Hacker News Reader

Comment by dannyw | Hacker News Reader

You just have to be within bluetooth distance; AirDrop doesn't require the same wifi network. It does require wifi to be enabled, because AirDrop creates its own wifi network side channel for the actual transferring of files.

View on HN

Yep. But still it’s kind of annoying to have to enable everything. It’s confusing to people who don’t know this.

Enable what? Modern MacOS/iOS discourage you from disabiling Wi-Fi/Bluetooth anyway.

Some (more and more) people simply have it disabled, because 4G is faster and more reliable than wifi. And if you don't have any bluetooth devices, it will save some batterylife.

If you don't connect to a wifi network or any bluetooth devices then the battery savings are negligible, apparently.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-12271

This is very interesting to me. Does anyone know if there are material differences between Apple's and Android's implementations (in the battery savings sense)?

Is the default to connect to open networks?

> Modern MacOS[...] discourage you from disabiling Wi-Fi/Bluetooth anyway.

How do you figure? I've never seen any discouragement from it.

If you use the controls that slide down from the top of the screen (I'm at a loss as to what Apple calls it) and "disable" Wifi it simply disconnects from the associated AP and won't reassociate. It will turn itself back on at 7 AM tomorrow morning.

"Disabling" Bluetooth is similar, it will disconnect from paired devices, but BTLE is still available.

You have to use airplane mode, or go in to the Settings app to fully disable it. If that isn't discouragement, I don't know what is.

The behavior you're describing is only present on iOS, not on macOS.

Yeah that must just be iOS, I've not experienced anything like that in MacOS, nor even noticed any difference from how it used to be years ago.

Really? I'll give it a try again. It was clearly not working for me when the router was down.

Yes, I’ve used it to send photos/videos I’ve taken to friends while outside in places where there are no wifi networks.

I wonder if it's different if you have it set to "Contacts only". It may need to connect to iCloud.

I have mine set to Contacts Only, and regularly use it to move photos between iPhone and iPad when on flights (and indeed other locations) without wifi or cellular.

Yes, no router needed since it relies on Wifi Direct.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com