iMore:
There are a lot of cool features coming to iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite this fall. One of the most hotly anticipated is Handoff, which enables you to pick up where you left off in an email, a document and other work between iOS and OS X devices. Handoff is elegantly choreographed dance between devices, operating systems and protocols. It’s partly dependent on Bluetooth 4.0, the most recent widespread deployment of the popular short-distance wireless communication protocol, which includes Bluetooth Low Energy (BT LE). So, how can you tell if your Mac is properly equipped to take advantage of it?
You can check for yourself if you’re not exactly sure which Mac model you have. It’s a little convoluted, so bear with me and follow these instructions to find out.
Sadly, mine isn’t “Handoff-compatible”.
I’ve also found Mactracker (free on the Mac App Store) to be invaluable for this. In the “Connections and Expansion” tab for your model, you’ll see the supported Bluetooth version.
It would not be surprising – as mentioned in comments there – if a non-builtin BT4.0 adapter would work just fine, just plugged into a USB port somewhere.
I’m holding out hope for that, too.
I would say a Bluetooth LE USB Adapter like one from IOGear will work just fine. Apple is always surprising in its ability to support third party USB accessories. I attached an old unsupported USB 2.0 BT to an old macbook pro that had lost its BT chip and I was back up and running as if nothing had happened
Why would low energy be a requirement for an iMac or Mac Pro?
To work with LE peripherals. Such as an iPad or iPhone.
Sigh.
There’s a post in MacRumors about that. While BT LE was enabled, Continuity still wasn’t. If it’s not BT LE alone or some machine whitelist, my wild guess is that you need both BT LE and Wifi Direct.