Here’s another example of why I’m happy to have moved to the Macintosh platform for all my home computing. Beth and I have Motorola RAZR phones we bought a few years back. I think it was after AT&T switched to Cingular, but before they switched back to AT&T (but that’s another story). Anyhow, this is the first phone I’ve had that had customized ring tones and a built-in camera. But there’s the question of how to get the photos off the phone without emailing them to someone and incurring a charge.
The original way I solved this was to buy some software from Motorola that allows you to transfer files to your phone over the USB connection. But when I got rid of my Windows desktop and switched to my Mac mini, I couldn’t find a Mac version of that software. I thought that was a bit strange, so I did some web searching to see how people transfer files on and off their cell phones.
And that’s when I found that the answer is so simple that I never would’ve even thought of it! It turns out that the Mac mini has built-in Bluetooth, too, just like the phone. So all you have to do is “register” the phone as a trusted Bluetooth device, and then you can just copy files to and from the phone over the wireless Bluetooth connection, just as if you were copying them to another computer or something. So that’s why I don’t need to buy any extra $40 software! The capability is built right into the Mac operating system. I guess I’m not the only one that found this so simple as to be non-obvious; some guy posted a video on YouTube that walks you through how to do it. I only had to watch the first 5 seconds or so before it hit me – ah, they both speak Bluetooth!
In other Mac news, I finally decided I like my Logitech rechargeable cordless laser mouse more than the Apple Mighty Mouse I bought a while back. I’m still using the cool new ultra-thin Apple keyboard, but Beth and I never could really get used to the Mighty Mouse. I like having a dedicated mouse button for “Back” and Beth hated the Might Mouse’s “scroll wheel” which is really a little roller ball that goes in all directions. Plus, cordless is nice – less clutter on the desk, and easier to use.