Connecting Peripherals to Your Mac

Abstract

Today more and more features are built into computers than ever before. Most new Macs (except the MacPro and Mac mini) include features such as stereo speakers, decent microphones, and even video cameras all built in and ready to use. Still, oftentimes you need something else or want to improve on what you already have in your computer. Luckily for you, there is a range of hardware devices that can work wonderfully with your Mac (commonly referred to as peripherals). Since you have a Mac, you just need to plug in most of these items, and they work (that is, they’re plug and play, as it was intended). However, with the complexity and features available for some of these external devices, occasionally you need to do a little more to get the most out of them. Additionally, these days, many peripherals connect over a network or wirelessly, so rather than plugging something in, you often need to tell your computer to look for it. This chapter addresses all of this, including the following:

• Printers

• Bluetooth devices

• External storage

• Other external peripherals