macbook for dummies phần 9 ppt

ߜ Show Bluetooth Status in the Menu Bar (Settings tab): I recommend that you enable this feature. The Bluetooth menu lets you conveniently toggle your laptop’s discovery status as well as set up a device or send and browse files. (You can also see what devices are connected to your Mac with the click of a menu icon. ’Nuff said.) Adding Wireless Keyboards and Mice to Your Laptop The current crop of Mac laptops arrive at your doorstep in a fully wireless configuration — Apple throws in an internal Bluetooth adapter and an inter- nal AirPort Extreme wireless card. Everything’s already included for you. Therefore, you can indeed work keyboard and mouse magic from across the room from your laptop, using a wireless keyboard and mouse. (Or perhaps you just want a full-size keyboard and external mouse to use when you’re working from your home or office.) A number of wireless Bluetooth keyboard/mouse packages are on the market, and any one of ’em should work fine with your Mac. In fact, you can buy Apple’s wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse separately, for a total of about $120. Other offerings from Logitech and our old buddy Microsoft run about the same amount. When shopping for a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse desktop, keep these facts in mind: ߜ Some keyboards are created more than equal. Many of today’s third- party keyboards are encrusted with extra function buttons that do everything from opening your e-mail application to searching your kitchen cabinets for another can of spray cheese. I like these programmable function keys — they can bring up your favorite applications with a single keystroke while you’re relaxing 20 feet away — so look for the keyboard that offers the most programmable keys in your price range. ߜ Rodents crave energy. Does the wireless mouse come with its own recharging stand? If so, that’s a big plus. Depending on how much you use your laptop, a mouse that runs on standard batteries can go through a set in as little as a month’s time! (Not surprisingly, many computer owners use rechargeable batteries in their wireless mice.) In fact, some wireless mice include an on/off switch to help conserve battery power. ߜ Wireless doesn’t always mean Bluetooth. Just because a keyboard or mouse is wireless doesn’t automatically make it a Bluetooth device. Plenty of wireless RF (radio frequency) devices are out there, too. These toys need their own transmitters, which are usually USB-based as well, 293 Chapter 18: Making Friends with Wireless Devices 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 293 so things can get confusing. Therefore, read the box or technical specifi- cations carefully to make sure you’re buying Bluetooth. ߜ Bluetooth stuff isn’t self-cleaning. Sure, your new wireless keyboard and mouse can hang out with you on the sofa, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy sharing your nacho puffs and grape soda. Look for an optical mouse that doesn’t use a ball, and check whether a prospective keyboard can be easily cleaned and maintained before you buy it. Most Bluetooth devices are controlled through the Bluetooth pane in System Preferences. However, wireless keyboards and mice are a special case because they’re monitored through the Bluetooth section of the Keyboard & Mouse pane, as shown in Figure 18-4. (You can even add a new wireless device from this tab — geez, those Apple designers give you a dozen roads to the same spot on the map, don’t they?) Getting Everything in iSync No jokes about boy bands, please. iSync is the data transfer and synchroniz- ing utility application that ships with Tiger, and it works fine with both wired and wireless Bluetooth connections. The difference between Bluetooth File Exchange and iSync is a matter of intelligence: Figure 18-4: Check your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse battery levels. 294 Part V: Sharing Access and Information 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 294 ߜ BFE merely transfers files and dumps them in the folders you specify. ߜ iSync copies and updates your Address Book, Safari, and iCal informa- tion between devices. iSync compares the information on both your laptop and your devices and makes sure they end up the same. iSync also allows you to synchronize data between multiple computers using your .Mac membership so that the contacts, bookmarks, and cal- endar data on your iBook matche the data on your Mac. You can control what gets sent from the .Mac pane in System Preferences. (For more on .Mac, visit Chapter 9.) Just because your phone or PDA supports Bluetooth doesn’t mean that iSync is guaranteed to work. I know a few Mac owners who are still seething over incompatible devices. For a complete list of the Bluetooth phones, PDAs, and other devices that work with iSync, visit www.apple.com/isync/ devices.html. After your supported Bluetooth device is linked to your Mac, follow these steps to add the new device to iSync and synchronize your data: 1. Click the Finder icon on the dock. 2. Click Applications in a Finder window’s sidebar, and then double- click iSync. 3. Press Ô+N. 4. Click Scan to display any Bluetooth devices in range. 5. Double-click the device you want to use. The window expands to allow you to specify the data to synchronize. Other settings might appear as well, depending on the device. For exam- ple, Figure 18-5 illustrates the available data that can be synchronized with my iPod. Because you can’t surf the Web on an iPod — yet — the Bookmarks option doesn’t appear. 6. Select the check boxes for each data type you want to exchange. 7. Click Sync Devices. Never disconnect a device while a synchronization is in progress — the data being transferred could become corrupt or your laptop could lock up. Deleting a calendar event or a contact on either your laptop or the Bluetooth device deletes that same data from the other machine! For example, if you decide you no longer need your personal contacts on your Mac at work and you delete ’em, they’ll be deleted from your PDA when you synchronize. When I say that iSync creates a mirror image on both sides of the connection, I’m not lying — additions appear and deletions disappear. 295 Chapter 18: Making Friends with Wireless Devices 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 295 The Magic of Wireless Printing To your Mac laptop, a wireless Bluetooth printer is just another Bluetooth connection — but to you, it’s the very definition of convenience, especially if desk space is limited next to your Mac. Just set that paper-producing puppy up anywhere in the 30 60 foot range, plug it in, set up the printer in Tiger, and let ’er rip. Not all printer manufacturers produce Bluetooth models that communicate properly with your Mac. Make sure that the Bluetooth printer you buy sup- ports HCRP. (Another jawbreaker acronym. This time it stands for Hardcopy Cable Replacement Protocol.) You have two options when installing a Bluetooth printer: ߜ Whenever possible, use the printer manufacturer’s software. A printer might require a driver that a typical Bluetooth device doesn’t need. ߜ You can usually successfully set up a printer using the Bluetooth Setup Assistant, which you can run from the Devices pane in the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences: Figure 18-5: Specify the stuff to sync with an iPod. 296 Part V: Sharing Access and Information 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 296 1. Make sure your printer is set as discoverable. Check your printer manual to determine how to switch your printer to discoverable mode. 2. Click the Set Up New Device button. 3. Choose to install a printer. 4. Follow the onscreen instructions. Luckily, after you successfully set up a Bluetooth printer, you can just press Ô+P to open the Print dialog box and choose that printer from the Printer pop-up menu. No big whoop . . . and that’s the way it should be. 297 Chapter 18: Making Friends with Wireless Devices 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 297 298 Part V: Sharing Access and Information 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 298 Part VI The Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, Maintaining 27_04859x pt06.qxp 7/20/06 10:39 PM Page 299 In this part . . . N o computer is completely trouble-free — and if your MacBook or MacBook Pro starts acting strangely (like a Windows PC), the troubleshooting tips you’ll find in this part will help you get your favorite machine back to normal. I also provide you with all the guidance you need to maintain your Mac properly as well as step-by-step instructions for upgrading your laptop with goodies like additional RAM or external storage devices. 27_04859x pt06.qxp 7/20/06 10:39 PM Page 300 Chapter 19 When Good Mac Laptops Go Bad In This Chapter ᮣ Avoiding the blame (righteously) ᮣ Putting basic troubleshooting precepts to work ᮣ Using Mark’s Troubleshooting Tree ᮣ Getting help I wish you weren’t reading this chapter. Because you are, I can only sur- mise that you’re having trouble with your Mac, and that it needs fixing. (The other possibility — that you just like reading about solving computer problems — is more attractive, but much more problematic.) Therefore, con- sider this chapter a crash course in the logical puzzle that is computer trou- bleshooting: namely, the art of finding out What Needs Fixing. You also see what you can do when you just plain can’t fix the problem by yourself. Oh, and you’re going to encounter a lot of tips in this chapter — all of them learned the hard way, so I recommend committing them to memory on the spot! Repeat after Me: Yes, I Am a Tech! Anyone can troubleshoot. Time to put these common troubleshooting myths to rest: ߜ It takes a college degree in computers to troubleshoot. Tell that to my troubleshooting kid in junior high. She’ll think it’s a hoot because she has an Apple laptop of her own (and another in the classroom). You can follow all the steps in this chapter without any special training. ߜ I’m to blame. Ever heard of viruses? Failing hardware? Buggy software? Any of those things can be causing the problem. Heck, even if you do something by accident, I’m willing to bet it wasn’t on purpose. 28_04859X ch19.qxp 7/20/06 10:37 PM Page 301 ߜ I need to buy expensive utility software. Nope. You can certainly invest in a commercial testing and repair utility if you like. My favorites are TechTool Pro from Micromat (www.micromat.com) and Disk Warrior from Alsoft (www.alsoft.com), but a third-party utility isn’t a require- ment for troubleshooting. (I do, however, consider an antivirus applica- tion a must-have, and you should have one already. Hint, hint.) ߜ There’s no hope if I can’t fix it. Parts fail, and computers crash, but your Apple Service Center can repair just about any problem. And (ahem) if you’ve backed up your laptop (as I’ve preached throughout this book), you’ll keep that important data even if a new hard drive is in your future. ߜ It takes forever. Wait until you read the number one rule in the next sec- tion; the first step takes but 30 seconds and often solves the problem. Not all problems can be fixed so quickly, but if you follow the proce- dures in this chapter, you should fix your laptop (or at least know that the problem requires outside help) in a single afternoon. With those myths banished for good, you can get down to business and start feeling better soon. Step-by-Step Laptop Troubleshooting In this section, I walk you through my Should-Be-Patented Troubleshooting Tree as well as Tiger’s built-in troubleshooting application, Disk Utility. I also introduce you to a number of keystrokes that can make your Mac jump through hoops. The number one rule: Reboot! Yep, it sounds silly, but the fact is that rebooting your Mac can often solve a number of problems. If you’re encountering the following types of strange behavior with your laptop, a reboot might be all you need: ߜ Intermittent problems communicating over a network ߜ A garbled screen, strange colors, or screwed-up fonts ߜ The Swirling Beach Ball of Doom that won’t go away after several minutes ߜ An application that locks up ߜ An external device that seems to disappear or can’t be opened Always try a reboot before beginning to worry. Always. 302 Part VI: The Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, Maintaining 28_04859X ch19.qxp 7/20/06 10:37 PM Page 302 [...]... of the easiest internal upgrades that you can perform on any computer Therefore, I recommend that you add your own memory yourself If you simply don’t want to mess with your Mac’s internal organs, your local Macintosh service specialist will be happy to install new RAM modules for you (for a price) Follow these steps to add extra memory to a MacBook or MacBook Pro: 1 Get ready to operate: a Spread a... FireWire flash drives For example, in Figure 19- 1, I have two hard drives (the 1 49. 1GB and 28.6GB entries), and each has a single volume (the Wolfgang and the Macintosh HD entries, respectively) The information at the bottom of the Disk Utility window contains the specifications of the selected drive or volume things such as capacity, free space, and the number of files and folders for a volume, or connection...Chapter 19: When Good Mac Laptops Go Bad Try to save all open documents before you reboot That might not be possible, but try to save what you can If you need to force an application to quit so you can reboot, follow these steps to squash that locked application: 1 Click the Apple (Ú) menu and choose Force Quit The Force Quit Applications dialog box appears 2 Click... drives, CD/DVD recorders, or Flash drives ’Nuff said ߜ FireWire 400: FireWire (also called IEEE 1 394 ) is the port of choice for most digital video camcorders I recommend that you use your FireWire port for connecting an external drive to your laptop — again, you can find this port on the side of your MacBook or MacBook Pro ߜ FireWire 800: When the good folks at Apple recognized that USB 2.0 devices were... yourself is an invitation for disaster Grounding yourself is easy to do: Just touch a metal surface for a few seconds before you dig in After you ground yourself, you can then safely handle both the internal components of your laptop and any new hardware components that you might be installing (such as memory modules or a hard drive) If you walk anywhere in the room — hunting for a screwdriver, perhaps,... the developer of the application and look for updated patches that bring your software in line with the Tiger updates (And use Software Update in automatic mode to check for Mac OS X updates at least once a week.) ߜ Did you just make a change in System Preferences? Return the options that you changed back to their original settings; then consult Chapter 6 for information on what might have gone wrong... laptop upgrades is short for a reason: Laptops simply aren’t meant to be disassembled As I’ve mentioned several times in this book, internal expansion in your MacBook or MacBook Pro is severely limited — basically, you can add extra memory and swap out your hard drive Adding memory is easy, while swapping out your hard drive requires more work and considerable preparation Therefore, I always recommend... in the Spotlight search box Step 9: Run System Profiler Ouch You’ve reached Step 9, and you still haven’t uncovered the culprit At this point, you’ve narrowed the possibilities down to a serious problem, like corrupted files in your Mac OS X System Folder or hardware that’s gone south Fortunately, Tiger provides you with System Profiler, which displays real-time information on all the hardware in your... technician can order the right type and size of drive for you ߜ Difficulty: Swapping a hard drive in your Mac laptop isn’t anywhere as easy as adding RAM modules (although the hard drive is much easier to reach on the MacBook than it is on the MacBook Pro) ߜ Backup: That very same Apple service technician can back up all the data on your existing drive, format the new drive, and move all your data to its... be installing (such as memory modules or a hard drive) If you walk anywhere in the room — hunting for a screwdriver, perhaps, or taking a sip of liquid reinforcement that you’ve stashed a comfortable distance away — you must ground yourself again before you get back to work Remember: You can pick up a static charge by simply walking Go figure Period End of statement No matter what type of computer you . be. 297 Chapter 18: Making Friends with Wireless Devices 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 297 298 Part V: Sharing Access and Information 26_04859X ch18.qxp 7/20/06 10:40 PM Page 298 Part. Necessary Evils: Troubleshooting, Upgrading, Maintaining 27_04859x pt06.qxp 7/20/06 10: 39 PM Page 299 In this part . . . N o computer is completely trouble-free — and if your MacBook or MacBook Pro starts acting strangely (like. those in Figure 19- 2. If you don’t, your ISP or network is likely experiencing problems. 3 09 Chapter 19: When Good Mac Laptops Go Bad 28_04859X ch 19. qxp 7/20/06 10:37 PM Page 3 09 Step 6: Think