iOS 7 May Include AirDrop Wireless File Sharing Capabilities

[HarryKNN21]

How about Windows XP and 7 then? I want my iOS devices able to drop file into my company's PC as well.

Even so I will wait for my Korean-made phones to dead before considering another iOS phone.

 

[Codyak]

I've seen you everywhere trying to sell the Galaxy. I don't want your phone.

But you have so many to pick from!

 

[pirg]

You mean something like NFC? It's completely revolutionary.

It will take the market completely by surprise.

Buy Apple stock tomorrow. They've changed everything... Again.

this works nothing like nfc, two completely different things. For someone who's a lover of tech, your knowledge of tech is pretty limited. Might I suggest some reading?

 

[Smigit]

you know, this is one of those things where i wish apple wouldn't try to be the maker and doer of everything; i just wish they'd partner with dropbox like everyone else.

From memory they were looking at buying them but were turned away which is why they went on to develop their own service.

In any event, this feature is different to dropbox anyway in that it connects devices within wifi range, not act as some sort of online syncing tool.

 

[theOtherGeoff]

Originally Posted by ArcaneDevice
I have never used this once.

If I need to share a file I just throw it into a Dropbox folder that's already being shared by people I know. Proximity and platform is then irrelevant.

The one drawback with Dropbox is how slow it can be to add new devices. I have 11 GB used right now - when I add a new device it takes it around 30 hours to download all the files. I'd really like it if you could prioritize files on it or something... like, get these files downloaded ASAP because I need them right now, everything else will be nice in the future but I don't need them right now.

Precisely!

Apples proprietary method is limited from the start. But then again it does give them something to chatter about.

As time goes by platforms mean less & less, a frightening thought for Apple. They need to learn how to do cloud services properly. In lieu of that, one day they'll wish they did.

Apple is trying to get the ecosystem evolved from 'personal' to 'family' to 'professional'. The latter two for non-geeks requires some level of proximity verification.

Most of this depends on hardware. The software has always been the easy part (FTP has been around since when... 1985?). Getting the network cards to be fast, secure and dynamic enough is the key.

The key thing is that Samsung, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are driving to the platform meaning more and more. (and less and less configuration for the 3 year old and 83 year old). This is all about ecosystem people. Yes, Apps will be niche systems, but core_core_core functions (content sharing being one of them) will be ecosystem controlled and effectively taxed (either mined for usage data and/or micro-paymented).

Apple and Samsung are driving to the lead because they control everything from the power plug to the cloud service. Pushing more stuff in hardware/firmware/Level1-2 of the stack (remember the day when uPNP DIDN'T exist, dynamic NAT, even DHCP? When you had to punch a firewall hole open to get anything work? Oh, you didn't know what a firewall was? Didn't Care.... Bzzt. thanks for playing...) makes for 'just works' sort of stuff, and not the self badging of geekdomism.

AirDrop is a good thing, and for families and the BYOD world of corporate... adds a level of layer zero security that while not a great level of trust... it equates to the level of trust at the current office copier. And for most businesses, that's enough.

 

[lolkthxbai]

If it took 7 iterations of a mobile phone operating system to achieve file sharing between two like devices sharing "limited file types" (of course this is apple we're talking about now) -

this is truly pathetic. Where is mobile payments (aside from the lame duck up passbook which is really lame)? Where is the ability to use your lock screen for anything else but a slide to unlock button and a clock? Where is the support for multi camera editing features such as white balance control, focus control, zoom control, self timer controls, hell, how about allowing us to use up to ISO3200 natively? Where is the ability to facetime multiple people simultaneously? Where is the feature to allow users to block certain phone calls they don't want to receive, at least give us an option to "send to voicemail' on all unwanted phone calls? How about no limits on folder items? How about being able to set any settings via voice control via SIRI? Right now it says it can't do that - which is truly pathetic. How about being able to send text/imessages via any app via a simple drop down notification system like beejive? How about some profile settings such as when I'm in a meeting, I'd like certain calls to come in, other calls to be discarded and when I'm out of a meeting, I just select a profile to return to normal, etc.

Most of these are available 3rd party apps and jailbroken apps - but seriously, all I get in iOS 6.1 is the ducking button slider (when playing music) when tilted to any side, it will "mimic" a reflection on the button surface.

There needs to be way more than this "airshare" feature - I don't even know who will be using this because you still need to have a wifi connection! Just let us send stuff via bluetooth AT LEAST.

I don't know if you've noticed but they don't like giving people many options. Take a look at their macs.

 

[mjw11]

Finnaly! Capabilities for sharing photos etc between phones have been around way before iOS and iPhone etc I hope these features take advantage of Bluetooth as well as wifi! Would save on data usage and costs!

 

[rosenkrieger]

If you want this feature on the SAME Network - its already here and called Instashare

iOS and OS X
http://instashareapp.com

If Apple implements this into iOS and OS X I guess the authors of Instashare have been "steved" or now it should be called "cooked" ;-)

 

[FSMBP]

I can already email attachments to folks. I know how to do that. It works pretty fast if I'm on LTE, which I probably will be if I'm sending this from my i5 to another i5. Yes it uses data on cell service, but often I'm on wifi, so I'm not hitting my cell limit.

Nice feature. But the percentage of folks who ever use this more than as a novelty strikes me as going to be very small.

Yeah but emailing doesn't work too well when sending 150MB HD videos; even using Dropbox, you would have to wait to upload it to Dropbox (and it would go against your storage), then have the other person download once a link is ready.

 

[Compile 'em all]

This will be helpful but Apple still needs to implement a built in file system.

I hope the word file system along with the concept of files and directories dies and never comes back. Glad iOS doesn't expose its file system. Why should I worry where my files are stored anyway.

 

[Truffy]

As long as it can be disabled with a Profile Manager preference, like the OS X version, it's not going to be a PITA.

write defaults com.apple.NetworkBrowser DisableAirDrop -bool YES

FTW!

 

[gnasher729]

This will be helpful but Apple still needs to implement a built in file system.

iPhones have a full Posix-compatible file system. Always had. Since 2007.

What you mean is that Apple needs (in your opinion) to give visible access to that file system to the user. Most users disagree.

 

[The Phazer]

iPhones have a full Posix-compatible file system. Always had. Since 2007.

What you mean is that Apple needs (in your opinion) to give visible access to that file system to the user. Most users disagree.

Do they now?

Or have you completely invented that?

 

[phillytim]

Should iOS AirDrop actually be released, does that hint that iOS will have changed to allow a fully user-enabled file system on mobile devices?

 

[gnasher729]

No, it doesn't. You don't need wifi for your photos to upload from your iphone to the cloud. Only a phone that is activated and has a data plan. And you HAVE to have some sort of data plan if you have an iphone.

Actually, no. You have to have a SIM card inside at certain times, like resetting the phone, or installing new OS versions, but after that you can remove the SIM card and it will work just fine.

Even with a SIM card, you don't need a data plan. In some countries it seems hard to get your hands on a SIM card, in others, it is easy.

----------

Do they now?

Or have you completely invented that?

Most users implicitly disagree with "iPhone must have a user-visible file system", because they don't even know what a file system is. It's like telling someone who has been driving an automatic car all his life that his car needs a kludge. That person will never say "I don't need a kludge" because they don't even know what it is.

From observing people, most people that I know who use an iPhone or iPad wouldn't know what a file system is, and among those who know what it is, nobody ever complained that it is missing - including myself.

So i guess this means Apple is adding some sort of file system to iOS?

Can't wait to see what they come up with at the WWDC.

If WWDC were of any interest to you, you would know that there always was a file system on iOS devices.

 

[kas23]

We should also have the option of having songs added to iTunes automatically and wirelessly pushed to our iPhone. I know iTunes Match exists (and I actually have it, but gave up on it), but we shouldn't have to either sync or need a centralized Apple server to get songs on our iPhone. It should have automatically and instantly.

 

[animatedude]

very good news but very late....should've been on the first iPhone.

 

[charlesdayton]

I still don't get why some people here are: Complaining all the time and hating on iPhone and praising Android.

Hating on iPhone and parsing the competition on an iPhone forum just wastes yours and other forum member's time.

Just get an Android phone and be happy with it. No one is forcing you on a phone or forum you don't like.

 

[Todd B.]

you know, this is one of those things where i wish apple wouldn't try to be the maker and doer of everything; i just wish they'd partner with dropbox like everyone else.

OR.. They could make iOS a little bit more advanced and allow Dropbox and a bunch of other services to integrate themselves into iOS… Yes, I'm a dreamer. :/

Both of these things assume that a) I have Dropbox and b) I want to sign up, install, and configure something like that.

Apple shouldn't just rely on third parties for everything they should continue, like they're already doing, to make things as seamless as possible. Why bother with worrying about Dropbox when I can just drag, drop, and be done with it through Airdrop?

I still don't get why some people here are: Complaining all the time and hating on iPhone and praising Android.

Because it's what trolls do.

 

[finalcut]

I only hope files transfered with AirDrop would be openable with app other than Apple's official app

 

[Shasterball]

Finally something that I can get excited about. This would strengthen the "ecosystem" argument for using iOS/OS X.

 

[cmChimera]

Mob: We need new features!
Apple: dropping the airdrop on y'all for iOS7!
Mob: Macs have airdrop! We want something we never asked for!
Me: Unappreciative fools.

 

[Kissaragi]

This would be really useful for me

 

[Xenc]

AirDrop with NFC support would be great for the next iPhone.

 

[urbanslaughter1997]

"While iCloud synchronization works well for sharing photos and documents between two iOS devices owned by the same person"

This is such baloney. I use instashare rather than wait around for a photograph to appear on my other devices. I have the same problem waiting for websites on one device to appear on another device. It's always faster to simply type in the URL. I'd be happier if apple just made these promised features work.