how to enable airdrop on ipad 3

According to:

http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/

at the bottom of the page, point number 5:

AirDrop is available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account.

I'm in the same boat.

The iPad 3 does not have the necessary hardware to use AirDrop.

It is hardware dependent.

The hardware has to support wifi direct.

iPad 3 wifi chipset does not support wifi direct.

This is ridiculous, AirDrop is a feature not a hardware spec. The feature should use the most expeditious hardware available, but it should work with any two network connected apple devices. Making it BT 4 only is a cop out. So much for "it just works"!

You want to tell me that there is no way to provide the exact same functionality without wifi direct? That's simply not true. It's just easier to only support this transport protocol. I should be able to AirDrop from my iPhone on 3G a thousand miles away onto my Mac on wifi. Making such a basic feature hardware specific is not very Apple.

SLSettles wrote:

I should be able to AirDrop from my iPhone on 3G a thousand miles away onto my Mac on wifi.

Yeah, that's called email (or even iMessage to yourself). How do you know that protocols are needed to support local proximity sharing? (which is the point of AirDrop ... local)

SLSettles wrote:

Making such a basic feature hardware specific is not very Apple.

How would you know that AirDrop is a "basic" feature? Are you an RF engineer?

You know, considering I had the same basic functionality 12 years ago on my PocketPC and WinXP machine then yes, this is a basic function that a user should fully expect to be implemented in a modern OS. Why should I have to email myself a document just to be able to easily transfer it from my iPhone to my ipad? I'm an Apple fan boy, and have been since the first LaserWriter came out, but this is silliness and the hardware reliance argument is a cop out. Sure, I can use Dropbox, but where is Apple?

Wifi does not work over thousands of miles.

AirDrop is meant to share files locally.

If you want to share files across the world, use iCloud or photo stream.

SLSettles wrote:

Why should I have to email myself a document just to be able to easily transfer it from my iPhone to my ipad? I

What is so hard about emailing something to yourself?

Isn't that what pages and iCloud are for ?

Document is online, access across devices.

A quick search on Google for "airdrop enabler" proves you're just spewing what Apple feeds you.

Nope, I'm not stupid enough to break the security of my device, download software from unknown source and give then my AppleId password.

<Edited by Host>

1. Nobody said anything about giving anyone your Appleid/ password.

2. It really isn't about the actual act- but the morality of Apple providing exclusivity to a newer device (and disabling features on a perfectly compatible device), in order to force consumers to buy new products.

3. The iSheep help Apple become a bigger monopoly through giving unfounded opinions.

4. Security is not necessarily down; for instance, when the PDF exploit patch was provided For iOS 4.