I'm in the same boat. There has to be a way to make it work. Leaving out a great recent mac like the 2011 MBP is nonsense.
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Yosemite 'Handoff' Feature Likely Limited to Macs with Bluetooth LE
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I'm in the same boat. There has to be a way to make it work. Leaving out a great recent mac like the 2011 MBP is nonsense.
Do you think if I got a new Bluetooth chipset installed in my Mac, that would work? (say a chipset from a mid-2012 Pro? it should be an easy switch out I would think)
Anyone else struggle to see the logic in using BT 4.0 over WiFi?
I don't even have BT turned on much, unless I'm in the car but WiFi is always on.
BT 4.0 provides BT LE (Low Energy). BT LE really is very, very low energy. It allows your devices to let other devices know they're nearby while using very minimal power. WiFi doesn't do this. In fact, you think WiFi is always on, but it's not. When you turn the screen off, WiFi goes off too (when you're not plugged in). This is because it's a huge power drain. BT LE is not.
As a side note, WiFi is also being used. BT LE advertises that the device is nearby. After that, a direct WiFi connection is created to transfer larger amounts of data.
what? BTLE is incredibly efficient...
a lot more, actually.
Anyone else struggle to see the logic in using BT 4.0 over WiFi?
I don't even have BT turned on much, unless I'm in the car but WiFi is always on.
You are the odd one out, most people leave BT on full time because it has almost negligible impact on battery life.
This. BT 4.0 is the best way to implement something like this without draining power especially when 99% of the time, it's going to be idle.
Just made it
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For phones, maybe. Computers are a bigger investment and many people use them for 5 years before replacing them.
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For phones, maybe. Computers are a bigger investment and many people use them for 5 years before replacing them.
It won't.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if swapping a bluetooth/airport card from a 2012+ MBP into one of the older MBPs enabled it. Perhaps some software tweaking would be required as well, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work.
I'll be ordering one and testing.
I was wondering the same thing. A quick search on Amazon showed several Bluetooth 4.0 adapters but the first few I check say they are NOT Mac compatible. Neither is the one you linked - it only mentions Windows support.
Anyone else struggle to see the logic in using BT 4.0 over WiFi?
I don't even have BT turned on much, unless I'm in the car but WiFi is always on.
Well BT is very power efficient compared to Wifi (turn Wifi off for a day and see the battery difference). Also it is a close proximity protocol (device to device) where Wifi can cover a whole complex and is less secure. That's why cars use it instead of a wifi network. iBeacon and Airdrop are Bluetooth technologies.
I am not entirely sure. But I still remember there was a hack enabling AirDrops on older Macs even AirDrops with LAN connection. I remember AirDrops require newer WiFi chip, but people still made AirDrop work on older Mac. So I believe some short of hack could make Hands Off and Continuity work
Don't feel bad, everybody.
You know Hand Off is (initially) limited to Apple apps, and will only work 75% of the time anyways. By the time you get it working in the coming years, you all will have already upgraded to some newer gear.
You know Hand Off is (initially) limited to Apple apps, and will only work 75% of the time anyways. By the time you get it working in the coming years, you all will have already upgraded to some newer gear.
Thanks. I just realized that I don't use iOS anymore so I'm not really missing anything because it's not possible on android anyway. I can see google copying this eventually.
Well my Macbook Air is a 2012 model, says it has bluetooth 4.3 and handoff isn't working between it and my iPhone 5.
That's why Apple gives away the Mac OS X for free and charges a premium for their computers. Where do you think they make their money? Getting people to upgrade constantly.
Probably not. Apple may limit Handoff to built-in bluetooth only.
There's already a precedent with PowerNap: it only works with MBAs and rMBPs that have always shipped with factory-installed SSDs. There's technically nothing preventing my 2009 MBP 13" with Samsung SSD from having PowerNap (since its firmware already supports Dark Wake mode), except for Apple's refusal to do so.
Speaking of SSDs, Mac OS X supported TRIM command since version 10.6.6 or so, but it artificially limits the feature to those that identify themselves to the system as "APPLE SSD". Of course, there are utilities that patch the system driver so that 3rd party SSDs work with TRIM, but still.
Another example: in iOS 3.0 (then called iPhone OS) Apple caved in to demand and added support for MMS, however it was limited to iPhone 3G and 3GS, leaving out the original iPhone. So the jailbreak community quickly discovered that one of the system frameworks had a check for model version, basically saying: "if you're not iPhone 3G or newer, then no MMS for you!" There was also a patch that enabled MMS on jailbroken 2G iPhones, proving that all required support was already in place.
Well maybe I will start using it. Just I have no use for it on my Mac currently (my Logitech Performance MX mouse uses a USB receiver - why couldn't they use BT I have no idea) and leaving WiFi on is sort of a necessity if I want to access the web. Creating a secure channel over WiFi to a device isn't that hard. WPA2 with AES encryption is pretty secure, I remember the days when we used to race one another to see who could crack our high school's WEP key in the shortest time
.I wonder if we will see the updated BT 4.1 protocols included in iOS 8 and Yosemite, as it's geared to even lower power consumption and aimed at devices just like the iWatch or so I read.
Which kind of Airdrop? The traditional Airdrop feature, which is Mac only, works with devices on the same network (LAN or WiFi). The new Airdrop, which was introduced in iOS 7, uses Bluetooth to sense other devices and establish an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection. (Now Macs, like all full function computers, have always been able to establish their own ad-hoc WiFi connections, but trying to sense other devices is power consuming without BT4.0)
Weird, when I go into System Information, if bluetooth is turned off then it says Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes. If I turn on bluetooth and refresh, then it says Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: No.
Apple Bluetooth Software Version: 4.3.0d54 14222
This is on my Late 2011 Macbook Pro. No matter if it's yes or no, the Continuity always says No. It also says AirDrop Supported: No..When I go into AirDrop in Finder, it says at the bottom AirDrop with Older Macs: On.
Apple Bluetooth Software Version: 4.3.0d54 14222
This is on my Late 2011 Macbook Pro. No matter if it's yes or no, the Continuity always says No. It also says AirDrop Supported: No..When I go into AirDrop in Finder, it says at the bottom AirDrop with Older Macs: On.
Yea, it definitely sucks, but I was expecting something like this. Tech comes so fast now that it's hard to keep up. I think what stings me the most with these software updates is that my Mid 2010 Macbook Pro, after RAM and SSD upgrades, is GREAT! I don't feel the need to upgrade.
I run CAD, Adobe, and some movie editing and it hardly ever skips a beat. I would like a better display so that's what will push me to upgrade eventually, but for now I will suck up the disappointment of not having the cool new stuff.