Hi All, A few weeks ago I read about an app in the Mac App store that lets you use your computer keyboard to type to your iOS device through a Bluetooth connection. It's called Type2Phone ($4.99), and is aimed at letting iOS developers who are writing code on their computers to easily switch over to testing applications on their iPhones and other iOS devices by using the same keyboard to enter text. It's a little bit quirky to get the original connection set up, and I don't think I'd use it all the time, but there may be instances where it can be handy. For example, if you're working at your computer and you get a text message, it can be convenient to just switch over to the Type2Phone app with Command-tab, and type your response.
The somewhat quirky part comes from getting the Bluetooth connection between your iPhone and laptop paired. You don't actually have to type in a pairing code, or at least I didn't have to on my MacBook Pro. I gather that if you have a desktop Mac, such as an iMac, you may actually have to typing in the pairing code. What happens is that once you turn on Bluetooth on your computer and start up Type2Phone, and then go to the Settings > General > Bluetooth menu of your iPhone, you get dialog messages about the 8-digit pairing code that is supposed to be typed in. On my MacBook, the same 8-digit pairing code gets displayed as shows up on my iPhone screen, and I just have to either press "return" or VO-Space on the button to accept the connection. The first two times I tried this, I although the pairing codes matched, and I accepted the option, I still got the message that the pairing had failed. (In one case it seemed to go through initially.) So I put this aside until I read a blog post about how to establish the pairing. Here's the link to the article on Type2Phone by Dr. Drang: http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2011/12/type2phone/ Basically, he summarized that he had to use the "trouble-shooting" tips to get his Mac to see the device: • If the Mac is listed with a blue arrow, tap that arrow and select “Forget this device”. • Disable Bluetooth on the Mac • Reenable Bluetooth on the Mac • Set Bluetooth on the Mac to be discoverable • Launch Type2Phone • Now restart your iPhone / iPad • On your iPhone / iPad, go to Settings > General > Bluetooth • Enable Bluetooth on your iPhone • Tap the name of the Mac to start the pairing procedure It turned out that this worked for his MacBook Air, but for his iMac, it still required 5 tries to get through the pairing. (For the iMac he had to actually type the pairing code in on both devices, and not just accept it, as was the case for his MacBook Air and for my MacBook Pro.) What seemed to make things finally work for him was a tip to turn off WiFi before starting the Bluetooth pairing with his iMac. After I read this post, I turned off Wi-Fi on my MacBook Pro, and followed the bulleted instructions (with the exception that I didn't need to "restart" my iPhone after launching Type2Phone). On my MacBook Pro I then accepted the pairing key in the dialog window (without typing any numbers). As described in the blog, using the app after the quirky pairing is easy, and apparently you only have to get through the pairing once per computer: Using Type2Phone is blessedly simple: • Launch Type2Phone, which brings up a long, horizontal window. • Choose your phone from the popup menu of paired devices. • Tap in a text field on you phone to get the cursor blinking. • Type. For VoiceOver users. of course, you double tap in the text field where you want to start typing. The Type2Phone window on your Mac is like a key logger -- it registers the series of keys that you type. That means, if you mistyped, and had to delete letters and then re-type them, if you navigated to the previous keystroke entries (with VO-Left arrow), you'd hear the correction letters, then the delete key, then the mistyped letters. You don't actually need to do anything with the Type2Phone window on your Mac, since you can read and check the content of what was typed on your iPhone with a two-finger flick to read all, for example. The Type2Phone keyboard connection is only for typing -- not for all the other commands that VoiceOver users can perform to activate keys, etc. with a general paired Bluetooth keyboard. Any VO-left arrow, etc. commands move you through typed letters in the Type2Phone window on your Mac, and don't affect your iPhone. You can also copy and paste from your Mac clipboard into your iPhone text, and accented text combinations are supported. So if I select text from a document on my Mac, I can paste it into a note, text message, or email message on my iPhone. The setup should work with any iOS device, by the way, although I haven't tried this with my iPad or iPod Touch. You just have to accept the appropriate device for theType2Phone window on your Mac. Despite the initial quirks of Bluetooth pairing, I found Type2Phone to be an interesting capability, and completely accessible with VoiceOver. (I'm running Snow Leopard, but that shouldn't make a difference.) Here's the link to the Type2Phone app at the Mac App Store: • Type2Phone ($4.99) Houdah Software http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/type2phone/id472717129?l=es&mt=12 Incidentally, the store preview page has the links and headings in Spanish, although the descriptive text is all in English. Version 1.2 of the Software support multiple keyboard layouts. There's a Houdah support page, and associated discussion forums and FAQ at: http://www.houdah.com/support/ HTH. Cheers, Esther <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
