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Your thoughts on starting an upgrading section for BT4 for older Macs

Since the release of Yosemite we have had quite a few people peppering us on upgrading their older Mac's (both laptops & desktops).

As it turns out some of these systems can in fact be upgraded with a newer WiFi/Bluetooth combo board.

So the question here is should we add in an upgrade section per the upgradable models?

And, is IFIXIT willing to sell the needed parts. I think that might be a good revenue stream for you folks.

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The problem with this is because Apple probably knows the parts are interchangeable, they'll probably program a whitelist and refuse to function on these older machines they weren't made for. Not trying to hurt your feelings, but Apple will pulls stunts like this because they want us to put our old machines on eBay to lose value so we buy new, less serviceable machines. There are vendors who don't stop this, like Dell. Dell doesn't have a whitelist on their business machines best I know, so I can get a 802.11ac card, and it will work no problem.

Also, the 2011 15/17" MBP has GPU defects. People know this, and are selling them on eBay to get rid of them while they work. I have even seen people encourage this behavior, too.

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Nick I think you're seeing things ;-} I don't see Apple re-engineering the part to preclude its use. Why waste engineering effort on such a stunt for such little money involved here.

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I'm not saying they will, but it wouldn't shock me if they programmed a whitelist into the cards. I'm just warning you it's possible. After all, it pretty much costs them pennies to do, because it's firmware, which is software embedded into hardware.

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As to the GPU defects that wasn't Apples fault, it was their supplier. BTW we're very happy seeing all of these systems on the used market as we're buying them up ;-} Due to our business needs the retina series just won't cut it. We have dumped 15 MBPr's this year and only have 10 left that our upper management use. We bought 30 used MBP '11 & '12 systems and plan to buy close to 50 next year if we can find ones in good shape. Sometimes the older systems are better!

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I wasn't saying Apple was responsible for the GPU defects, but their handling of it is disgusting, if you want my honest opinion on how they handled it. Why they can't make it whole is beyond me.

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Can we focus on the core point here: The blogsphere has tons of people asking how to upgrade their system. Even here in the IFIXIT answers we are getting quite a few asking how. While many can't their is a group that can! Does it make sense posting a guide for those systems? The 802.11n to 802.11ac upgrade was pointless as the throughput gain wasn't much. This I can see as being a bigger hit with Handoff and continuity services.

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Dan,

You are absolutely correct, many people have wanted Handoff/Continuity on their machines. Apple has even left the 2011 machines out of the mix for those features despite having the required Bluetooth 4.0. This is planned obsolesce at it's worst; blocking a very functional software feature when the hardware is present, just because you can.

However, never underestimate the power of the community.

Being iFixit, these types of things do worry us, and we keep our eyes open for fixes. Earlier today, a number of blogs broke news of a piece of software that would enable the missing features for the 2011 Macs (that have Bluetooth 4.0). That piece of software can be found here:

Continuity Activation Tool

What about those who don't have Bluetooth 4.0 on their machine? Well, we are working on coming up with a solution for them too. I'm working with our product manager to try and source some of these bluetooth cards that have the 4.0 standard. There are some machines that Apple hasn't built compatible 4.0 models for, and these sadly will most likely continue to be left out.

We are looking into it, and we hope to have a resource for this within the next few weeks.

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I'd love to be involved some how. Let me know what I can do to help.

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Mike any news??

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I haven't a huge update for you, as we are still working on sourcing official BT 4.0 cards. However, there is now an update for the software fix that allows the usage of BT 4.0 USB dongles.

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As I was informed a long time ago there is a standing "policy?" against solving software (not strictly DIY hardware) fixes.

Despite this "policy" there are a fair number of Software Questions and Answers on iFixit.

How far/much time should we devote to correcting the belief (illusion) that a Bluetooth 4.0 upgrade will enable full functioning Yosemite without risky and advanced user OS X hacks?

As the OS evolves (updates) these hacks will likely need to be instituted again (re-installed?) or completely re-written.

Do we really want to go there?

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I hear you MacHead, I guess the question is what is software? I see no issue dealing with an OS driver (as needed here), the means of installing an OS or fixing a damaged or baulking HD with an application. I do agree we shouldn't try to explain how to install an app or how to do something within the app.

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Is there any reference documentation or outline?

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Software: the programs and other operating information used by a computer/device. IMO installing/reinstalling software is not repair of hardware. Documentation of the "policy"? Not that I can point to, however, ''at one point (I've been here since the early days) I belive it was Kyle who wrote a statement to the effect of ..."iFixit is not a software help forum, there are other and better places to go for that..." ''Does one "repair" software? IMHO a software fix, or workaround is a repair, - providing instructions or hacks for software issues is" explaining how to do something with/within the app." (OS). Should we stop at simply stating that adding Bluetooth 4.0 hardware to a Yosemite blacklisted Mac's will not necessarily enable Hand-off, Airdrop etc and including an outside link?

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I have actually talked to Kyle about this in the past, and we have drawn a line in the sand. When in comes to Software, we won't have guides on how to fix or use various software unless it is helpful in the repair. Ie. we recommend using Super Duper when upgrading your hard drive for a bigger size.

However, in some instances, the hard drive fails, and they are no longer able to read/write from that particular drive. In situations like these there needs to be instructions on how to reinstall the OS, which has become slightly easier over time, but also not as clear how to do do the reinstall. and gone are the days of popping in the restore disk and reinstalling Mac OS X. So I have personally been trying to find the time to write more guides for the newer versions of Mac OS X.

In a situation like this (bluetooth 4.0+ older mac hardware), where a hardware fix requires a software fix, an exception is made.

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Someone migrated this from meta to ifFixit - according to the above discussion/line in the sand, it shouldn't it have been removed instead?

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Dan will be eternally grateful.