Airdrop observation and could use help from others

[MacVidCards]

I have been trying to get Handoff/Continuity actually working with my various Macs and an iPhone 4S. I put iOS 8 on the iPhone because it is a left over that isn't really important.

Now I'm wishing that I had put it on a 5 or iPad 3. Turns out I regularly end up emailing pix from my 5S to my rMBP and this "Airdrop" now covering both types of machines would be great.

But during my testing I have noticed that it seems Airdrop is limited on MP based on which WiFi card is in.

When I have a modern "AC" WiFi card I have the standard choices for new Airdrop.

When I use a "N" series card from recent generation, I am only offered the option of connecting to "Older" Macs. (Specifically excludes using with iOS devices)

Can some of you check to see if this is correct?

Just need to see which wifi card you have as well as what the Airdrop screen says. If you want to do screenshots, just hit "apple" "shift" and "4" and you will get a cursor you can drag over the screen.

It will be rather silly if wireless AC is required since the iOS devices don't have it. Would be an obvious "want the new features? but new stuff" move from them.

 

[afsnyder]

I believe that the iPhone 4s cannot use AirDrop. The newer AirDrop uses the newer Bluetooth LE technology and peer-to-peer wifi while the old airdrop didn't. Maybe the newer AC wifi card supports peer-to-peer wifi and the older one doesn't?

I think its great that Apple is allowing older macs to continue to AirDrop even though it would be incompatible with iPhones.

 

[MacVidCards]

I believe that the iPhone 4s cannot use AirDrop. The newer AirDrop uses the newer Bluetooth LE technology and peer-to-peer wifi while the old airdrop didn't. Maybe the newer AC wifi card supports peer-to-peer wifi and the older one doesn't?

I think its great that Apple is allowing older macs to continue to AirDrop even though it would be incompatible with iPhones.

Yes, but unfortunate that it is "either/or"

You can have it work with one or the other, not both at once.

MEanwhile, 500 people have wandered in and nobody knows whether their WiFi card and Airdrop mode fit this theory? Not asking for anyone to hack anything, just have a look in the system profiler and a single click on Airdrop. A simple post with which airport card you have and whether Airdrop lets you choose or is stuck on "works with old macs".

 

[afsnyder]

Yes, but unfortunate that it is "either/or"

You can have it work with one or the other, not both at once.

MEanwhile, 500 people have wandered in and nobody knows whether their WiFi card and Airdrop mode fit this theory? Not asking for anyone to hack anything, just have a look in the system profiler and a single click on Airdrop. A simple post with which airport card you have and whether Airdrop lets you choose or is stuck on "works with old macs".

Maybe they'll have a dedicated webpage for this when OS X Yosemite launches.

 

[MacVidCards]

Guess nobody cares.

Will eventually, just confirmed with a 2011 Era MBP WiFi card. Has BT 4.0, so supports Continuity, but Airdrop still only looks for "Older Macs".

So even if you find a working BT 4.0 Dongle, there will be no sending pix, files, etc directly from iPhone to whatever Mac you are running. The Wireless AC cards that seem to be supported are from 2013 on.

Amazing all the groaning about the BT issue when that started getting phased in around 2011.

Airdrop is poised to exclude a great deal more Macs and nobody cares.

 

[Richdmoore]

Thanks for the update.

Things get way more complicated I guess, with needing both a wifi & bluetooth upgrade.

Is there an easy way to add an official ac wifi via USB? I use a wired connection with my iMac to my router, the wifi would be used only to allow connectivity to ios devices.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Dell™ Wireless 1550 WLAN/BT Combo Half Mini-Card

Thanks MVC for your trials-and-tribulations for fixing this issue for many Mac users here on MR!

A very UNeducated question, is it possible to use a card like the The Dell™ Wireless 1550 WLAN/BT Combo Half Mini-Card for this purpose. It has 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 LE onboard.

Bluetooth (BT) Features
Bluetooth V4.0LE, V3.0+HS, V2.1+EDR system Support Class II
BT transmission speed including 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 3Mbps EDR operations
Support for Simple Pairing (SP) and Enhanced Inquiry Response (EIR) function
Main chip enhanced features
Ultra low-power consumption
USB Interface and USB 2.0 compliant
Support for WiFi 802.11 coexistence

And as Richdmoore asked what about a 802.11ac wireless router like the Sitecom 8100 wired with UTP to the mac? Been searching for a combined WiFi / BLE 4.0 device for a while but still no luck.

Let the MR quest, to beat (not beats...) Apple on this issue, prevail!

 

[MacVidCards]

Thanks MCV for your trials-and-tribulations for fixing this issue for many Mac users here on MR!

A very UNeducated question, is it possible to use a card like the The Dell™ Wireless 1550 WLAN/BT Combo Half Mini-Card for this purpose. It has 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 LE onboard.



And as Richdmoore asked what about a 802.11ac wireless router like the Sitecom 8100 wired with UTP to the mac? Been searching for a combined WiFi / BLE 4.0 device for a while but still no luck.

Let the MR quest, to beat (not beats...) Apple on this issue, prevail!

Many Broadcom 4360 cards can be made to work with Wireless AC.

You need to read up at OSXLatitude or TonyMac. Toledo and SKVO put out fixes to make off brand cards work.

FACT: All Broadcom 4360 cards function nearly identically.

FACT: Apple doesn't want you using other people's stuff to make your 2010 computer equal to a new one. So they put up little roadblocks. Their drivers look for specific device ids and subsystem ids and vendor ids. Since nobody but Apple can use an Apple vendor id, this is easy way to keep $15 BT dongles from full and perfect functioning.

I have tested an Azurewave card with Toleda's packages and it ran Wireless AC just fine, and even identified itself as "Airport Extreme"...but with the next OS update it goes back into being a pumpkin until someone issues patches.

This is why the BT 4.0 dongles we are going to be selling will be using Apple chips, no way to disable them and they will never have need for patches or fixes.

Same with Wireless AC, best to get Apple card in adapter.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

This is why the BT 4.0 dongles we are going to be selling will be using Apple chips, no way to disable them and they will never have need for patches or fixes.
Same with Wireless AC, best to get Apple card in adapter.

Thanks for your feedback MCV! Is it possible that Apple will respect customers with <2 year 'old' Macs and lower the specs for using these new features of Yosemite, or are they really technically minimal specs for it? WOW, it's such a nasty idea that Apple might be (is) forcing customers to buy new. My first upgrade 'must be' a new iPhone (have 4), but I'll be patient for further feedback on the public release of Yosemite, for the definitive specs. Cheers for your results so far!

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I have been trying to get Handoff/Continuity actually working with my various Macs and an iPhone 4S. I put iOS 8 on the iPhone because it is a left over that isn't really important.

Now I'm wishing that I had put it on a 5 or iPad 3. Turns out I regularly end up emailing pix from my 5S to my rMBP and this "Airdrop" now covering both types of machines would be great.

But during my testing I have noticed that it seems Airdrop is limited on MP based on which WiFi card is in.

When I have a modern "AC" WiFi card I have the standard choices for new Airdrop.

When I use a "N" series card from recent generation, I am only offered the option of connecting to "Older" Macs. (Specifically excludes using with iOS devices)

Can some of you check to see if this is correct?

Just need to see which wifi card you have as well as what the Airdrop screen says. If you want to do screenshots, just hit "apple" "shift" and "4" and you will get a cursor you can drag over the screen.

It will be rather silly if wireless AC is required since the iOS devices don't have it. Would be an obvious "want the new features? but new stuff" move from them.

I would like to help but I'm trying to understand what you are trying to figure out? We know it only works with BT4.0le right now, is it if you need Wifi ac for the "new airdrop"? Im glad to help but I'm just having a hard time figuring out what you need and why.

I too have been trying to figure all of this out but got stunted because I need the adapter piece for newer small form cards/ mpcie for my 08MP and ordering from China (the only place Ive found them) will take as long to deliver as Yosemite will take to come out officially.

It will be interesting to see if by final launch if putting an ac card in an older mac will work. If the issue truly is hardware then it should, if the issue is Apple just wants you to upgrade then it wont.

In closing let me know what you need and I will try to help as much as possible.

 

[MacVidCards]

All I am asking is for people running Yose beta DP to open a finder window and click on Airdrop. You will have one or the other of the two options I pictured. I am mainly curious who gets the one that lets you choose to see IOS devices and what BT/WiFi cards those have.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

(2012) Mac Pro 5.1

Here's one. Good luck MVC!

 

[MacVidCards]

Sad to be right

I guess I wasn't very clear in what I was posting.

DP3 has shown that Apple seems to want to see a Wireless AC card AND BT 4.0 to enable all the new goodies.

Any hopes of a simple fix with a USB 4.0 dongle have been squashed, at least until someone finds a kext hack.

The silly part is that they are requiring a Wireless AC card in the Mac, but there is no way it is using that to talk to iPhone since none of them have wireless AC.

So, they require it, but when your phone and Mac chat, they start conversation on BT 4.0 but finish it using Wireless N, which a good deal more Macs have support for. So, Apple just using a completely arbitrary and artificial barrier to sell more stuff.

God for their balance sheet, bad for customers.