves. When an appropriate device (for example, a device that can sync, or has previously synced, with iSync) responds, the two devices establish a connection. Bluetooth devices, however, don’t have to respond to the discovery request; a device set to respond to such requests is said to be discoverable.
You also want to pair your phone with your Mac, and your Mac with your phone, if you plan to sync the two. When one device pairs with another, it records some basic information about the other device, such as the name of the device and its capabilities, so it can recognize the other device in the future.
Pairing also establishes a trusted relationship between the two devices. The pairing process (Figure 2) requires that the two devices exchange a passkey to establish secure communications. You normally need to pair devices only once.
Although both mobile phones and Palm devices can communicate with your Mac via Bluetooth, the process of setting up each type of device to work with your Mac differs substantially:
To set up a Palm device, skip ahead to Set up a Palm device.
To set up a Bluetooth phone, start with Set up a Bluetooth phone, next page.
Or you can read both sections: knowledge is good.
Tiger provides a Bluetooth Setup Assistant that walks you through the process of setting up Bluetooth mobile phones. You can launch this assistant the hard way by opening System Preferences, clicking the Bluetooth icon, selecting the Devices view in the Bluetooth preference pane, and then, finally, clicking Set Up New Device. Or, you can do it the easy way: choose Set Up Bluetooth Device from the Bluetooth status menu (see the tip Show the Bluetooth Status Menu, a few pages earlier, if you can’t find the menu).
Here’s how you use the Bluetooth Setup Assistant to set up a Bluetooth phone:
Turn on the phone and make sure it is discoverable and ready for pairing.
Choose Set Up Bluetooth Device from the Bluetooth status menu.
Read the introductory screen and click Continue.
You’ll see a screen offering you a choice of device types to set up.
Click Mobile Phone and then click Continue.
After a few seconds, the Assistant detects your phone and lists it in the Mobile Phone list.
Select your phone in the phone list, and then click Continue.
As shown earlier in Figure 2, the Assistant displays a passkey and instructs you to enter the passkey into your mobile phone. Your phone also asks you if you want to pair with the device that just contacted it.
Respond to your phone’s prompts, and enter the passkey when directed.
Once your Mac and your phone finish pairing, the Assistant presents you with a list of services you can select, as shown in Figure 3.
Leave the first two options selected, deselect the option to access the Internet, and then click Continue.
The first two options enable the phone to work with iSync. If you leave the Internet access option selected, you’ll have to provide the Assistant with your mobile phone provider’s Internet access information before you finish, so I suggest you deselect the option: you can always run the Assistant again later to set up Internet access.
The Assistant launches iSync as its final act, giving you the opportunity to set the necessary iSync options for your phone. I cover these options later, in Sync a Handheld Device with iSync.
The Bluetooth Setup Assistant has no option to set up Palm devices (that is, devices running the Palm OS, whether made by Palm or not) in Tiger. Instead, the Palm initiates the pairing process. The process involves numerous steps, but you need to perform them only once.
Note
Palm has recently released some devices that run the Windows Mobile OS instead of the Palm OS. The instructions below don’t apply to them: such devices require a different syncing solution, as described in Sync with Third-Party Software.
The steps break down into three discrete procedures:
Make your Mac discoverable: This allows the Palm to find your Mac, so it can pair with the Palm.
Set the Palm’s HotSync syncing software to use Bluetooth: when you do this, you also tell the Palm what you plan to sync it with, a process that introduces your Mac to the Palm, thus making the next procedure possible.
Pair your Mac with your Palm: after the devices are paired, you can sync the Palm and the Mac without going through these steps again.
I cover each of these procedures in sequence.
The first procedure, making your Mac discoverable, is quite easy if the Bluetooth status menu is visible (described in an earlier tip, Show the Bluetooth Status Menu), and only slightly less easy if it is not:
Turn Bluetooth on. See Install and activate Bluetooth, earlier, for how to do this.
Choose Discoverable from the Bluetooth status menu, or, click Discoverable under the Settings pane of the Bluetooth pane in System Preferences.
Your Mac is now discoverable, ready for your Palm to find it.
The next part sets the Palm syncing software to use Bluetooth:
Open the Palm’s Prefs application.
Depending on which version of the Palm OS you have, tap either Communications or Bluetooth.
Tap Bluetooth in the Communication listing (skip this step if you tapped Bluetooth in the preceding step).
Choose On from the Palm’s Bluetooth pop-up menu.
Open HotSync on your Palm.
Tap the Menu button and choose Connection Setup.
Tap the New button and enter
Bluetoothas the connection name.Choose PC from the Connect To pop-up menu.
Choose Bluetooth from the Via pop-up menu.
Choose the Tap to Find button from the Device pop-up menu.
You have configured the Palm to use Bluetooth when it syncs and instructed it to scan the airwaves in search of Bluetooth devices. Your Mac should show up in the Palm’s list of found devices.
The last procedure pairs your Palm with your Mac:
Select your Mac from the Palm’s list of found devices, and tap OK.
The Palm asks if you want to add the device to its list of trusted devices.
Tap Yes.
The Palm prompts you to enter a passkey.
Enter a passkey consisting of a three-to-seven digit number and tap OK.
Your Mac presents a dialog asking you to enter the same passkey.
Enter the passkey on your Mac and click Pair.
When the pairing process finishes, tap OK to close the Edit Connection display, then tap Done to close the Available Connections display.
Tap Local on the HotSync display.
Choose Bluetooth from the pop-up menu below the HotSync logo.
You have now paired your Mac and your Palm. You have also set HotSync to use the connection named “Bluetooth” (which you created in the second procedure) when you sync your Palm with your Mac. Add Palm OS Devices, later, describes how to do that.