Yosemite’s Handoff feature may not work for all Mac users

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Credit: Apfeleimer
Credit: Apfeleimer

Handoff was one of the most exciting iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite features announced at WWDC, giving you the ability to begin a task (say, an email) on one platform and seamlessly transfer it to another.

It’s a great illustration of Apple’s ecosystem at work — but will it work on your Mac?

Drawing attention to the fact that Handoff is expected to rely on the Bluetooth low energy (LE) protocol in order to work, German publication Apfeleimer has put together a handy chart showing which Apple devices are likely to be able to use Handoff.

According to them, Handoff is going to be limited to more recent Mac computers only, and will also be incompatible with the iPad 2, since this is the only iOS 8-compatible device not to support Bluetooth LE.

If you want to use Handoff, Apfeleimer suggests that you’re going to want to use a mid-2011 MacBook Air and above, the mid-2012 MacBook Pro and above (including all versions of the MacBook Pro with Retina display), the late-2012 iMac and above, the mid-2011 Mac mini and above, and the late-2013 Mac Pro.

Apple hasn’t yet publicly confirmed whether Handoff will be limited to only certain computers. But if this report is correct and Handoff does require the low energy Bluetooth standard, you may need to buy a new Mac before being able to “hand off” items from OS X to iOS.

Source: Apfeleimer

Via: BGR

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