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Bluetooth LE Adapters Don't Enable OS X Yosemite's 'Handoff' on Older Macs

Hopefully 3rd party support ends up in the full release or a hack is announced. I was really excited for these features and my 2011 iMac is hardly out-dated enough to be worth upgrading.

Good news that SMS and phone support should be over WiFi though. I admit, I will likely get more use out of those than I will handoff. Lack of iOS to OS X airdrop is annoying as well but I can survive.
 
Ordered a 2012 Bluetooth card for my 2011 13" MBP in preparation. Airdrop between phone and Mac is the one feature I've always wanted, so £15 on a card and shipping is well worth it, as opposed to having to buy a new laptop.
 
LukeHarrison said:
Ordered a 2012 Bluetooth card for my 2011 13" MBP in preparation. Airdrop between phone and Mac is the one feature I've always wanted, so £15 on a card and shipping is well worth it, as opposed to having to buy a new laptop.
Click to expand...


Are you sure that this configuration will
Work?is the voltage and power the same?
 
DavidBlack said:
Really sucks for those that don't have a 'newer' Mac.
Click to expand...

Yes, by all means, let's hold off introducing new features for years because everyone isn't at the same point in their hardware upgrade lifecycle.

I've got two Macs (well, three, but the Mini is a server that would never use this feature anyway), one has the appropriate hardware and the other doesn't. Should I refuse to use it on the newer machine because the older one doesn't have it?
 
LukeHarrison said:
Ordered a 2012 Bluetooth card for my 2011 13" MBP in preparation. Airdrop between phone and Mac is the one feature I've always wanted, so £15 on a card and shipping is well worth it, as opposed to having to buy a new laptop.
Click to expand...

Where did you buy yours? I'd like to get one before they sell out ...
 
Dwalls90 said:
Where did you buy yours? I'd like to get one before they sell out ...
Click to expand...

It was from this link, posted by WolfSnap earlier in this thread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BroadCom-Apple-BCM4331-BCM20702-BT-WLAN-Card-A1278-A1286-A1297-661-5867-607-8792-/120581409685?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item1c13364b95

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imm22 said:
Are you sure that this configuration will
Work?is the voltage and power the same?
Click to expand...

Others have done it with success, for the most part the internals of the machines are identical. It was only £15 including shipping, so even if it doesn't, it's no great loss.
 
LukeHarrison said:
It was from this link, posted by WolfSnap earlier in this thread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BroadCom-Apple-BCM4331-BCM20702-BT-WLAN-Card-A1278-A1286-A1297-661-5867-607-8792-/120581409685?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item1c13364b95

----------



Others have done it with success, for the most part the internals of the machines are identical. It was only £15 including shipping, so even if it doesn't, it's no great loss.
Click to expand...

Has anyone tried this on a Mid-2010 MBP? Is the connection compatible?
 
LukeHarrison said:
It was from this link, posted by WolfSnap earlier in this thread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BroadCom-Apple-BCM4331-BCM20702-BT-WLAN-Card-A1278-A1286-A1297-661-5867-607-8792-/120581409685?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item1c13364b95

----------



Others have done it with success, for the most part the internals of the machines are identical. It was only £15 including shipping, so even if it doesn't, it's no great loss.
Click to expand...


Thanks! It would make sense it works, as you said, nothing really changed.

Does it for sure work?
 
Bluetooth LE Adapters Don't Enable OS X Yosemite's 'Handoff' on Older Macs

i need a new Bluetooth module for the first unibody MacBook Pro 15"
Can some one point me one?
Even better, one that works
On the new handoff on Yosemite.
The one that I have has intermittent connection.

Thanks
 
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I'm so happy I didn't rush for the MBA in 2010 and waited till next year to buy one. Much more advanced CPU, much faster SSD, bakclit keyboard, Thunderbolt (not that I ever used it), Bluetotth LE... It still feels as it was new and I don't even slightly feel the need to upgrade. :cool:
 
Bluetooth LE Adapters Don't Enable OS X Yosemite's 'Handoff' on Older Macs

mrbyu said:
I'm so happy I didn't rush for the MBA in 2010 and waited till next year to buy one. Much more advanced CPU, much faster SSD, bakclit keyboard, Thunderbolt (not that I ever used it), Bluetotth LE... It still feels as it was new and I don't even slightly feel the need to upgrade. :cool:
Click to expand...


Wait until October when the new intel broawell arrives.
Ultra low voltages fan-less and a lot more powerful GPU.
But the truth is that will always be something better around the corner

Glad you are happy with your machine. It is a truly a great small piece of engineer
 
LukeHarrison said:
Seems to do from what others have said. I'll report back when it arrives.
Click to expand...

Look forward to it, plenty of time until the GM drops, so I'm curious! If you have luck, I'll pull the trigger. Seems like it's not TOO difficult to upgrade this ..
 
What's old is new again.

This is an old, familiar story.

If you don't want to visit the link... it's about back in 2003 when Apple release Airport Extreme. It was discovered that 3rd party CardBus cards could be used in TiBooks. Apple tried to lock folks out, so I wrote a perl script to pick the lock. This went on a few versions until they finally gave up.

I suspect this time their backbone will be a little firmer.
 
So for those Apple defenders who say - "Don't fault Apple for using the latest technology. They skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now. Your machine is old!", they require BT 4.0 LE for the "best user experience".

Fine, that's fair.

So what's the excuse that adapters won't work? You've now got BT LE 4.0, right?

Apple defenders, reply?
 
fmalloy said:
So for those Apple defenders who say - "Don't fault Apple for using the latest technology. They skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now. Your machine is old!", they require BT 4.0 LE for the "best user experience".

Fine, that's fair.

So what's the excuse that adapters won't work? You've now got BT LE 4.0, right?

Apple defenders, reply?
Click to expand...

I'm not good at these things, but there might be some reasonable explanation. As with Airplay Mirroring, many have asked why it didn't work with machines that had more than capable GPU and CPU. It turned out that Apple's way of mirroring used some technology that indeed needed a certain kind of chipset.

The other is Power Nap. Many have asked, why wouldn't it work with older machines if you replaced the HDD with SSD. I think the answer is simple. Apple wants to be sure that everything just works, out of the box. Apple doesn't want its technologies to depend on external third party peripheries. Who knows what could be wrong. Users might be confused and angry, they'd even call Apple and ask: "Hey, Handoff doesn't work on my MBP, why is that? Yeah, I've bough some Bluetooth LE dongle from eBay... no, I don't know what brand is it... why doesn't it work? S***y Apple..."

Surely Apple wouldn't want this. I don't think they could be blamed because of it.
 
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Tech198 said:
Well,, that's a few questions already answered from before about third party Bluetooth LE adapters :)

By the same token, Apple has done themselves in with this one.

They make 10.10 to work on as many intel based-Macs as possible, but then restrict it because of hardware..

"yes you can use 10.10, but not all features may work, depending on the Mac you have."

same thing with iOS...

Apple is the only company i know that does that... Kind of deceiving kind of way, because users expect to be able to you ALL features, but due to hardware limitation they can not, thus, Apple gets more money because of hardware upgrades to support all features in the current OS/iOS.

I guess this just all works to their advantage.
Click to expand...

Wrong, Apple is not the only company that does that, not even in the minority - Microsoft is the obvious example with not only Windows, but the Xbox360 - original models do not even have a port to plug in a Kinect - Games still run but you cant use motion controls... early models cant run certain games - same with Sony PS3. pretty much every single third-party software company has to do this... Certain functions in Adobe products require a graphics card capable of CUDA. Aftermarket Car Stereos require certain hookups in a car for each feature...

I mean really what do you expect companies to do when certain hardware doesnt support something? not release it at all?

Stop and think for a minute .... every single computer runs on an OS that has lots of features ... all of which depend on certain hardware.... and if you dont have the hardware for said feature... (see where im going yet?) .... cant exactly connect to a WiFi Network if a computer doesnt have a WiFi chip - or there is no router to connect to...

Would you really rather than Apple just not release continuity at all? or not realease OS 10.10 at all? or just say youre old hardware cant run 10.10 at all... wouldnt you rather get a many new features and the added security/stability of the new version even if a few features dont work?
 
Maybe Apple will be kind to us with older hardware and sell an official Apple branded overpriced USB Bluetooth LE dongle. :p
 
Truffy said:
Because we haven't lived this long without it :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

my point exactly, either upgrade or stop complaining that your computer is not compatible.

it's not like it is the most revolutionary feature that everyone must have.
 
I ordered up a 2013 iMac PCIe AirPort/Bluetooth board and an antenna with extended cable to swap into the bluetooth antenna spot for my 2011 iMac. We'll see how it goes. Seems like people have had a fair amount of luck with upgrading the wireless to AC through the PCIe slot and it's a relatively easy and cheap thing to try and do.
 
Story is wrong

There are ways, using original Apple boards works

Super easy in a 2008 MP, may be more trouble in 2009-12

Discovered first by Netkas
 

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