Is My Mac AirDrop Compatible? Find Out

Since Apple introduced AirDrop with OS X Lion in July 2011, the ad hoc filesharing service hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. However, this handy service was updated in OS X 10.8.1, making even easier to use. Find out if your Mac is AirDrop compatible and what the “secret” new feature is.

If you are on a network, wifi or wired, that’s discoverable by another compatible Mac running OS X 10.7 or later, you can share files without any setup or configuration. In the Finder, from the “Go” menu, select AirDrop, find the person you want to share with and drag n’ drop the file onto their icon and, boom, you’re grinning.

That said, you will need a compatible Mac running OS X 10.7 or later:

• MacBook Pro (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)

Although Apple didn’t include this in their OS X 10.8.1 Update bullet points, you can now quickly access AirDrop via the Finder using a keyboard shortcut — Command + Shift + R — which does the same thing as clicking Go > AirDrop from the Menu Bar; it’s just faster.