First introduced in OS X Mavericks, Apple has brought AirDrop, its wireless file-transfer feature, to iOS 7. This technology uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to make an ad hoc connection between two iOS 7 devices, letting you copy files quickly and easily. Here's how to use it.
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1. Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth either in Settings or the Control Panel. This will have to be done on any device you want to transfer content to or from.
2. Enable AirDrop by opening Control Center and pressing the AirDrop icon. As in Step 1, this must be done on any device you want to transfer content to or from.
3. Make yourself discoverable to everyone, or just those in your contacts.
4. Share a photo by opening the an image in the Photos app and pressing the Share button in the lower left corner.
5. Select the device to which you'd like to send the photo. Devices with AirDrop enabled, and on the same Wi-Fi network, will appear as small circles below the selected image. (For example, iPad, as in the image below). Press the icon to connect to the desired device.
6. Press Accept on the window that appears on the receiving device. You should see a thumbnail of the file you're sending, as well as an option to decline, if you choose. The photo will then transfer (it took about a second in our tests), and appear in the Camera roll.
7. Share a map location by opening Maps, and pressing the Share button in the lower left corner. Then, follow steps 5 and 6; the map will open in the Maps app on the target device.
8. Share a page in Safari by pressing the Share button in Safari, and follow steps 5 and 6; the page will open in Safari on the target device.
You can also share videos in the same manner as above; over our Wi-Fi network, it took about 90 seconds to transfer a 2-minute video from our iPhone to our iPad. Unfortunately, you can't use AirDrop to transfer files from an iOS 7 device to an OS X device; hopefully, that will come in a future update.
