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Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

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Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#381

Post by darkwater »

SchemaLoad wrote: post #331
ricardobeat wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waayy back in 2009 we had Bump [1], which allowed transfer between devices and later web apps as well – by banging your phone against the spacebar. It worked 98% of the time and was faster than AirDrop is today, even though we only had 3G. Google acquired it and immediately killed it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)

What's sad is what largely replaced device to device transfers was just messaging apps. But messaging apps compress media horribly. iMessage isn't so bad, but send a photo through almost anything else and all meta data is stripped, and the image resolution and bitrate are the absolute bare minimum to look ok on a phone. But try to print it and it will be horrible.

There could probably be a niche market (until platforms implement the functionality) for enhancing the metadata of Whatsapp pictures from family & friends and guess it from the context. i.e. your auntie sending you now a picture of yourself 30 years ago which will show up as dated 2025 by default, which totally sucks.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#382

Post by Lutzb »

0xfaded wrote: post #258
ricardobeat wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waayy back in 2009 we had Bump [1], which allowed transfer between devices and later web apps as well – by banging your phone against the spacebar. It worked 98% of the time and was faster than AirDrop is today, even though we only had 3G. Google acquired it and immediately killed it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)

Waaay back when in Japan, sekigaisen (infrared) was a verb meaning to transfer contact details or photos or whatever between phones via infrared. It was amazing how fast the iPhone took over Japan and killed off their quirky phone ecosystem. Edit: want to emphasize that it was totally ubiquitous. Every phone has it

I wonder if this was driven by the Palm Pilots in the early 2000s. We beamed contacts, calendar entries, whole apps via IR. At trade shows exhibitors had terminals that would constantly send out contact informations via OBEX (?).

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#383

Post by Lutzb »

kleiba wrote: post #363

It's amazing how seemingly trivial things turn out to be really hard to be in practice. Like: - sharing files between two phones - printing a page on that printer over there - getting the projector to display my screen (correctly, or at all) - getting my wife not to click on a link in a random email

I am still think that transfering state between devices is the next big thing(tm) waiting to happen. I am working on a file on my macbook, now I want to seamslessly move the whole application working on it to my nearby Windows machine and just continue. Seems impossible right now.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#384

Post by tempfile »

onlyhumans wrote: post #379
0xfaded wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waaay back when in Japan, sekigaisen (infrared) was a verb meaning to transfer contact details or photos or whatever between phones via infrared. It was amazing how fast the iPhone took over Japan and killed off their quirky phone ecosystem. Edit: want to emphasize that it was totally ubiquitous. Every phone has it

Microsoft Zune had the ability to send music wirelessly to other Zunes, it was called squirting

That's appalling. "Yo let me squirt you"

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#385

Post by zelphirkalt »

kleiba wrote: post #363

It's amazing how seemingly trivial things turn out to be really hard to be in practice. Like: - sharing files between two phones - printing a page on that printer over there - getting the projector to display my screen (correctly, or at all) - getting my wife not to click on a link in a random email

Though I think it is important to point out, that the reasons are very different ones. It is not due to some technological difficulties. It is more. about ruthless companies throwing logs between our legs in some cases, then just lack of skill and quality in some cases, and people not being very high on the computer literacy scale.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#386

Post by ricardobeat »

varenc wrote: post #311
ricardobeat wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waayy back in 2009 we had Bump [1], which allowed transfer between devices and later web apps as well – by banging your phone against the spacebar. It worked 98% of the time and was faster than AirDrop is today, even though we only had 3G. Google acquired it and immediately killed it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)

Bump didn't use direct device-to-device communication. A central server correlated the two bumping phones, based on geolocation and accelerometer data, then swapped the data via the server. At least that's how it worked in the early days. (Wiki page confirms) Since it's relying on your internet connection, skeptical it'd be faster than AirDrop for a large amount of data like photos. But for swapping contacts I bet it…

That's true, I should have mentioned it did not use device-to-device communication. It was the best possible experience for the time though, BT was not viable and wifi direct did not exist. 3G averaged at maybe 10Mbps, and photos were 2 megapixels (if you had a camera at all), more than enough speed. We were mostly sharing URLs and contacts.

By faster I mean the initial connection, it was instant despite the server-based pairing, which made it feel even more magical. With AirDrop you sometimes experience quite a bit of signal hunting.

A comparable experience would be when you touch phones to share a contact with NFC, it was in that ballpark of responsiveness.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#387

Post by pdpi »

madeofpalk wrote: post #377
pdpi wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DMA forced Apple to move all of their P2P Wi-Fi stuff from their proprietary AWDL stack to the current Wi-Fi Aware-based implementation. Whatever work Google did to reverse engineer Airdrop was based on the Wi-Fi Aware implementation of Airdrop, rather than the older AWDL. They didn't get the whole stack for free, but it's not nothing either.

Do we have proof this actually happened, or theorising based on EU requirements?

You can read the actual ruling at https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/2...

This is the "smoking gun" section:

    5.4.8. Implementation timing
    (245) Apple should provide effective interoperability with the P2P Wi-Fi connection
    feature by implementing the measures for Wi-Fi Aware 4.0 in the next major iOS
    release, i.e. iOS 19, at the latest, and for Wi-Fi Aware 5.0 in the next iOS release at
    the latest nine months following the introduction of the Wi-Fi Aware 5.0
    specification.
(N.B. The decision calls it "iOS 19" because it predates Apple announcing that "iOS 19" would actually be called iOS 26)

It is possible, I suppose, that Apple intended all along to release this feature with iOS 26. You'd have to be an Apple insider to know for sure. But the simpler explanation is that they did it because the EU told them to.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#388

Post by [deleted] »

vel0city wrote: post #278
0xfaded wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waaay back when in Japan, sekigaisen (infrared) was a verb meaning to transfer contact details or photos or whatever between phones via infrared. It was amazing how fast the iPhone took over Japan and killed off their quirky phone ecosystem. Edit: want to emphasize that it was totally ubiquitous. Every phone has it

My friends in school would send ringtones, wallpapers, and other small files through Bluetooth. It normally worked pretty well no matter the device.

[deleted]

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#390

Post by type0 »

tempfile wrote: post #384
onlyhumans wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft Zune had the ability to send music wirelessly to other Zunes, it was called squirting

That's appalling. "Yo let me squirt you"

Somehow "squirting their users" perfectly defines Microsoft to this day
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