Why is there no airdrop for iPad 3??

I was told it has something to do with the radios inside the iPad 3. They're not suitable for AirDrop.

There are alternatives you can use in the App Store. One is called Instashare. You need to have this installed on your idevice and on the device you're trying to share information with. I believe it operates something like AirDrop but probably not as well. You must be within a Wi-Fi source to use. I've used successfully before in the past. Good luck.

Each new version of hardware is more than just looks. There are a lot of things going on under the hood. iOS 7 takes advantage of some of the new hardware. This happens to ALL computer platforms. The next generation always has new things.

For example, the new iPhone 5S can do 64 bit data transfer, which no other iDevice can currently do. iOS 7 takes advantage of that 64 bit transfer for speed, but not on our devices.

AirDrop is a hardware issue, not a software one. Older iDevices do not have the current radio chip that allows for such a transfer of data.

iPhone 4 can't use Siri because it's not powerful enough. Somewhere there is a list of iOS 7 features that get lost as you go back in time with iDevices. It's just the way it is.

You can check some of the other posts on this but I think that you're find they'll refer to it as a hardware problem. Wish it wasn't so. You can contact Apple from the link below just to be absolutely certain.

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http://www.apple.com/contact/

The iPad 3 cannot support it, that's why. The internals of the device are older technology, and it does not have that capibility. There would be no reason for Apple to simply not provide a feature if it was supportable.....

Cheers,

GB

You think? We'll normally a software developer would bend over backwards to make something as backward compatible as possible, but not Apple it seems. The fact that other software products exist for all versions of iPads that allow for similar functionality proves that it wouldn't have been impossible for Apple (as clever as they are) to come up with a solution. As an iPad 3 owner I feel totally ripped off that I've been overlooked. The 3 was only out for a matter of months before the 4 replaced it which was bad enough, but to not have the only reason for me to upgrade my pad to ios7 not present us ludicrous. I think it's perfectly acceptable to ask 'why' can't it work and Apple should answer the question once and for all so it can be scrutinised. After all, if there's really a hardware feature missing then there wouldn't be anything to hide from would there?

Oh please.....

GB

I completely agree with Storrm68's sentiments. I also am an iPad 3 owner as well as an iPhone 4 owner (soon to receive my iPhone 5S). I like Apple, but I am really shocked and pretty upset that the iPad 3, in particular, cannot support this feature. I mean if there is some tiny difference, like say a receiver-side simultaneous transfer initiation or something of that nature, that would not be required for the iPad 4 then I'd gladly do it for the iPad 3 for the feature. But really I don't believe the iPad 3 lacks anything hardware wise that couldn't be gotten around. I just think Apple is playing a game with its users to push just a little harder for everyone to upgrade constantly.

I have designed south bridge chips (the computer chip that handles the USB, SATA, keyboard, other peripherals, etc.) for a living for many years. There were times that some feature didn't work in the lab due to a hardware but and we simply could not afford time to respin the chip. If there was a way to do the same feature slightly less efficiently rather than turn it off, we'd do it every time. Any south bridge chip company would do the same too. That is because turning a feature completely off is considered the absolute worst thing you can do from the user's standpoint. If Apple really wants to support its users, then it should adopt a similar attitude and practice for these things.

So are you suggesting that Apple have every iPad 3 user in the world come into the store or send their iPad into Apple to have it retrofitted with a hardware upgrade?

Seriously?

GB

The wifi chipset in the iPad 3 does not support ad hoc wifi.

AirDrop uses bluetooth to establish a connection, data is transferred via wifi-that's why it is fast, not snail like as bluetooth would be.

The wifi chip can not be replaced, the entire logic board would need to be pulled.

It is foolish, ridiculous, silly to expect any manufacturer to do a hardware recall, pull all the circuit boards out of millions of devices and replace them.

Please, please, please try to do a little research before posting. The iPad 3 supports Bluetooth 4 of which one of its many features is hi speed data transfer. It achieves this because it is able to piggyback 802.11 and is the reason for it being able to achieve 22-26mbps data transfer in real world scenarios. It has nothing to whatsoever with not supporting adhoc Wifi because it's already baked Into the chip. If you are saying Apple haven't implemented the Bluetooth 4 spec correctly, then yes I will take my iPad back to Apple for a swap because it was marketed as supporting Bluetooth 4. And before you stick your fanboy hat on again, Apple also marketed the iPad 3 as being 4G ready but failed to tell anyone in the UK that it wouldn't support our version of 4G over here. There's a case to be had there as well