Technologies

AirDrop Is Like FedEx for Your iPhone Files and Photos. Here’s How to Use It

AirDrop is perhaps one of Apple’s best features. If you’re not using it yet, you’re missing out.

If you’re still emailing photos from your iPhone to nearby friends or are still using a USB thumb drive to transfer a few files from your Mac, stop. Try AirDrop instead. Whether you have an iPhone 14, an iPad Mini or a new M2 MacBook Pro, AirDrop is a convenient way to transfer files and content from one Apple device to another. AirDrop lets you share photos, documents, videos, audio recordings, contact cards, web links and notes (among other things) quickly between Apple devices.

AirDrop is limited to iOS and MacOS. (Sorry, Android and PC users.) When AirDrop came out in 2012, it was one of the features that separated the iPhone from Android phones. If you have an Android phone, Google has its own version of AirDrop called Nearby Share, which does something similar.

You don’t even need the latest iPhone 14 Pro or a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Max chip to use AirDrop. It works with any iOS device running iOS 7 or newer and any Mac running OS X Yosemite or newer. The only «requirement» is that both devices are within 30 feet of each other and have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on. So far as I can tell, there isn’t a limit to the size of the file you AirDrop. Just know that the bigger the file, the longer it will take to transfer.

If you’d like to follow along step-by-step as I set up and use AirDrop, watch the video below.

How to turn on AirDrop

From an iPhone, make sure Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are both turned on. Next, open the Control Center panel, then push and hold the wireless connection icon until it expands into a rectangle. Last, tap AirDrop and choose from Receiving Off, Contacts Only or Everyone to control who can send files to your phone.

On a Mac, check that you have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled. Open a Finder window. Then, from the sidebar click on AirDrop. A window will open with a radar-like graphic. Anyone nearby with AirDrop enabled will appear in this window. At the bottom of the window, you can select who can send stuff to you: No One, Contacts or Everyone.

How to AirDrop on an iPhone

To use AirDrop on an iPhone, the person you’re sending files to needs to have an Apple device with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on. If either of you has a Personal Hotspot enabled, turn it off; otherwise AirDrop won’t work. The same is true if you’re using a VPN. I’m not sure exactly why this is, but I’d guess it has something to do with the way a VPN encrypts your internet connection.

Anytime you see a Share button on your phone (the rectangle icon with an arrow pointing up), you can select AirDrop. When you do, you’ll be shown a list of any nearby Apple devices that also have AirDrop enabled. Tap the name of the device you want to send to. For example, say you’re in the Photos app and you see a picture you want to AirDrop. Tap the Share button to open the Share menu. At the bottom of the menu, tap the AirDrop icon. Next a window will appear with anyone nearby who has AirDrop enabled. Find the person you want to send the photo to and tap their contact icon.

Next, a window alert with a preview of the content you’re sharing will pop up on the recipient’s phone. They have the option to Accept or Decline. Once they tap Accept, the photo you selected will be transferred. Pictures and videos are saved into the Photos app on the recipient’s phone. Documents will prompt the receiver to choose an app to save them to. Web links will automatically open in your default web browser, which for most people will be Safari.

If the person you’re sending to has their AirDrop set to Contacts Only, then they’ll need to have a contact card in the Contacts app that has either your email address or phone number in order for this to work. If you’re not in their Contacts, have them change their AirDrop preference to Everyone to receive your file.

How to AirDrop on a Mac

To start, make sure your Mac’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are both on, then open a Finder window. Next, from the sidebar click on AirDrop. To share a file, simply drag and drop it onto the contact icon for the person you want in the AirDrop window. Also, just like on iOS, you can access AirDrop anytime you see the Share button.

If you’re having trouble sending a file over AirDrop from a Mac, click the Don’t see who you’re looking for button at the bottom of the AirDrop Finder window. Then, click the Search For An Older Mac button that pops up.

How to AirDrop from iPhone to Mac (or vice versa)

If you want to AirDrop content from an iPhone to a Mac, start with the content. For example, if you want to AirDrop a web link, have the page opened on your iPhone. Then open the Share menu and tap the AirDrop icon. Next, select the Mac icon and name for the device you want to send the web link to. The recipient’s Mac will show a prompt asking them to Accept or Decline. Once they tap Accept, the web link will transfer and open in their default web browser.

If you want to AirDrop from your iPhone to your Mac, and both are signed into the same Apple ID, you won’t see an option to Accept or Decline. The transfer will just happen.

How to change your AirDrop name

Your AirDrop name is the same as your general device name. To check it or change it on an iPhone, open Settings. Tap General, then tap About. The first item in the list shows the current name of your iPhone. Simply tap to change it.

Now that you have mastered the art of AirDrop, take a look at other helpful iPhone tips and tricks below.

Technologies

Major Amazon Prime Benefit Faces Crackdown Next Month

Amazon plans to end its Prime Invitee program soon. Here’s how this could affect your deliveries.

If you’re using a friend or family member’s free Prime shipping and you don’t live in the same household, you might need to pay another monthly cost. According to Amazon’s updated customer service page, first reported by The Verge, the retail giant is ending its Prime Invitee benefit-sharing program on Oct. 1.

Amazon isn’t the first company to prevent membership sharing between family and friends. The e-commerce giant is just the latest to follow Netflix’s account-sharing crackdown. We also saw it done with Disney-Plus last year. While it’s unclear whether this change will work for Amazon, Netflix gained over 200,000 subscribers following its policy change.

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Amazon’s Prime Invitee program is being replaced by Amazon Family, which includes many of the same benefits. However, Amazon Family only works for up to two adults and four children living in the same «primary residential address» — a shared home. While you’ll still be able to use free shipping to send gifts elsewhere, your Prime Invitees will no longer be able to use the perk.

Read more: More Than Just Free Shipping: Here Are 19 Underrated Amazon Prime Perks

What this means for you

If you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s Prime Invitee benefits, you have one more month to take advantage of the current program before the changes take effect.

Starting in October, you’ll have to get your own Amazon Prime subscription in order to benefit from the company’s free shipping program. First-time subscribers get a year of Prime membership for $15, but you’ll be stuck shelling out $15 a month to maintain your subscription thereafter.

Read more: Your Free Pass to Prime Day Deals (No Membership Required)

Why is Amazon ending the Prime Invitee program?

This move follows shortly after Reuters reported that Amazon’s Prime account signups slowed down recently despite an extended July Prime Day event. While the company reported blowout sales numbers, new Prime subscriptions didn’t meet internal expectations. In the US, they fell short of last year’s signup metrics.

According to Reuters, Amazon registered 5.4 million US signups over the 21-day run-up to the Prime Day event, around 116,000 fewer than during the same period in 2024, and 106,000 below the company’s own goal, a roughly 2% decline in both metrics.

By forcing separate households to have their own subscriptions, Amazon could be looking to attract more Prime accounts after previously failing to do so.

The new Amazon Family program (previously known as Amazon Household) offers Prime benefits to up to two adults and four children in a single home, including free shipping, Prime Video, Prime Reading, Amazon Music and more. The subscription also includes benefits for certain third-party companies, such as GrubHub.

Impulse Buys Under $25 on Amazon That Make Surprisingly Great Gifts

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Technologies

Premiere Pro for Free: How Adobe’s New iPhone App Will Let You Edit Videos at No Cost

Adobe Premiere users will only have to pay for extra AI credits and cloud storage.

Thanks to social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, everyone is an video editor these days. And soon you won’t have to sit down at a laptop to use one of the most popular video editors on the market.

Adobe announced on Thursday that it is releasing a new video editing iPhone app named Premiere on Sept. 30. You can preorder the app now in the Apple App Store, with an Android app currently in development.

The iOS app should feel familiar to Premiere users, with its multitrack timeline and preview screen. The app can be used for all your usual video editing: trimming clips, overlaying audio and adding synchronized captions. You can also use Adobe’s new voice-to-sound effects tool and record voiceovers.

Premiere should be a big upgrade for Adobe users who have only used Premiere Rush, a barebones version of its video editor. As more content creators become mobile-first, Adobe is hoping to draw them in with revamped mobile apps.

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You should be able to use the Premiere iOS app for free. Adobe says you may need to pay for generative AI credits and additional storage, like through Adobe Creative Cloud, though more pricing info is expected closer to the Sept. 30 launch. This is very different from the desktop app, which starts at $23 per month.

A truly free Premiere mobile app would be a win for content creators, especially for anyone who wants to explore editing in Premiere but doesn’t want to pay for another subscription.

In an era of mobile-first content creators, tech companies have raced to introduce user-friendly mobile editing apps. TikTok creators use the ever-popular CapCut, with Meta adding its own contribution, a new app called Edits. Adobe has long been the industry standard for professional content creation and editing, but its mobile offerings were usually less feature-packed versions of its flagship programs under different names.

That changed this year as Adobe released true mobile versions of Photoshop and Firefly AI. The new Premiere app helps Adobe make a competitive entrance in a crowded market, in addition to giving loyal Adobe users a new way to access their tools on the go.

Adobe has also been focused on integrating generative AI into its software. Premiere Pro got its first-ever AI tool, generative extend, which uses AI to add a few extra seconds to clips you upload. It’s meant to help smooth transitions between clips, particularly when you might have turned off the recording a smidge too early and need a few extra seconds of film.

AI is a contentious issue among creators, with some voicing concerns over the training and deployment of AI models. Adobe’s Firefly AI has been fully integrated into the new Premiere iOS app, though the company’s AI guidelines state that it never trains on customer data and that its AI-generated content is commercially safe.

For more, check out what to know about the iOS and Android Photoshop apps and good alternatives to CapCut.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Sept. 6

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 6.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is extra-long, as usual on Saturdays. And a couple of the clues were stumpers! Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.