If you are interested in possible uses for this kind of technology, my R&D work until recently has been to find use cases for WiFi Aware and bring them to life.<p>Some examples:<p>* 1-tap file transfers:
<a href="https://darker.ink/static/media/uploads/08_awarebeam_1.mp4" rel="nofollow">https://darker.ink/static/media/uploads/08_awarebeam_1.mp4</a><p>* Sharing presentations, images and drawings:
<a href="https://darker.ink/static/media/uploads/05_meshpresenter_1.mp4" rel="nofollow">https://darker.ink/static/media/uploads/05_meshpresenter_1.m...</a><p>* Playing Quake 3 (OpenArena):
<a href="https://darker.ink/static/media/uploads/02_openarena_1.mp4" rel="nofollow">https://darker.ink/static/media/uploads/02_openarena_1.mp4</a><p>If you want to know more details, this talk is a good starting point:<p><a href="https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/device_to_device_networks/" rel="nofollow">https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/device_to_device_netw...</a><p><a href="https://darker.ink/blog/mobile-design-with-device-to-device-networks/" rel="nofollow">https://darker.ink/blog/mobile-design-with-device-to-device-...</a>
Interestingly the article on the bottom links to a Usenix 2019 (held Aug 14 - 16) paper with the title "A Billion Open Interfaces for Eve and Mallory: MitM, DoS, and Tracking Attacks on iOS and macOS Through Apple Wireless Direct Link"<p>Abstract:<p>"Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL) is a key protocol in Apple's ecosystem used by over one billion iOS and macOS devices for device-to-device communications. AWDL is a proprietary extension of the IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standard and integrates with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for providing services such as Apple AirDrop. We conduct the first security and privacy analysis of AWDL and its integration with BLE. We uncover several security and privacy vulnerabilities ranging from design flaws to implementation bugs leading to a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack enabling stealthy modification of files transmitted via AirDrop, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks preventing communication, privacy leaks that enable user identification and long-term tracking undermining MAC address randomization, and DoS attacks enabling targeted or simultaneous crashing of all neighboring devices. The flaws span across AirDrop's BLE discovery mechanism, AWDL synchronization, UI design, and Wi-Fi driver implementation. Our analysis is based on a combination of reverse engineering of protocols and code supported by analyzing patents. We provide proof-of-concept implementations and demonstrate that the attacks can be mounted using a low-cost ($20) micro:bit device and an off-the-shelf Wi-Fi card. We propose practical and effective countermeasures. While Apple was able to issue a fix for a DoS attack vulnerability after our responsible disclosure, the other security and privacy vulnerabilities require the redesign of some of their services." [1]<p>I got nothing to add regarding OpenDrop other than that I love interoperability, and that I love it when FOSS enables this.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity19/presentation/stute" rel="nofollow">https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity19/presentat...</a>
This is great, especially considering that AirDrop is used for instance by Hong Kong protesters to bypass the great firewall [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://qz.com/1660460/hong-kong-protesters-use-airdrop-to-breach-chinas-firewall/" rel="nofollow">https://qz.com/1660460/hong-kong-protesters-use-airdrop-to-b...</a>
I wonder if it's more reliable than Apple's own implementation for MacOs. It used to be rock solid – and between iOS devices it still is – but between Macs I regularly have to switch both to "Search for an older Mac" to make them see each other, with no explanation why.
It is 2019, and it is quite surprising - and disappointing - that we STILL haven't universally solved the means to easily, securely, and (yes, I'll use this term again) universally share files. I wish we could share files in a peer-to-peer fashion securely without hindrance of mobile platform, nor blockage of network MiTM, etc. </sigh>
I'm guessing someone will take a $10 esp32 chip and put this code on it and just drop the esp32 in some hidden location and it just sending images to any open airdrop that passes by.
Could this technology be used to create a "shadow" internet/network/messaging service where devices connect and communicate directly with each other. This way governments can't just block internet access or services during demonstrations.
Cross-platform local file transfer alternative with resumable file transfer:<p><a href="https://feem.io" rel="nofollow">https://feem.io</a>
Xiaomi, Oppo And Vivo just introduced their own version of AirDrop.
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bensin/2019/08/19/xiaomi-oppo-and-vivo-team-up-introduces-own-version-of-iphones-airdrop/" rel="nofollow">https://www.forbes.com/sites/bensin/2019/08/19/xiaomi-oppo-a...</a>
An HTML5 alternative: <a href="https://github.com/cowbell/sharedrop" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/cowbell/sharedrop</a><p>Uses WebRTC for file transfer.
Let's talk for a minute about why all the Apple things aren't open. There is zero about iMessage or AirDrop that should be proprietary. The only reason I know of is vendor lock-in, and that stinks for users. It would be way more helpful to way more people if these features were ubiquitous, open, and standards-based like SMTP or IMAP is for email. We wouldn't except an Apple-only iMail, why do we accept iChat and iPhotoShare?
I haven't looked at the OP yet but as convenient as AirDrop is, I find its reliance on both BT and WiFi confusing. One needs both the devices to be connected to the same network to be able to able to drop stuff.<p>Few days back my home router broke down and I was unable to send URLs from my iPhone to Mac just because there was no common network.<p>I wish for AirDrop to be more like Pushbullet.
It's sad there is a certificate involved so it can't be 100% compatible open alternative. I use Linux with KDE and KDE Connect which offers "send file" functionality from Android and it's enough for my use case.
Balls in Android's court to deliver some kind of p2p connectivity that works beyond Android2android. Can't happen soon enough. Stop playing with yourself & start doing real computing, Android.
Get this into Android at the OS level and I would consider one of those sexy flagship devices<p>But it would also need to seamlessly mix bluetooth and wifi discovery too.
God, I wish people would stop using Python for these sorts of things.<p>It is an okay language, but after tracking down why it doesn't build and considering messing around in my system and making either installing older versions of libraries or messing around with symlinks I stopped and asked myself "really? I want to spend my time fixing this?" and just deleted the entire clone of the git repos.<p>Python is a nice language and all, but it is not a language suitable for writing applications that you distribute. (I wish the Python core developer would devote some time to making Python less horrible for distributing applications, but after around 30 years, I don't think so).