Chapter 8: Connecting MacBook Air to Other Devices

8.1 Expand Storage Space with an External Hard Drive

     Your MacBook Air includes a drive on which you store the operating system, applications, and your own files and folders. You can connect an external hard drive to provide more storage space or to back up your files using the OS X Time Machine feature. To get an external hard drive ready to work with your MacBook Air, you first connect the drive to the computer. You then optionally use the Disk Utility application to format and partition the hard drive.

     With an external hard drive, you can use the OS X Time Machine feature to back up your important data. You can also back up to an AirPort Time Capsule using Time Machine. Should something happen to the data on your MacBook Air or to the MacBook Air itself, you can easily recover the data from the external drive or the AirPort Time Capsule so that you do not lose files that you can never recover, such as your photos. For more information about Time Machine, see Chapter 17.

8.2 Connect and Use an External Display

     Your MacBook Air screen is as large as will fit within its slim body, but you may sometimes need more screen space to spread out your documents and work with multiple windows at the same time. To add screen space to your MacBook Air, you can connect an external display to it. This enables you to use the MacBook Air’s internal display and the external display at the same time. You can use both as a single large desktop, or you can mirror the displays, which means that each shows the same thing.

8.3 Using an Apple TV to Display on an HDTV

     With a second-generation or later Apple TV, you can wirelessly broadcast your MacBook Air’s display on the device to which the Apple TV is connected. This is great for watching movies or videos on a big-screen TV, enjoying a shared web-browsing session, or giving presentations from your MacBook Air to a group of people. To broadcast to an Apple TV, your MacBook Air uses AirPlay. This technology enables Macs and iOS devices to send a signal to an Apple TV for it to display on a television.

8.4 Connect and Use Bluetooth Devices

     Although your MacBook Air comes fully equipped for mobile computing, you will likely want to connect other devices to it sometimes. When you want to connect a device such as a keyboard, a mouse, or speakers, a wireless technology called Bluetooth is often the easiest and most flexible choice. To connect and manage Bluetooth devices, you use the Bluetooth pane in the System Preferences application. To connect a Bluetooth device for the first time, you pair the device with your MacBook Air. Once you have paired the devices, you can quickly disconnect and reconnect the device as needed.

8.5 Connect and Use External Speakers

     Your MacBook Air has speakers built in, but they are limited by their tiny size. With iTunes, streaming video, and all the other great applications for which sound is vital, you will likely want to use external speakers with your MacBook Air. You can use a variety of speakers with MacBook Air. The easiest arrangement is usually to use powered speakers, also called computer speakers. You can also play back audio through speakers connected to an AirPort Express or Apple TV, or connect your MacBook Air to a receiver that drives speakers or connect a pair of analog headphones.

8.6 Connect to and Use a USB Hub

     Many devices use USB to connect to a computer. The MacBook Air has only two USB ports, so you can connect only two devices to it at a time — at least, using direct connections.
     For situations in which you want to connect more than two USB devices to your MacBook Air at the same time, you can use an external USB hub. You connect the hub to your MacBook Air and then connect USB devices to the ports on the hub. Your MacBook Air can access these devices just as if they are connected to its USB port. Usually, it is best to get a USB hub with an external power supply, but for travel you may prefer a hub that draws power from the MacBook Air.

8.7 Connect to and Use Ethernet Devices

     Your MacBook Air is designed to be wireless when it comes to connecting to many devices — most important, local networks and the Internet. But Ethernet, a wired technology, offers tempting benefits over wireless connections. Ethernet is faster, and so achieves the best network performance. Ethernet is also more secure than wireless because you have to be physically connected to a network to access it.
     To connect to a network or a device with Ethernet, you can use a Thunderbolt-to–Gigabit Ethernet adapter or a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. Use an Ethernet cable to connect the adapter to an AirPort, network switch or router, or other Ethernet device, such as a printer.