Why can't my Late-2010 MacBook Air 13" utilize Power Nap?

Not all MacBooks can utilize the Power Nap feature, unfortunately. Only the ones with flash storage can use it. Apple has been a little misleading there, mentioning this fact only in the footnotes.

The models that can currently utilize this feature are:

• - MacBook Air (mid-2011)
• - MacBook Air (mid-2012)
• - MacBook Pro (Retina, mid-2012)

Details on the support site.

I believe this is because your computer needs a Sandy Bridge processor or better, regardless of whether or not you already have Flash / SSD storage.

See:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1411104&highlight=power+nap

Jonathan

No. My mid-2012 13-inch Pro will not be able to use it either. Only the models listed here can do Power Nap.

I understand that, but the OP is asking because they have an Air with SSD. Which doesn't seem, at first glance, to be so different from the Airs that DO support Power Nap.

The MBP question is a different one. If yours is a Retina, it will be able to soon (after the update becomes available). If not, it won't - as you rightly say from the support article.

🙂

Then why is Apple listing the Late 2010 MBA as compatible on some of their sites?

http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

They must have just corrected it.

Check http://www.apple.com/uk/osx/specs/ where it still says

Power Nap

Supports MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer), MacBook Pro with Retina display.

You're most welcome 🙂

This is really disappointing. Sure, not the first time Apple has artificially kept features from some users.. but why do they lock features that would clearly work on older machines? Is it just greed?

Powernap apparently has worked on 2010 MBAs in dev builds... Also Airplay mirroring works even on the iPad, so there should be no physical reason it does not work on a C2D MBA.

I understand that Apple keeps iPhone 4 users from using Siri to manage bandwidth... But Power Nap and Mirroring on <2011 Macbooks would be NO COST to Apple. I'm a big Apple fan, but this stuff is just BS!

I do agree to all of your points, but, honestly speaking, I don't consider the functionality of power nap to be as great as advertised by Apple. I have a late 2010 MBA and, after having it in sleep mode for a while, as soon as I open it I can hear the sounds of incoming mail even before I'm done typing in my password. It's similar with notes, calendar and the rest of that iCloud stuff, as soon as I open one of those apps all new data is fetched within seconds.

Even the ability of doing backups while asleep I don't consider that big an advantage. But then I don't even do them on a regular basis, just whenever I feel like it. But be honest, a backup while you have your notebook in your bag would be useful, but as long as it works only when your attach an external hard drive to it and it's to stand firmly on a desk, then where's the difference to just having your laptop standing around half-open? After all, all laptops have those nice battery saving features like shutting off light and even hard drives.

Dunno, just my opinion on the matter (: