I used to be able to get only phone calls handed off to an old 4s I use for occasional browsing with no SIM. It seems since 8.3 this disappeared but shows supported here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204689 Any one else have this working?
Too much integration in my opinion. I def do not want my phone ringing in my computer sheesh !
True story ... I can see the uses and it is good to have this option for sure ... but I was caught unawares at first when this came out on the developer beta. Unbeknownst to me, I had five Macs and three iPads plus my iPhone ready to do this by default and I had no idea. Then it happened ... a call came in ... and all hell broke lose. I had no idea WTF was going on. I was lucky to actually find the phone amongst the cacophony, the Macs even kept ringing after I'd answered. It was insane. It's funny to remember now but at the time I thought it was a prank someone had played on me lol
Any idea why there has to be a BT signal involved? I could use this feature but my iMac is too old, besides I leave BT off on my iOS stuff most of the time.
This is how the network is established for iOS to OS X devices (in this case). By choosing the BlueTooth LE there is extremely low drain on your battery (in both iOS and OS X devices) -- BlueTooth LE was intentionally designed to only connect devices ~3 to 4 ft. apart. Once it picks up on device signature it negotiates a session to pass pertinent data (like where things are in the iCloud, current Safari URL, etc.) and then lets you go on with doing whatever on the other device. It is not designed to do heavy lifting like passing big data files. That is still done over your secure network.
IHTH. This is a very 30,000 ft (or higher) view. There are several good articles relating to evolution of the BlueTooth std. and to Apple using it for Handoff if you want all the nitty gritty.
Too much integration in my opinion. I def do not want my phone ringing in my computer sheesh !
True story ... I can see the uses and it is good to have this option for sure ... but I was caught unawares at first when this came out on the developer beta. Unbeknownst to me, I had five Macs and three iPads plus my iPhone ready to do this by default and I had no idea. Then it happened ... a call came in ... and all hell broke lose. I had no idea WTF was going on. I was lucky to actually find the phone amongst the cacophony, the Macs even kept ringing after I'd answered. It was insane. It's funny to remember now but at the time I thought it was a prank someone had played on me lol
Same song, different verse, but I can sing along for sure.
I had only about half that number of devices but a very similar experience. I was in the MBR with my iPhone in my pocket, two iPads (one on my wive's side, the other mine) just down the hall 2 iMacs… I about unloaded in my shorts right then and there -- and as you mentioned my iPads had to get in another couple rings and my iMacs got in at least one more each; and of course I don't have the ringtone set the same on any of them! I felt this panic: is it ever going to stop! I can't hear my freaking phone call!
They all slow down over time. That's how they get you to buy a new one. I'm being stubborn as my 1st gen iPad Mini grinds to a halt with each iOS8 update. Most of the time it's simple things like text entry lagging that absolutely must be by design. Planned obsolescence.
Conspiracy theorist much?
If you could freeze the software load on your iPad 3 such that you only ever ran the software it came with - and the version of 3rd party apps that was current when the iPad 3 was released, it would absolutely be as peppy today as it was when you bought it. The version of iOS that is released with every new version of hardware that comes out is carefully tuned to use as much of the new hardware capabilities as smoothly as possible - and at times, this means that an awesome new feature is NOT released as part of the iOS update because it requires more CPU than is available in the current hardware... But, as more powerful hardware is invented and released, iOS itself, as well as 3rd party apps are improved with additional features and capabilities that make use of that new hardware. Unfortunately, when they try to back-port those features to older hardware, it often doesn't run as smoothly. This is one of the reason why not all of the new features are available on all of the older models. Some devices (2-3 years old) simply don't have the processing power to run some of the new features. With slightly newer hardware (1 year old) there is often "just enough" processing power available to implement the new features - however they may not run quite as smoothly as they do on the newest, current generation of hardware.
Customers who don't understand hardware/software usually think that any given feature in a new version of iOS was just "thought up" for that version of iOS and that Apple should make it available on all prior hardware devices - but the truth is that many features that are released every year have been in Apples backlog for many years just waiting for the hardware to become powerful enough to implement the feature smoothly.
It's definitely not "planned obsolescence" and you are never forced to update to the current version of iOS. By choosing to install the latest version of iOS on an older device you are essentially acknowledging that you want the new features and you should be aware that some of them may not run as smoothly as they do on the latest hardware. If keeping your device running as quickly and smoothly as it was when you bought it is important to you - you should take a pass on the iOS updates that are released annually.
Well said. I don't see much of anything that could be said to have been added to require planned obsolescence. I think that expecting any computer these days to perform all the same tasks it did when it was new is ridiculous. I used to buy a new development machine every 18-24 months (back in the M6800x0 and PPC days) but have now found that by buying BTO machines with the fastest processor, highest resolution & largest display and top of the line GPU in an iMac format that I am over powered for the first 18-24 months but by the end of the first 2 years I can find stuff that definitely takes advantage of all the extra power and then cruise along till about 4.5 to 5 yrs. ownership before it is time to upgrade. Different strokes… BTW back in that earlier day I was paying $6-7K for a machine without a monitor (I typically had already invested in two or more ~$2500 monitors and those would move to the new machine, sometimes the Display Card, sometimes not).
I have had it working since day one, but this is a good piece. The thing is, Handoff isn%u2019t very reliable, nor as fast as texting yourself copied links sometimes. Integration is slowly improving, but it is a bit flakey. Seems like lazy fallbacks of service behavior in buggy sync code.
I own a mid 2011 Mac mini. It also has BT LE but Apple has deemed this machine, and yours, to not be worthy of all its Handoff goodness. A real shame, but there is a simple to use hack out there which activates it if you feel like taking the risk.
Pretty sure my Mac is supposed to be supported without any hacks, I'm on a 2014 MacBook Air, it just plain doesn't work because, like an increasing number of Apple wireless technologies (I'm looking at you AirPlay and AirDrop), it's half baked and needs attention.
Agreed, especially with respect to Airplay. I have my Apple TV (latest version) within 10 feet of my Time Capsule router and my MBPr, and I have 50 Mbps internet, but I cannot get ANYTHING to play from my MBPr (or any iOS device) without constant lagging and frame dropping. It makes no sense. Playback is fine on the original device but on screen it sucks and makes Airplay utterly useless.
I own a mid 2011 Mac mini. It also has BT LE but Apple has deemed this machine, and yours, to not be worthy of all its Handoff goodness. A real shame, but there is a simple to use hack out there which activates it if you feel like taking the risk.
I have a 2012 MM and love living on the edge, fill me in.
Comments
Any one else have this working?
True story ... I can see the uses and it is good to have this option for sure ... but I was caught unawares at first when this came out on the developer beta. Unbeknownst to me, I had five Macs and three iPads plus my iPhone ready to do this by default and I had no idea. Then it happened ... a call came in ... and all hell broke lose. I had no idea WTF was going on. I was lucky to actually find the phone amongst the cacophony, the Macs even kept ringing after I'd answered. It was insane. It's funny to remember now but at the time I thought it was a prank someone had played on me lol
Any idea why there has to be a BT signal involved? I could use this feature but my iMac is too old, besides I leave BT off on my iOS stuff most of the time.
This is how the network is established for iOS to OS X devices (in this case). By choosing the BlueTooth LE there is extremely low drain on your battery (in both iOS and OS X devices) -- BlueTooth LE was intentionally designed to only connect devices ~3 to 4 ft. apart. Once it picks up on device signature it negotiates a session to pass pertinent data (like where things are in the iCloud, current Safari URL, etc.) and then lets you go on with doing whatever on the other device. It is not designed to do heavy lifting like passing big data files. That is still done over your secure network.
IHTH. This is a very 30,000 ft (or higher) view. There are several good articles relating to evolution of the BlueTooth std. and to Apple using it for Handoff if you want all the nitty gritty.
Too much integration in my opinion. I def do not want my phone ringing in my computer sheesh !
True story ... I can see the uses and it is good to have this option for sure ... but I was caught unawares at first when this came out on the developer beta. Unbeknownst to me, I had five Macs and three iPads plus my iPhone ready to do this by default and I had no idea. Then it happened ... a call came in ... and all hell broke lose. I had no idea WTF was going on. I was lucky to actually find the phone amongst the cacophony, the Macs even kept ringing after I'd answered. It was insane. It's funny to remember now but at the time I thought it was a prank someone had played on me lol
Same song, different verse, but I can sing along for sure.
I had only about half that number of devices but a very similar experience. I was in the MBR with my iPhone in my pocket, two iPads (one on my wive's side, the other mine) just down the hall 2 iMacs… I about unloaded in my shorts right then and there -- and as you mentioned my iPads had to get in another couple rings and my iMacs got in at least one more each; and of course I don't have the ringtone set the same on any of them! I felt this panic: is it ever going to stop! I can't hear my freaking phone call!
LMAO!
They all slow down over time. That's how they get you to buy a new one. I'm being stubborn as my 1st gen iPad Mini grinds to a halt with each iOS8 update. Most of the time it's simple things like text entry lagging that absolutely must be by design. Planned obsolescence.
Conspiracy theorist much?
If you could freeze the software load on your iPad 3 such that you only ever ran the software it came with - and the version of 3rd party apps that was current when the iPad 3 was released, it would absolutely be as peppy today as it was when you bought it. The version of iOS that is released with every new version of hardware that comes out is carefully tuned to use as much of the new hardware capabilities as smoothly as possible - and at times, this means that an awesome new feature is NOT released as part of the iOS update because it requires more CPU than is available in the current hardware... But, as more powerful hardware is invented and released, iOS itself, as well as 3rd party apps are improved with additional features and capabilities that make use of that new hardware. Unfortunately, when they try to back-port those features to older hardware, it often doesn't run as smoothly. This is one of the reason why not all of the new features are available on all of the older models. Some devices (2-3 years old) simply don't have the processing power to run some of the new features. With slightly newer hardware (1 year old) there is often "just enough" processing power available to implement the new features - however they may not run quite as smoothly as they do on the newest, current generation of hardware.
Customers who don't understand hardware/software usually think that any given feature in a new version of iOS was just "thought up" for that version of iOS and that Apple should make it available on all prior hardware devices - but the truth is that many features that are released every year have been in Apples backlog for many years just waiting for the hardware to become powerful enough to implement the feature smoothly.
It's definitely not "planned obsolescence" and you are never forced to update to the current version of iOS. By choosing to install the latest version of iOS on an older device you are essentially acknowledging that you want the new features and you should be aware that some of them may not run as smoothly as they do on the latest hardware. If keeping your device running as quickly and smoothly as it was when you bought it is important to you - you should take a pass on the iOS updates that are released annually.
Well said. I don't see much of anything that could be said to have been added to require planned obsolescence. I think that expecting any computer these days to perform all the same tasks it did when it was new is ridiculous. I used to buy a new development machine every 18-24 months (back in the M6800x0 and PPC days) but have now found that by buying BTO machines with the fastest processor, highest resolution & largest display and top of the line GPU in an iMac format that I am over powered for the first 18-24 months but by the end of the first 2 years I can find stuff that definitely takes advantage of all the extra power and then cruise along till about 4.5 to 5 yrs. ownership before it is time to upgrade. Different strokes… BTW back in that earlier day I was paying $6-7K for a machine without a monitor (I typically had already invested in two or more ~$2500 monitors and those would move to the new machine, sometimes the Display Card, sometimes not).
I own a mid 2011 Mac mini. It also has BT LE but Apple has deemed this machine, and yours, to not be worthy of all its Handoff goodness. A real shame, but there is a simple to use hack out there which activates it if you feel like taking the risk.
Agreed, especially with respect to Airplay. I have my Apple TV (latest version) within 10 feet of my Time Capsule router and my MBPr, and I have 50 Mbps internet, but I cannot get ANYTHING to play from my MBPr (or any iOS device) without constant lagging and frame dropping. It makes no sense. Playback is fine on the original device but on screen it sucks and makes Airplay utterly useless.
@right_said_fred (and @crowley).
I own a mid 2011 Mac mini. It also has BT LE but Apple has deemed this machine, and yours, to not be worthy of all its Handoff goodness. A real shame, but there is a simple to use hack out there which activates it if you feel like taking the risk.
I have a 2012 MM and love living on the edge, fill me in.
I have NOT tried this - i started to do it manually on my mid2011 macbook air - but got distracted,
https://github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/
this is the long winded way...
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=20015070&postcount=609
I have a 2012 MM and love living on the edge, fill me in.
No need for hacks Tony, your machine is fully Handoff capable - you lucky thing