This article was published on July 21, 2011

OS X Lion’s AirDrop feature only works with these Macs


OS X Lion’s AirDrop feature only works with these Macs

An Apple Knowledge Base article has been posted that explains which Macs can use the new AirDrop feature of Lion, The Loop reports. AirDrop is one of the cool new features of Lion that allows you to share files easily from one Mac to another on the same WiFi network.

According to Apple, these are the models that will work with AirDrop

  • MacBookPro (Late 2008 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)
  • MacBook (Late 2008 or newer)
  • iMac (Early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac Mini (Mid 2010 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (Early 2009 with AirPort Extreme card, or Mid 2010)

The feature is incredibly simple to use, allowing users to toss files to another person in the same office very easily. It is, unfortunately, not supported by all Macs running Lion. You’ll notice that there are machines not listed that are still capable of installing and using Lion. This means that not every Lion-compatible machine can use AirDrop.

While the Knowledge Base article doesn’t delve into the reasons why, it is likely that it has something to do with the wireless networking hardware in the machines listed, which include laptops and desktops.

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While AirDrop is a very cool feature, it is only one of many new features of Lion. Do you have one of the Lion compatible Macs that is not capable of using AirDrop? If so, does it bother you?

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