MacBook Air Portable Genius, 4th Edition

Working with Bluetooth Devices

MacBook Air is already configured to use a wireless technology called Bluetooth. In the rest of this chapter, I cover what Bluetooth is; how to connect MacBook Air with various Bluetooth devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, and headset; and how to exchange files using MacBook Air’s Bluetooth capabilities.

In theory, connecting Bluetooth devices should be criminally easy. You turn on each device’s Bluetooth feature (in Bluetooth jargon, you make the devices discoverable), bring them within 33 feet of each other, and they connect without further ado. In practice, however, there’s usually at least a bit of further ado (and sometimes plenty of it). This usually takes one or both of the following forms:

Making your device discoverable. Unlike Wi-Fi devices that broadcast their signals constantly, most Bluetooth devices broadcast their availability only when you say so. This makes sense in many cases because you usually only want to use a Bluetooth device, such as a mouse or a keyboard, with a single computer. By controlling when the device is discoverable, you ensure that it works only with the computer you want it to.

Pairing MacBook Air and the device. As a security precaution, many Bluetooth devices need to be paired with another device before the connection ...