Mac.sis making macs and S60 handsets talk

If the barebones On the road tutorial does not satisfy your need of cellular connectivity information, have a look at a very in-depth article on the topic at Tao of Mac: HOWTO Setup GPRS/UMTS Access On a Mac.

Most modern-day smartphones are also rather capable video players. Combined with a stereo headset, a portable movie player is a good alternative to a Pratchett paperback during a commute or an otherwise nonstimulant occasion, such as a distant cousin's wedding or an all-hands meeting with Tommy the Powerpoint Wizard. While the experience does fall slightly short of visiting a THX theater near you, a recent device such as the N95 can provide passable audiovisual pastime when really needed.

Just in case you are not intimately familiar with the OS and middleware foundation of your mobile, have a look at

http://www.s60.com/life/s60phones/browseDevices.do

for a listing of S60 based products from different manufacturers. For each phone, the Technical specifications section also tells you the version of the S60 platform (edition and feature pack) the device is running.

The Mac.sis site has now been opened for business, with some rudimentary content in the HOWTO section. More content is to come, and I hope the information provided here is useful to anyone with a Mac and an S60 handset. Just in case you do not know what S60 (or its maiden name Series 60) refer to, let it be known that S60 is a smartphone platform developed by Nokia on top of the Symbian operating system. You can find more information straight from the horse's mouth at http://www.s60.com/.

This section contains brief tutorials on different forms of Mac & S60 handset use.

While the wireless convenience of Bluetooth is all the rage, there are still perfectly valid reasons for plugging in your mobile via an USB cable, for instance if you are transferring large amounts of data (such as music or photos). The USB connection still has a clear speed advantage. Read on more for oldskool USB tips.

If you find your S60 handset (well, a Nokia one anyhow) not supported by Mac OS X directly, do not fret: Nokia is providing a set of iSync plugins of their own making for Mac users. Simply visit the Nokia iSync Software section, select your phone model and download the plugin. The plugins come with a simple enough installer that should take care of installing the plugin for you. Run the installer and you should be good to go. You may need to run the Bluetooth setup assistant to re-pair your phone and make it available via iSync.

When you're off the beaten path, using your S60 handset as a cellular modem for your Mac provides wireless internet access wherever there is cellular coverage. Particularly with 3G and (E)GPRS connectivity, the browsing experience is actually rather fluent – believe me, I spend most of my leisure time at summer cruising the coasts with a sailboat, and the web is a decent source of weather information that I regularly access with a Mac and a S60 phone.

For most day-to-day use (calendar and contact synchronisation, exchanging the odd photo or song), Bluetooth is probably the most convenient option to connect your Mac to a bluetooth-enabled device. If your Mac has a Bluetooth adapter installed, you will find the BT icon in your menubar.

In order to use Bluetooth connectivity between your Mac and your handset, you need to execute the normal Bluetooth pairing process. However, generally it is a good idea to perform the following steps first: