I had earlier written about Handoff and iOS 8.1 and my disappointment at not being able to get either Handoff or Continuity to work between my Mac and my devices. Apparently quite a number of people with similar expectations seem to be in agreement with me. In fact, one of my Linked-In professors -- a person with whom I've had quite a close and cordial reporting relationship -- commented that he, too, was unable to get things working, but he couldn't spare the time to go deeper into why they didn't.
The thing is, quite a few of us -- me included -- probably don't listen -- for example -- to a Keynote presentation where, I'm sure, the presenters would have mentioned the requirements of new features, new OSes, new devices in order for them to work with our older devices, OSes, features. We just couldn't wait to update/upgrade/buy a single new product -- probably, as I said -- hearing what we wanted to hear and not reading enough beforehand.
I remember doing a follow-up post on Linked-In but now feel that it was, perhaps, not detailed enough, so I thought I'd explain a bit more for the sake of clarity.
Paraphrased in the box is the Apple support page for Handoff and other features, which I had also linked in my earlier follow-up post.
As an example, and to amplify my paraphrasing, if you -- like me -- possess an older iPhone (4S or earlier) and a Mac other than (read, "older than") those stipulated in the box, you -- like me -- are out of luck with regard to Handoff, Instant Hotspot, AirDrop between OS X and iOS and AirDrop between two Macs outside the stated requirements. Phone calling and SMS should work, though. What is now clear is that tomorrow's gadgets may not work with today's systems. Today's features may not work with tomorrow's gadgets. Tomorrow's systems may not work with today's features ... and so on.
One thing in the future is clear for me. I am definitely going to read all the small print -- and make sure I properly understand it -- before and after any new free offering from any large corporation. I will wait before taking them up on any free offering until I'm sure I won't need to buy the next updated offering at a higher cost in another product line in order to make something work for me the way I understood. Never mind peer pressure -- ("Oh, but it works for me on my XX.xx!"). Never mind the "want" factor.
While one cannot help being disappointed that things don't "just work" the way we understood it at first hearing, one shouldn't find fault with the marketing strategy which allegedly gives something away for free in order to sell advanced (costlier) machines and devices in another product category. Large corporation are, after all, in the business to make money.
Their business goal is, after all, the bottom line; it certainly isn't altruism.
I remember doing a follow-up post on Linked-In but now feel that it was, perhaps, not detailed enough, so I thought I'd explain a bit more for the sake of clarity.
As an example, and to amplify my paraphrasing, if you -- like me -- possess an older iPhone (4S or earlier) and a Mac other than (read, "older than") those stipulated in the box, you -- like me -- are out of luck with regard to Handoff, Instant Hotspot, AirDrop between OS X and iOS and AirDrop between two Macs outside the stated requirements. Phone calling and SMS should work, though. What is now clear is that tomorrow's gadgets may not work with today's systems. Today's features may not work with tomorrow's gadgets. Tomorrow's systems may not work with today's features ... and so on.
One thing in the future is clear for me. I am definitely going to read all the small print -- and make sure I properly understand it -- before and after any new free offering from any large corporation. I will wait before taking them up on any free offering until I'm sure I won't need to buy the next updated offering at a higher cost in another product line in order to make something work for me the way I understood. Never mind peer pressure -- ("Oh, but it works for me on my XX.xx!"). Never mind the "want" factor.
While one cannot help being disappointed that things don't "just work" the way we understood it at first hearing, one shouldn't find fault with the marketing strategy which allegedly gives something away for free in order to sell advanced (costlier) machines and devices in another product category. Large corporation are, after all, in the business to make money.
Their business goal is, after all, the bottom line; it certainly isn't altruism.
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