14. iPhoto File Management

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13.6. Transferring Cameraphone Pictures via Bluetooth

If you got all excited about the idea of taking pictures with a cameraphone back in Chapter 1, you've probably been wondering for about 250 pages how you're supposed to transfer them into iPhoto. You can't exactly plug in a USB cable (on most phones, anyway).

If you thought the owner's manual for your digital camera was cryptic, crack open the documentation that comes with your cellphone. Programming the custom functions on your whiz-bang handset makes operating the Mars rover look like a high-school science project. That's why most people never get beyond ordering pizzas and checking in with the kids on their cellphones ”and why most pictures taken with a cameraphone stay in the cameraphone.

If both your cellphone and your Mac have Bluetooth transmitters, you're in luck. Bluetooth is a short-range, wireless cable-elimination technology. It can also be a pain- elimination technology for transferring cameraphone shots to your Mac.

13.6.1. Sending Cameraphone Photos to Your Mac

To transfer pictures that you snapped with your cell to your Mac, where you can save and work with them in iPhoto, you need three things:

  • Mac OS X 10.2.8 or newer . You can set up Bluetooth in its System Preferences panel, or let the Bluetooth Setup Assistant make configuration a snap (Figure 13-11).

  • Bluetooth on your Mac. Many Mac laptop models have Bluetooth transmitters built in, or offer Bluetooth as an added-cost option. If yours doesn't, you can join the fun by buying the D-Link Bluetooth Adapter, available from the Apple Store for less than $40. Just plug the adapter into a USB port; you're ready to play.

  • Cameraphone with Bluetooth. You can see a sampling of Bluetooth-equipped cellphones on Apple's Devices page (www.apple.com/isync/devices.html). All of the major brands, like Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson, offer Bluetooth handsets. If your current phone doesn't have Bluetooth, most cell carriers let you upgrade to a newer phone for a small fee.

Once you're equipped, the first step is to pair the phone to your Mac ”to introduce it. This is a clever security step that ensures that interlopers can't send you their own photos without your permission. Your Mac won't recognize their phones until you've paired them.

You use the Bluetooth Setup Assistant to achieve this union, shown in Figure 13-11.

If you've paired this phone with more than one computer, the next screen asks which one gets the photos. Select your Mac and click Send.

Figure 13-11. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant is the best way to establish communication, which is called pairing, between your Mac and cellphone. To get there, open System Preferences and click the Bluetooth icon. Top right: Now click Set Up New Device. Bottom: Your Mac walks you through the pairing process.
Then, on your phone, find the picture that you want to add to iPhoto. Tap the Send button or menu command. You'll see the options your phone offers for transferring pictures, such as via Picture Message, Email, and Bluetooth. Select Bluetooth.


Figure 13-12. Top: Once your phone begins to send the picture, a message appears on your Mac asking you to accept the file. Bottom: After you accept, the actual transfer only takes seconds. The photos generally wind up sitting on your Mac's desktop.
Your phone now contacts your Mac. A request appears on your screen, as shown at top in Figure 13-12. Click Accept. The photo transfer begins, as shown at bottom in Figure 13-12.



Note: The name of your Mac that appears in your phone list comes from the Sharing panel of System Preferences. If you don't like the current name describing your Mac, change it there, then pair your phone again using the Setup Assistant. Like magic, the new name for your Mac will appear in your phone's option list.

Once the image is safely copied to your Mac desktop (it's also still on your phone where you can keep or delete it), you're only moments away from iPhoto bliss. Before you add the picture to your iPhoto library, you might want to create a special album just for cameraphone images (click the + button in the lower-left corner to create a new album).

Then drag the new photo file from the desktop to the iPhoto album, just as you can with any photo. You have successfully moved a picture from your phone to your Mac and stored it in iPhoto. Your pictures are no longer held hostage in your phone, and they now have the same rights and privileges that iPhoto provides to all digital images. You can publish them to your .Mac Web site, attach them to email, and add them to QuickTime movies.


Note: Of course, today's cameraphones take low-resolution pictures. The pictures you just added to iPhoto probably are no bigger than 640 x 480 pixels ”so forget about using these as your Desktop wallpaper on a 17-inch iMac, or even making a photo-quality 5 x 7 print. Still, your phone shots are handy for sharing electronically via mail, Web, and QuickTime.

13.6.2. Sending Cameraphone Pictures to Your Palm Organizer

Your cameraphone pix may not be big enough to fill the corners of your brand new Apple Cinema Display, but they fit Palm organizer screens very nicely indeed. If iPhoto is your digital shoebox, then think of the Palm as a handy digital wallet.

Palm's Tungsten series (T, T2, and T3) and the Treo 650 have built-in Bluetooth, meaning they can talk to any other Bluetooth device, including your Mac. If your Palm doesn't have Bluetooth built in, but accepts SD expansion cards, you can equip it with a Palm Bluetooth Card.

Moving pictures from the phone to the Palm is just as easy as it was on the Mac. Once again, you must first pair the two devices so they can send information back and forth. In Palm OS 5 (or later), this process is easy:

On the Palm's Applications screen, tap Prefs, then tap Bluetooth, which is in the Communication category. The four settings here should be:

  • Bluetooth: On

  • Device Name: Enter a name here that distinguishes your Palm from other Bluetooth devices, like "Chris's Palm T3."

  • Discoverable: Yes

  • Allow Wakeup: Yes

Then tap the Trusted Devices button at the bottom of this preference pane. At the moment, the ensuing list is blank. Tap Add Device to make your Palm search for all Bluetooth devices within 30 feet, including your cameraphone (Figure 13-13). (You did turn on Bluetooth for your cameraphone, right?) On your Palm, highlight the name of your cameraphone once it appears (in other words, once the Palm has discovered the phone), and click OK.

Figure 13-13. In the Trusted Devices section of the Palm's preferences, your Palm organizer finds your cameraphone ”look, l ma, no wires! ”and helps you make the pairing.
Your Palm asks you to enter a passkey ”in essence, a one-shot password that you'll never need again. Keep this simple and use only numbers ”456, for example. Click OK.


Now your phone asks for the same number sequence ”once again, a security step to prevent strangers from pairing to one of your gadgets without your knowledge. Do so and hit the Enter button. Your two devices are now paired in Bluetooth harmony and can talk to each other.

Palm OS 5 devices include a helpful little program called Photos. When you send a photo from your cameraphone to the Palm, you can use this program to view the picture. Although this little program pales in comparison to iPhoto, it does let you organize pictures by category, view them full screen on the Palm, beam them to other palmtops, and even send them to other gadgets via one of these three networking protocols:

  • Bluetooth. The best way to send a picture if the other device has Bluetooth ”like your Mac.

  • SMS. Short Messaging Service, available on many cellphones, lets you send brief text notes to other phones. You can attach pictures to SMS messages, too, but the results are hit-or- miss . Use SMS to say hello with text, not pictures.

  • Email. Many Palm palmtops come with a built-in email program that can send and retrieve mail by using a cellphone as a glorified Internet antenna. (It connects to the phone either by Bluetooth or via a special cable.) You must have Internet service on your calling plan, which costs a few extra dollars a month. If you do, you can attach your pictures to email messages on your Palm and send them to friends and family all over the world.

13.6.3. Sending Palm Pictures to iPhoto

So much for getting photos onto your Palm organizer. What about getting pictures into iPhoto from your Palm organizer, like pictures you've snapped with the built-in camera of the Zire 72?

On the Palm, open up the photo-viewer program called Photos or, on more recent models, Media. (If you don't find it on your Applications screen, look in the Add-on folder on the CD that came with your palmtop.)

To send an image from a Bluetooth-capable Palm to your Mac, tap the photo once to highlight it, and then, from the Photo menu, choose Send Photo. Select Bluetooth and click OK.

Your Palm will search for other Bluetooth devices. Select your Mac's name from the list and click OK. (If you haven't already paired these devices, you'll be asked to do so. You can save yourself the hassle of pairing again the next time by turning on "Add to my trusted devices.")

Your Mac now notifies you that an image is available to receive. Click the Accept button in the Mac dialog box; the file flies magically through the air from your Palm to your desktop. Now all you have to do is drag that transferred picture from your desktop to iPhoto. Now, no matter what happens to your Palm in the future, your photos from it are safely ensconced in iPhoto.

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iPhoto 5. The Missing Manual
iPhoto 5. The Missing Manual
ISBN: 596100345
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 179

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