> Don't Apple and Google use pretty smart guys? How were they hoping to catch up with these muppets running the show?
Oh don't worry. Google will definitely add another insult with Android. They outsource dealing the injury to OEMs. As for Apple, I expect the next devices to be able to only connect with Apple's Wi-Fi devices. AFAIR they already did that with Bluetooth file transfer.
How is it that bluetooth file transfer still comes up in conversations? Obviously I could bring up a personal anecdote about the fact that the last time I have seen anyone using bluetooth for transferring anything was probably in 2005, when I used a nokia 6310i to transfer some contacts. Nowadays if you are on android you touch the phones together and the file is sent by "magic"(since the user doesn't care if it's wi-fi direct or bluetooth), and if you are on iOS you send an email(and again - regular customer doesn't care how the data gets to the other end). Is there really a group of customers who would like to have an explicit option for bluetooth transfer?
> Nowadays if you are on android you touch the phones together and the file is sent by "magic"
Well this magic is actually mostly BT, because not every phone is Wi-fi direct capable.
> and if you are on iOS you send an email
That's exactly what parent is talking about, this is a "workaround" and not even admissible in all situations.
For example, I wanted to print a photo last year on a photo printer in a store, you transfer the file there via BT, select size, then you pay the photo at the counter. After 5 years of Android, I wanted to try out the other side. Sadly I found out that the iPhone doesn't allow that, so I had to email my Android carrying friend the photo and he did it in couple seconds.
Also I'd notice that as a user I do care how my data is transferred, specially because every business nowadays wants to offer their computer to serve as the mediator for that - a.k.a. the cloud.
So no thanks, I'd rather use a protocol which sends the data locally in the vicinity, instead of shipping it around the globe or buying into proprietary ways of doing that.
...and encrypt the file with a random password you send in a different email: .jpg in .zip is not in the company whitelist and the mailserver brute-forces all words in the email for a password...
I use Bluetooth to transfer pictures between my wife's phone and mine. MMS resizes / compresses the picture, and I want the full version. And it's easier than setting up some sort of upload system for the few times I use it.
Indeed. Bluetooth transfer is the one thing you can count on working between any random two phones from this decade - be it yours and your wife's, or your and your couchsurfing host, or whoever. Or at least you could count on it before people like Apple decided to fuck up the technology that worked for no real reason.
I'm not a huge google fan, but I like that my photos/videos are automatically uploaded to online storage when i charge my phone overnight. You can then share images a number of ways, including a private (ie unguessable) url. I can't imagine going back to bluetooth; I always found everything about that technology horrific.
Soooo, downgrading to a 1970s technology, hacking it up to accept a binary transfer (adding 30% to the size, yaaay), and praying that both the sender and the recipient are of a fast enough internet connection (given that a connection even exists), and nothing bad happens to e-mail in transit (common occurence) is somehow better, because OMG Apple? That's some major Reality Distortion Field at work, right there.
I don't even use iOS products. I just don't know anyone who explicitly wanted to send anything over bluetooth for years, and I am surprised people still mention it in conversations, just like a couple years ago people used to complain that their phones don't support flash.
I don't explicitly want to send data over bluetooth/email/nfc either: what I want is to print a picture. If the other side offers Bluetooth as a means to that end (but not e.g. e-mail), so be it.
I recently tried to print a custom phone cover, I brought the .png on my phone but BT refused to activate. I ended up sharing it through Viber with the cover guy.
Oh don't worry. Google will definitely add another insult with Android. They outsource dealing the injury to OEMs. As for Apple, I expect the next devices to be able to only connect with Apple's Wi-Fi devices. AFAIR they already did that with Bluetooth file transfer.