For all the complaint you could levy against Apple — user - uncongenial repair and upgrade practices , The Great Slowdown , removing the headphone jack — there stay an undeniable truth : Overall , the substance abuser experience you get from using Apple ’s devices is simply unspoilt than anything else . And this is twice true if you stay within Apple ’s walled garden . thing just . work well together . And work well together . iMessage , Siri , iCloud — they’re all built in , and require minimal effort to get up and ladder .

Nowhere is this more unmistakable to me than with AirDrop . Professionally , Airdrop has proven to be one of the most useful tool I apply on a daily basis . mayhap it has more to do with my role as a social editor program and the fact that I ’m downloading and upload paradigm , video data file , notes , and other matter to post across different machines and devices all day , but I think most people could certainly benefit from the feature of speech , if they ’re not using it already .

In 2011 Apple preface AirDrop with OS X Lion , allowing you to move files between Macs with just a few clicks . AirDrop came to the iPhone along with iOS 7 in 2013 , and since then it ’s kind of just been there . Humming along innocuously in your Finder windowpane , or placed just off to the side in your Control Center . And there ’s it ’s been dig away without asking anything in replication . Have you been ignoring it ? You fool .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

I ’m here to tell you , AirDrop is kind of a miracle . Without any internet connection or cell servicing whatsoever , you’re able to still send document , photos , videos , nearly anything , between any Apple machine , as long as they are physically comparatively close to each other . You might believe you take a wireless web or cadre service to institutionalise things because your iPhone will propel you to turn on wi - fi and Bluetooth before you habituate AirDrop , but that is n’t the case . Apple is simply using the wi - fi ’s radio signaling to cleverly create an encrypted peer - to - peer connexion between the machine . Once Bluetooth feel another gadget nearby , you ’re in line of work .

One of the best things about AirDrop is that there appear to be no file size of it demarcation line .   I do n’t intend the grandness of that fact can be overlooked . Consider the other elementary room of sharing item between computer . assume you do n’t have AirDrop , you ’d probably email something to someone ( or to yourself ) . Gmail ’s file size of it limit is 25 MB . So you go through GDrive , fine . However you ’re still stuck with the protracted cognitive process of uploading and then download the ( presumptively orotund ) file . Without a solid internet connection ( pretty much anything less than LTE or a true wi - fi connection ) this will be near inconceivable or take hours and hours . certain , wireless internet is nearly uniquitous these days but even in NYC there are home where I do n’t get sign ( or do n’t require to connect to public Badger State - fi ) .

Of course there are Apple alternatives like AnySend or Deskconnect , and interspecies option like Zapya or Xender for you Windowsheads out there . They for the most part accomplish the same thing , and I ’m sure that software program all works fin . But AirDrop is already on your deuced earpiece . And everyone else ’s . It ’s a swipe away in your Control Center , or right on the front varlet of your Finder windowpane .

William Duplessie

I ’ve used AirDrop to beam hour long telecasting recordings between laptops in the studio apartment at oeuvre when the wi - fi has belong down . I ’ve remove entire album of photos from my iPhone to my friends ’ when on a cabin trip with no mobile phone phone military service . hell on earth , I used to AirDrop Vines right as I finished edit them onto my phone . At a big trade show like CES and need to move footage ? AirDrop is your friend when the Badger State - fi and LTE bandwidth is of necessity all clogged up . you could broadcast websites , contacts , locations and more with AirDrop too .

AirDrop has even saved my tush a duet time . Working on a MacBook Pro is nice , if you enjoy USB - C ports , but if you forget your dongle , then what ? When winkle campaign or GDrive are n’t an pick , AirDrop works !

Now AirDrop is n’t consummate — sometimes Bluetooth will act up , or some rando on the subway will send you some … unsavory photos . ( The latter is easily secure by adjusting privacy scope . ) But overall , it ’s become a tool I ’ve come to rely on daytime in and day out .

Starship Test 9

I know the first remark below will say “ All of this is null and null , I have an Android sound . ” And that ’s ok , but there are plenty of people out there with iPhones . And I ’ve never had trouble finding them .

iPhonesaturday riff

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