Mac OS X Mountain Lion Communication

Communication Apps

As you discovered in Lesson 2's Introduction to Apps, there are thousands of apps available for the Mac—both in the App Store, and built into your computer. If you're just getting started, however, there are a few that are absolutely essential. This includes:

• Contacts for managing your contacts list
• Mail for checking your email
• Messages for instant messaging
• And other tools like FaceTime and Skype
  

These are the apps that are going to help you communicate on your computer, so you can keep in touch with friends, family, and other contacts. And the great thing about them is the fact that they're available for other Apple devices too—including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

Have More Than One Apple Device?

There are many benefits to using these apps if you have more than one Apple device. They're designed specifically so you can open the same app anywhere (on your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or Mac), and still experience the same look, feel, and functionality. All of your information will be there too, including your contacts, email, messaging history, and more.

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We'll be using the iPad for most of the demonstrations in this lesson, but if you have another device, don't worry. The corresponding apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac are fairly similar. The important thing is that you get to know some of the basic tools and features, and come away with a solid understanding of what each app can do. Then you can explore the apps some more on your own.

Reviewing Important Features

There are several things that we discuss in other parts of this tutorial that are an important part of using apps. If you're unfamiliar with any of the features below, go back to the lesson to review.

• Notifications (Lesson 2, OS X Mountain Lion Features)
  Notifications are pop-ups, banners, and other audio/visual cues. Many apps use them to notify you of new activity on your device.
  
• Preferences (Lesson 6, Changing Your Computer's Settings)
  There are many ways to manage the settings on your computer. This includes settings for each of your apps, which allows you to control the way they behave.
  
• iCloud (Lesson 7, Syncing with iCloud)
  Syncing is what links your Mac to your other devices (and your other devices to each other). Many apps will need to be set up in iCloud in order for them to sync.
  
• Siri (iPad tutorial, Siri)
  Siri is a mobile-only feature that comes with the most recent version of the iPad and the iPhone 4S and later. It allows you to control certain apps using voice commands instead of gestures or the keyboard.http://www.gcflearnfree.org/macosxmountainlion/8