Using Bluetooth for SMS and Phone-Call Handling

With Bluetooth-enabled cell phones and Mac OS X’s Bluetooth support, you can send and receive SMS messages and handle cellphone calls right from your keyboard.

Apple is popularizing Bluetooth (http://www.apple.com/bluetooth/) much as it did USB, 802.11b, and FireWire technologies.

Although Apple has done a good job supporting Bluetooth technology — and, indeed, baking it right in — not much has been done to educate users about what it can do. Recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the nifty little Address Book in Mac OS X has built-in Bluetooth functionality that allows you to send and receive Short Message Service (SMS) messages through your Bluetooth-enabled phone, all via your computer!

If you’ve ever hammered out an SMS note using the buttons on your tiny cell phone, then you know it would be much easier to use your full-sized computer keyboard instead. In this hack, I will show you how to use Mac OS X to send SMS messages easily.

You will need a Bluetooth adapter, such as the D-Link USB Bluetooth Adapter (available at http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=T4728G/B), for your Mac, and a Bluetooth-enabled phone, such as the Ericsson T68i (http://www.ericsson.com/mobilityworld/sub/open/devices/t68i/index.html ).

Pairing Up Your Phone with Address Book

With your Address Book powered up, the first thing to do is to pair it up with your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. To do so, ...

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