iphone

Plantronics makes top-rated bluetooth headsets that are super light, sound great, and look really cool. I recently acquired the Plantronics Voyager PRO because it lets me connect with both my iPhone and my computer.

That means I can use it on the road for hands-free phone conversations in my car, and I can also use it for Skype calls on my computer (or with my VoIP softphone that lets me dial anywhere in the world over the internet, without paying long distance rates). You can get a Plantronics bluetooth headset here on Amazon for under $70.

Connecting the Plantronics Voyager to my iPhone was a complete breeze, but getting it to work with my computer took a little persistence and eventually an operating system upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.8. It turns out there was an incompatibility with OS X version 10.6.6 and the Plantronics headset, that wouldn't let it be recognized as an audio device no matter what I tried.

Fortunately, upgrading to OS X 10.6.8 solved the problem, and here are the steps I took to connect my Plantronics Voyager PRO to my Macbook Pro and use it as the audio device for Skype, iTunes, or any other sound application:

1. Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later

The iPhone's built-in Voice Memos app has been a useful addition ever since it was bundled with iPhone OS 3.0. It lets you record audio snippets and play them back later, and you can send them to yourself or others using the built-in email sharing feature.

It's not entirely clear how to use the Voice Memos app though, or how to send a voice recording to someone via email - let alone figure out how to transfer a voice recording to your computer.

Here are the steps for 1) recording audio with the Voice Memos app on your iPhone, 2) sharing those audio snippets using email, and 3) transferring those audio files to your computer:

1. Record audio with the Voice Memos iPhone app:

Open the Voice Memos app on your iPhone and tap the button on the left to start recording. You can talk into the microphone or place it near what you're trying to record.

Tap the button on the bottom right to stop recording, and tap it again to see a list of voice memos that you've recorded.

2. Share recorded audio clips using email:

Tap the arrow next to each audio clip to view options for sharing that clip.

Tap the "Share" button and select "Email" to send the audio clip as an email to yourself or someone else.

3. Transfer recorded audio clips to your computer:

If you have a large audio recording, you won't be able to share it using email. For example, the audio clip I recorded above was for over 50 minutes and was about 24 MB in size - far too large for email, and my iPhone wouldn't let me send it.

In this case, when the audio file is too large to share using email, then you'll need to transfer the audio file to your computer using iTunes.

Some hotels are greedy and charge for internet connectivity, or even worse they limit internet to a single wired connection per room - like the hotel I'm staying in right now. They only have a single Ethernet cable in the room and no WiFi.

Fortunately I'm using a MacbookPro which makes it's fairly easy to share the internet connection with my iPhone and iPad. Just turn on Internet Sharing and the built-in Airport will act like a wireless access point that you can connect to from any wireless device, just like you would connect to your wireless home network.

Here's the step-by-step:

1. Make sure an Ethernet cable is plugged into your Mac and you can browse the web.

2. Make sure your Airport is also turned on, by clicking the wireless icon in your menu bar and selecting "Turn Airport On".

3. Open System Preferences (click the Apple icon on the menu bar and you'll see it as a menu option) and select "Sharing".

4. Click "Internet Sharing" and make sure "Ethernet" is selected in the "Share your connection from" dropdown, and "Airport" is selected in the "To computers using" listbox.

5. Click "Internet Sharing" one more time and you'll be asked if you're sure you want to turn on Internet Sharing. Click "Start" to turn it on and start sharing your internet connection with your iPhone or iPad.

That's all it takes to share your Mac's internet connection and then you'll be able to connect your iPad or iPhone to it the same way you'd connect to any other wireless network.