14 DAY TRIAL // When OS X Mountain Lion debuts this summer, all your new Apple gear will be AirPlay-enabled, including your Mac. You’ll be able to stream anything from your Macintosh computer onto the big screen in your living room using AirPlay Mirroring and Apple TV.
Apple’s marketing tagline for the new feature goes like this: “Your Mac is on TV.”
And it hardly needs any technical explanation because all you do is pair the two and the radio waves take care of the rest.
Whether you want to show some photos to your friends (and don’t want to pass around the laptop), or whether you're giving a presentation in an auditorium, AirPlay in OS X Mountain Lion lets you put anything from your Mac onto a flat panel television via Apple TV.
The $99 set-top box is at its third-generation right now, and it boasts 1080p capabilities, meaning that any HD content you have residing on your Mac’s hard drive will stream great via AirPlay.
The video stream is sent with audio. AirPlay Mirroring also scales what’s on your Mac to fit the big screen. Users can adjust the image and make it sharper by matching their display resolution to the Apple TV.
Image credits: Apple
“This new feature in Mountain Lion is made for an audience,” says Apple. “With AirPlay Mirroring, you can stream what’s on your Mac to your HDTV via Apple TV.”
“Show web pages and videos to friends on the couch. Share lessons with a classroom. Present to a conference room. It’s a big deal for your Mac. And for everyone around it,” says Apple.
The iPad is already used this way in multiple scenarios. For example, teachers use AirPlay Mirroring to project images from the iPad onto a bigger screen in their classrooms so that every student is able to see the same thing just as clearly as the one next to him / her.
When OS X Mountain Lion ships later this year, teachers will be able to bring their more powerful Macintosh computers into the classroom and conduct even more comprehensive lessons.