Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
You can activate Bluetooth Sharing on both Macs, as described later in this chapter, and use the Bluetooth
File Exchange utility.
All these methods work well enough, but they have their drawbacks. Infrastructure wireless networks require a
router; ad hoc networks require (optionally, but importantly) the exchange of a network password; and
Bluetooth file exchanges are fairly complicated to set up and can be quite slow.
None of these drawbacks is a deal-breaker in most situations, but you can easily think of times when a simple,
fast way of sharing a file would be handy; for example, if you meet a friend at a coffee shop or a colleague at a
conference. Wouldn't it be great if you could just somehow “beam” a file from your MacBook Air to the other
person's Mac (and vice versa)?
I'm happy to report that this glorious day is now upon us. OS X Lion introduced a feature called AirDrop that
looks for nearby AirDrop-friendly Macs and enables you to exchange files between the machines using a direct
Wi-Fi link. There are no networks to join or create, there's nothing else to configure, and because it's Wi-Fi, the
exchanges are lightning quick. Best of all, AirDrop uses a simple interface that shows icons for the other
AirDrop-enabled Macs that are within range, and sending a file is as easy as dragging it from a Finder window
and dropping it on the other Mac's icon (which then accepts or rejects the file).
The downside is that Apple has set up fairly rigid standards for which Macs support AirDrop. They must be
running Mountain Lion or Lion, of course, but because these direct Wi-Fi links require special Wi-Fi hardware,
only relatively recent Macs are capable of using AirDrop:
MacBook Air.
Late 2010 or newer
MacBook Pro.
Late 2008 or newer
MacBook.
Late 2008 or newer
iMac.
Early 2009 or newer
Mac Pro.
Early 2009 with AirPort Extreme card, or mid-2010 or newer
Mac mini.
Mid-2010 or newer
How can you be sure whether a particular Mac supports AirDrop? Open Finder and look in the Favorites sec-
tion of the sidebar. If you don't see AirDrop, then your Mac doesn't have wireless hardware that passes muster
for AirDrop.
If you do have two or more AirDrop-worthy Macs, here's how to exchange files between them:
1. On your MacBook Air, open Finder and click AirDrop in the sidebar.
2. On the other Mac, the user must also open Finder and click AirDrop.
The AirDrop window displays
icons for both Macs, as shown in Figure 2.6.
