Mac OS X and iOS FaceTime Primer Tutorial

Mac OS X and iOS Facetime Primer Tutorial

We happen to own a MacBook Pro laptop (circa 2011 … which pans out to be significantly “old” for a later blog post) and an iPad. As you’d expect, there are benefits to having two Apple products like this, and we’ll try exploring some of the communication and software synergies that result from this.

Even so, you should bear in mind that the MacBook Pro is running an operating system (Mac OS X Yosemite) which is quite different look to the iPad’s iOS 9.1 and so, things being things … let me just ponder that … okay, if you’re in a rush … the communication smarts you thought might be a doddle, are not always a … a … a’doddle.

When we say “communications” above you can talk about “networking” as well, and let’s just set the scene for some terms in this series of communication based themed “Maccy iOSsy” (ie. son of Cy nee Individualized Flightless Bird) blog postings with some terminologies explained by Apple and Wikipedia below (thanks) …

• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Airplane Mode
• Cellular Data Network
• Apple ID
• iCloud
• File Sharing
• SMB (networking protocol) … we talked about this one with Windows File Server and File Sharing Primer Tutorial
• AFP (networking protocol)
• HandOff
• AirPlay
• AirServer (AirPlay receiver … information from airserver.com) … we first talked about this one with AirServer on Mac Primer Tutorial … and take a look at Apple TV as well
• AirDrop
• Messages (Mac OS X and iOS application) … we first talked about this one with Mac Messages Primer Tutorial
• Mail (Mac OS X and iOS application) … we (first specifically) talked about Mac OS X with Apple (Mac) Mail Primer Tutorial
• Photos (Mac OS X and iOS application) … we talked about iOS with Camera and Photos iPad Full Primer Tutorial
• FaceTime (Mac OS X and iOS application)

Today we are going to show just a bit of FaceTime, for which you’ll definitely need to get yourself an Apple ID, have access to Wi-Fi, and if using an iPhone have the Phone application to make video or audio calls to/from an iOS device like our iPad from/to a MacBook Pro (Mac OS X) or some other iOS device.

The basic steps we did were …

1. on the iPad made sure in Settings that Wi-Fi was enabled and connected to a router … the same as …
2. on MacBook Pro in Settings -> Network made sure that that same router was enabled and connected … so that …
3. back at iPad started up FaceTime and logged in, as necessary, using the Apple ID (as mentioned above) … and …
4. back at MacBook Pro started up FaceTime and logged in, as necessary, using the Apple ID (as mentioned above) … so that …
5. back at iPad we touched the Audio (phone) icon to start a communication session … which caused …
6. back at MacBook Pro an Accept/Decline (of FaceTime Audio session (from that Apple ID username)) window for that session is offered to which we clicked Accept … which …
7. established an Audio communication between users on the iPad and MacBook Pro (which can later have Video added as required) … until …
8. users End their FaceTime sessions on iPad and/or MacBook Pro

… and so, we hope you see that this can be a “Maccy iOSsy” Skype (we talked about with Skype Primer Tutorial) if you like. Others in this genre are GoTo Meeting (we talked about with GoToMeeting Primer Tutorial) and WebEx.

This is all pretty great for a product “out of the box” with the newer iOS and Mac OS X operating systems and definitely worth the mention in Operating System Software … The Best Things in Life Are Free … ish. Makes me feel like Jack Lord, all of a twitter, towering over some villains on Nuuanu Avenue saying, “FaceBook ’em, Danno!” … and that dream sequence reply … “FaceTime me, Steve!” … boom, boom.

Sorry about no actual faces in FaceTime today, but we did look back at ourselves, and missed?!

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