by , 7:30 AM EDT, June 23rd, 2006

If your mobile phone has a camera and Bluetooth, and your Mac has Bluetooth, you can copy the pictures you take to your computer without paying transfer fees to your cell service provider. For this to work, your cell phone and Mac need to be paired so that they can talk to each other. If you use iSync to share your Address Book or iCal information with your phone, they're already paired. If not, here's how to link your Mac and phone:

• Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences to launch the System Preferences application.
• Choose the Bluetooth Preference Pane.
• Click the Devices tab.
• Click the Set Up New Device button.
• Once the Bluetooth Setup Assistant launches, follow the instructions to pair your Mac and cell phone.

While you're in the Bluetooth Preference Pane, hop back to the Settings tab and check Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar. That's going to save you a few steps when you are ready to copy files from your cell phone.

The Bluetooth menu item is the easiest way to get at your phone's files.

Here's how to copy files from your phone to your Mac:

• Click the Bluetooth menu item in your menu bar and choose Browse Device.
• Select your phone, and then click the Browse button.

Select your phone from the list of Bluetooth devices that are paired with your Mac.

• Double-click your picture folder.
• Drag the pictures you want to copy to your Desktop. If you want to copy every picture on your phone, you can drag your picture folder instead of Double-clicking it.

Select a folder on your phone (left), and then drag the files you want to copy (right) to your Desktop.

You can also copy audio files, and if your camera supports video, videos as well. Besides saving yourself from extra cell phone fees, this is a handy way to back up custom ring tones and display images.

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