iOS AirPlay Mirroring: A Game Changer

ByMike Moffit

With the release of iOS 5, Apple has raised the bar in digital entertainment once again. iOS 5 supports a feature called AirPlay Mirroring. AirPlay Mirroring allows you to wirelessly mirror your iOS device onto your television via Apple TV. This is an amazing new way to interact with the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, as it allows you to take advantage of a big screen using a small mobile device. All you need to do to activate it is double-tap your home button, swipe to the right to access the multitasking bar, tap on the AirPlay icon, select your Apple TV and flip the switch to mirroring. After that, what you see on your iDevice’s screen will be on your TV as well.

One of the major benefits of AirPlay Mirroring is gaming. The iOS game market is one of the largest mobile gaming markets due to the fact that there are so many people who own the devices. With the ability to share to a larger screen wirelessly, what is going to change is that more people are going to start to use their TVs as the screen for their gaming on iOS devices. This allows for developers to start making the apps work as a controller, while everything is done on the big screen. Some apps already support this, such as Real Racing 2 HD.

As someone who is into mobile gaming on iPad, I know I like this new feature very much. It works great for all kinds of uses. My Apple TV is hooked up to a 27” ViewSonic HD display and my stereo. Streaming wirelessly to the Apple TV, I get full HD versions of games right on the screen.

This has many more uses than just gaming though: it allows you to stream whatever you are doing wirelessly. Say you are working on an important file for work and want to see it on a big screen instead of working on the iPad screen directly. Before AirPlay Mirroring this meant you needed to connect your iPad to the television with an HDMI cable in order to mirror anything. Now mirroring is all wireless and available at the double-tap of the home button.

This new feature is one of the many reasons that iOS 5 is the world’s best mobile operating system. Apple is always striving to be the best, and with this and all the other amazing new features of iOS 5, it seems as if they have done it with this release.

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