AirDrop Anywhere – Making it work on Windows(bakedbean.org.uk) |
AirDrop Anywhere – Making it work on Windows(bakedbean.org.uk) |
I get what they mean here, but it has been done. It does require a Wi-Fi card with support for monitor mode and frame injection. OWL did it with an Atheros AR9280.
Open drop also requires extracting keys from an Apple device if you want Apple interop.
See OWL:
https://github.com/seemoo-lab/owl
And Open drop:
There’s no need to extract any Apple keys to be able to receive files, but the public root key appears to be needed able to send files to an Apple device.
OWL, OpenDrop and their latest project PrivateDrop (https://github.com/seemoo-lab/privatedrop) are linked heavily throughout the series - their reverse engineering of the protocol have been absolutely invaluable in building something that works, more or less sanely on non-Apple devices! Huge kudos to them!
I feel like Windows is in part to blame for wifi not evolving. The OS does only the most minimal, basic, simplistic wifi operations, so non-Apple laptops end up with wifi hardware supporting only the most basic, simple wifi capabilities.
I raelly want p2p connectivity to be better in this world, want our amazing digital connectivity to be distributed, not to move beyond relying on top down ISP based networking. Alas, the wifi hardware available on many laptops is just not there.
And even if it were there, it seems unlikely that Windows, Apple, and Google devices are willing to communicate with each other. Everyone has their own proprietary systems (or in Windows case, like the old days where you had to download winsock, it simply has: nothing).
A lot of these things also don't get explored as much as they should be because the APIs are in the WinRT side of the fence and Project Reunion is only just now opening WinRT to a lot more classic Windows devs.
So Windows doesn't have "nothing" here, it's just trapped between rock (Apple) and hard place (Google).
It's not some magic, it will be a very simple protocol.
Airdrop is the one component that is completely hit or miss for me.
So convenient when it just “works”. Infuriating when it doesn’t.
That said, this is all just a bit of fun so monetising it isn’t really on the cards anyway :)
Really you'll be happier if you just ignore everything going on with iOS and Android.
You might be in the wrong forum. ;P
I kid obviously - but in all seriousness some people actually do this stuff for fun! And also just to know more about the services we use every day.
It’s hard to say exactly why Bluetooth can not fix these issues but perhaps the proprietary nature of AirDrop lets apple innovate without concern for standards or legacy.
It'd be interesting to see some example code that makes use of any platform SDKs windows has available for doing wifi-p2p connectivity with peers. Going from "this is a capability windows uses" to "this is a capability of the platform folks can use" is another jump in meta-level towards encouraging the virtuous hardware/software adoption cycle.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/Windows.Devices.WiF...
Saying that a platform shouldn't lock you in to specific proprietary approaches has a real & substantial non-personal advantage to it that mere personal preference doesn't encompass, as it seeks technical ecosystems capable of organic growth. I don't find your comparison quite valid.