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Windows 10's Version of AirDrop Lets You Quickly Share Files Between PCs (theverge.com)
Microsoft is testing its "Near Share" feature of Windows 10 in the latest Insider build (17035) today, which will let Windows 10 PCs share documents or photos to PCs nearby via Bluetooth. The Verge reports: A new Near Share option will be available in the notification center, and the feature can be accessed through the main share function in Windows 10. Files will be shared wirelessly, and recipients will receive a notification when someone is trying to send a file. Microsoft's addition comes just a day after Google unveiled its own AirDrop-like app for Android.
Wasn't there something similar 10 years ago with the IR links that briefly appeared on laptops?
I hope it at least tries to figure out if there's a faster path between the two devices instead of just stupidly using Bluetooth when there's a gigabit Ethernet.
Because sharing is not the problem at the moment.
I used to have my "Airdrop-like" feature decades ago, simply by clicking on "share via bluetooth", until phone manufacturers (or OS companies) decided to ban sharing stuff over bluetooth. Which is the same Apple has, with the exception that they combine bluetooth and wifi (and I guess their own API) to pretend they did something new/unique.
Computer monkeys at Google and Microsoft must be really boring if they are "implementing" airdrop. Just stop f*cking messing with the information users are allowed to share (allowed... ha... it's supposed to be my bloody phone!).
Just use woof its a simple python script that allows easy sharing temporarily. I have been using it cross platform for years.
I wonder if it will work with any of the other bluetooth sharing things, like the Samsung one.
I wonder which one will become the standard, if ever, or if there'll eventually be half a dozen of them obstinately refusing to talk to each other.
Or may I say, a security hole waiting to be used?
Quite frankly, this strikes me as one of those things that have very limited usefulness with a wealth of exploit potential behind it. What is the scenario for the use of this feature? When you have a meeting and want to exchange documents? What company does NOT have a wireless AP in their conference rooms these days? Oh, when you have to exchange documents with someone outside your company who you can't let on your WiFi for security reasons? Use an USB Stick. If you're security conscious enough to not let a stranger onto your WiFi that is administered and controlled by your IT staff, you should definitely be security conscious to NOT let some marketing or management computer illiterate make decisions about sharing stuff on his laptop, the same laptop that probably contains the marketing strategy or the financial data for the next quarter, most likely in the same folder as the document that should be handed over.
So what sensible application is there for this security-hole-in-the-making?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I congratulate Microsoft for this great achievement, they finally implemented a feature which Ericsson R520 had 17 years ago.
Let's use the most insecure protocol ever developed to send potentially personal information into the ether for everyone to grab.
What could possibly go wrong?
send.firefox.com. Safe and encrypted, fast and simple.
I can imagine 100 years from now a law making switching bluetooth off illegal on your wearable devices... Why don't you share?
You know, our problem is that, unlike arachnids from sci-fi movie, we do not have fit-for-the-task superbrains in the position of power. It is spiders at the bottom, and spiders at the top - and it does not work.
I'd prefer a system for portable devices that required physical contact.
If there's so much data to move you can't hold the devices against each other reliably for long enough... you can probably find the time to sit them on a table.
Recent Bluetooth vulnerability.
This feature will probably have couple of tiny bugs. You know, putting disk usage to 100% for 5 days, wiping the hard drive of both computers, deleting installed programs. That kind of stuff.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
IR Link was horrible, because most laptop IR transceivers had a very narrow view. It was sort-of okay for PDAs if you held the PDA directly against the IR port, but impossible to align for a pair of laptops reliably.
On the other hand, most of the PDA and phone I've had back then all worked nicely. Seems engineering spent more time testing if the IR solution was optimal, compared to laptop where IR was an additionnal check on the feature list.
Bluetooth file transfer is also pretty mature at this point. I've used it between Windows, Mac, and FreeBSD machines and with old Nokia and new Android phones (it probably works with iOS, though it didn't in the original iPhone).
Nope. Bluetooth file sending (OBEX) doesn't work on iOS anymore. Apple has removed the feature and replaced it with a proprietary Bluetooth-enabled version of AirDrop.
AirDrop is nice because it uses bluetooth to identify nearby machines and to advertise public keys, but then creates a two-device ad-hoc wireless network and transfers at high speed.
Which is stupid and redundant given that most recent bluetooth standards (Bluetooth 3.0 + HS and more recent) can do it themselves ("Alternative MAC/PHY" - BT 3.0 do the hand shake on classic bluetooth, but then can re-use their wifi's 800.11 MAC/PHY to do high-speed transfers).
Which means that even ancient obsolete Apple devices like the iPhone 4S could do it.
Using OBEX on any more recent BT device achieves the exact same thing, and is a standard thus not needing any vendor proprietary incompatible extensions.
The only situation where the AirDrop kludge seems to make sense is in the home-built no-name beige-boxes, where Bluetooth and WiFi are handled by completely different extension modules (e.g.: a USB Bluetooth dongle and a PCIe Wifi card) and thus BT can't see/access the WiFi MAC/PHY.
(Happens also on a few older laptops my old Dell Latitude uses separate module for BT and Wifi. But lots of modern laptops tend to use combined Wifi + Bluetooth modules. It's not only for space saving, it also makes "Alternate MAC/PHY" work).
I'm quite annoyed that Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all developing independent protocols for this though. I want an open protocol that works with all of my devices, not a mess of protocols where I can use one between my laptop and Android phone, one between my laptop and iPad, none between my iPad and Android phone, a different one between Windows devices, and so on.
...and you see where all this is going :
There is one such shared protocol, and it's called DropBox. Or Google Drive. Or iCloud. etc.
Basically, the manufacturer have low incentive in developing (or keeping, in the case of bluetooth OBEX) cross platform standard - because they let the user swap files for free. This eats into the profits of any cloud-storage solution. (DropBox "Pro" accounts, etc.)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I wonder what % of /. readers sees sees these "new feature" announcements as something to add to their ToDo list for blocking.
Anywhere that security is more than a passing fancy is going to se this as 2 things. A new improved attack vector and an inte5resting way to leak information. Was this an NSA idea?
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
That's the problem with wireless file transfer: it's slow.
Almost a decade ago, Bluetooth introduced the 3.0 + HS revision of the standard, which included "Alternate MAC/PHY".
This enabled Bluetooth to using the 800.11 MAC/PHY used by WiFi to achieve faster transfert speed.
If both device supported it (e.g.: smartphone with combined radio chipsets, or laptop using combined Wifi+Bluetooth mini cards) it means fast transfer.
For large files I'll use USB and charge at the same time.
Depending on the combination of feature supported by the phone (e.g.: 800.11N dual or even AC, but only USB2.0 micro USB, the transfert over USB might end up not being that much faster).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
More stuff to disable on the work computers around here, until they fix all the bugs and security issues. Then more questions from the users about "why can't we have that airdrop thing?" and more of me being the 'bad guy' by telling them 'no you can't have it'.
Since Windows is so good in the workgroup, why not just use the LAN!?
Wow, a whole new target for hacking. Bluetooth range is pretty variable - someone sitting in a conference room or a waiting room has a good chance of contacting a computer on the other side of the wall. Many users will be completely unaware that this feature even exists.
How long until the first hack?
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
A breakthrough of this magnitude is a faithful reflection of MS's prowess and innovation, especially in the mobile world.
To me it sounds like a gimmick, one fraught with possible security issues, one which only a few people would have much use for. It probably should be left to third party engineers/companies rather than built into the operating system (sitting around waiting to be exploited). Anyway .. what do I know?
A native tool for bridging air gaps, circumventing network ACLs, and connecting wireless to external/unmanaged devices.
I hope they don't forget to include a Group Policy setting to disable it. Bluetooth is bad enough on its own. I'd rather not deal with another chatty, proprietary network protocol.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
We do not need this now. Fix your shit. I am tired of not being able to search by extension when the OS decides to randomly change default program without reason or permission.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
Shoot. I was just starting to like the new Microsoft after Windows 7 and the failure of gnome3 for a desktop OS (not server). Windows was finally stable, gorgeous, and after Balmer released .NET core for Linux, SQL Server for Linux, R for Linux, Microsoft Code, and included Python and Android emulators with Visual Studio.
Hell froze over and finally MS is getting with the times.
Windows 8.1 was fine if you had a start menu replacement which was annoying as hell, but lighter than 7 and ran much better with mobile battery life. Even IE is now usable and medocre from a previous abomination. Well my opinion changed with Windows 10. Not that I can't handle change as I think a Windows 8 tile in a start menu is what MS should have included with 8 and 10 got that right. I am not even complaining about Edge was is actually competitive with Firefox and Chrome in terms of compliance and plugins.
What pisses me off is Windows 10 is like a never ending beta. It seems they copied the Ubuntu style channels with current, current for business, and the really long term one which is more akin to Redhat. Things BREAK. Ivybridge ethernet cards are no longer supported out of the blue. Holy crap! Seriously INtel graphics don't have drivers too from 2012 era hardware if you update to the creators update. So now I need to buy 5,000 nvidia 710 GPUs and hire temps just to install them WTF.
I am re-imaging my workstation right now. Reason? The fall creators update can't get IPv4 addresses from my so called ancient 2014 era haswel Intel chepset 219 another WTF. My Server 2016 DCs on Windows 10 Hyper-V can't be promoted to a DC anymore without DFSLR failing with the fall update either complaining of a network error even though the VM can access the internet fine. As a test I installed an old copy of VMWare Workstation 11 and the test Server 2016 VM can be promoted to a domain controller just fine so I know it is not me or the hardware.
For a large corporation with 20,000 desktops from 2 vendors with 8 variations of models this is unacceptable and a nightmare to manage.
Don't get me wrong I LOVE the new updates as XP was ridiculous as it was 13 years old! But this is the other extreme. An enterprise endpoint is alot more complex than a cell phone. MS is treating Windows like an Android OS. Sometimes apps break all the time as a result of Android updates. But the kicker is at work the software is often ancient and is never ever updated and certainly not free.
Blowing money to rewrite Sap and hire guys replacing good hardware components because of driver model changes every 6 months is not business friendly. Infact, I would recommend sticking with Windows 7 at this point even though it is near EOL until Microsoft hires their QA department back (they eliminated in the name of Agile and put in telemetry and smily and frown faces instead). Windows 10 to me is for home PCs and vms in testing still 2 years later.
http://saveie6.com/
AirDrop = cool name, Near Share = god awful
Why is Microsoft's naming so horrible and uncool?!?!
It's time manufacturers stopped inventing proprietary stuff, and the ISO started making standards like its supposed to, and purchasers mandated ISO support when buying stuff.
Unfortunately, standards bodies were hijacked by manufacturers years ago, and pretty much killed off.
python -m http.server
Don't forget that Microsoft will be snatching a copy of anything sent with Near Share for themselves. You didn't think they would develop Near Share for nothing, did you?