With the introduction of iPad 2 and Apple A5 processor in March 2011 Apple TV fans got an amazing new feature called AirPlay Mirroring. A5 was powerful enough not only to send a separate picture or video to an HDTV via Apple TV (AirPlay), but also to wirelessly display everything what’s on the iPad 2 screen right on the HDTV, allowing to stream apps and play games on the big screen TV (AirPlay Mirroring). Since then, all the iDevices that got A5 chip or one of its more powerful brothers (A5X, A6) supported AirPlay Mirroring. Yesterday, A5-powered iPad mini and A6X-powered 4^th gen. iPad joined the family of devices that support one of the iOS coolest features.

Here is a complete list of iOS devices that support AirPlay Mirroring:

• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 5
• iPad 2
• iPad 3
• iPad 4
• iPad mini
• iPod touch 5^th gen.

AirPlay Mirroring is also supported on OS X Mountain Lion.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Looking for the ability to use that nifty AirPlay Mirroring feature on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch but do not own an Apple TV? Well, today may be the best day of your life thus far because AirServer is here! Affectionately known, by their team, as “the game console for Mac/PC” this piece of software is much, much more! Now, in case some of you missed what I just said: iOS AirPlay Mirroring is now on Windows machines! Did you catch that? Because there will be a test at the end of this review.

AirPlay Mirroring for PC is here!

Let’s Start with Windows. This release is in its early stages, which is good news. The team is committed to rolling out FREE updates to its Windows version as they continue to work increasing its stability and its features. It is not, currently, up to snuff against its MAC counterpart but it is mirroring on Windows, and it does work! According to the team over at AirServer:

That’s right. AirServer is the first and only software that can Mirror your iPhone/iPad to your Windows PC. This is a pre-release version and doesn’t yet have sound or some of the eye candy features of full-blown AirServer. But it does have Mirroring. And Mirroring will enable you to take your iPhone 4S and display the screen pixel perfect on your PC. Over the coming weeks we’ll be adding free updates to the PC version to bring it up to speed with the Mac version. Exciting times ahead.

The game console for MAC has arrived!

Now let’s talk MAC! The functionality of this software is exceedingly impressive and it has come a long way! According to their team, “in this release, AirServer for Mac has been enhanced specifically for gaming. The picture is crisper, the aspect ratio can be changed to suit your taste.” Upon installation you are give the ability, via the preferences option, to mirror your iOS device directly to your MAC. This alone is cool, but not the impressive part. AirServer comes with the ability to:

Audio

• Allow AirPlay to control your MACs volume
• Adjust the Audio Buffer Size
• Select what device you want to use for audio output

Video

• Choose what display you would like to use for mirroring
• Edit the quality of the image (sharpness, contrast, etc.)
• Adjust the aspect ratio for your comfort (Full Screen for example)

Mirroring

• Optimize for differing resolutions and/or devices
• Optimize for slow networks
• Optimize for FaceTime HD Camera (any Mac Mini users out there?)

All these features alone add up to be an amazing software release that is well worth your time, money, and attention.  BUT WAIT! There’s more. How about split screen mode for some competitive game play? Oh yes they did! I was shocked to find that I was able to connect multiple devices at once to my MAC. Regarding he split screen feature, the AirServer team says:

You can now Mirror multiple iOS devices simultaneously in multiplayer split-screen mode. This means that if you have two iPhones in the room running Temple Run you can turn this into temple race on the big screen. A classroom full of Fruit Ninjas becomes that Bruce Lee fight scene in The Fist of Fury. And with over 30,000 iOS games running on tens of millions devices the possibilities with AirServer are endless.

With every connection, the screen simply self adjusts to give the best view possible. I was able to play against my friends in Tiny Wings, Temple Run, and Angry Birds! It is an amazing little extra to have! I would buy this software for that feature alone. I kid you not.

More Than a Console

Though they have titled this product as a “game console”, I have found it to be far more. The mirroring functionality opens up a world of possibilities that does not end at games.  I found that I was able to use my iOS devices as a digital white board… PowerPoint/Keynote presenter (wireless), iBook reader, web-surfer, and so much more! The possibilities here are somewhat endless. The question is how creative can you get?

The Bad?

The title of this section is a bit misleading. In the end, I found nothing bad with this release, however, I had three “hick-ups” that I would be remiss to exclude them. In a total of three hours of use, on the MAC version, I had the following issues:

• 2 connection drop outs when playing First-Person-Shooter games, such as Modern Combat 3 & Archetype.
• Lagging audio every time I played First-Person-Shooter games, such as Modern Combat 3 & Archetype.
• Problem playing embedded videos over AirPlay in Full-Screen.

AirServer is sold at $14.99 for MAC version or $7.99 for Windows version (there is also free 7 day trial) and you can get it from here.

umOuch (Andrew Brasher)

You may also want to read:
Source unveils design and features of Apple HDTV
How to control your Apple TV with any third-party remote control
FireCore: Work is underway on Apple TV 3 jailbreak and Apple TV 2 5.0 untethered jailbreak
How to install IceFilms on your jailbroken Apple TV

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Brought to you by the developers of Remote HD, AirServer is an advanced AirPlay/AirTunes receiver that lets you seamlessly stream audio, videos, photos, and photo slideshows to your Mac or iOS device. Recently updated to version 4.2 and optimized for the iPad 3, AirServer now features on-the-fly video post processing, Apple TV 3 full HD support, and  improved gaming performance (FPS) over mirroring.

AirServer also fully supports AirPlay mirroring. This means you can wirelessly stream whatever’s on your iPad 2, iPad 3 or iPhone 4S to your Mac running AirServer with mirroring feature enabled.

We are giving away 10 free licenses of AirServer. Here is how to enter the contest:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

AirServer, an advanced AirPlay/AirTunes receiver that lets you seamlessly stream audio, videos, photos, and photo slideshows to your Mac or iOS device, has been updated to version 4.2. The new AirServer, optimized for the iPad 3, comes with improved frame rate (70+ FPS) and is said to provide no lags: according to the developers, “you can now actually play a game while looking at the big screen”.

AirServer 4.2 also ads something totally new, which has been long overdue from Apple: on-the-fly video post processing. Now, the entire post processing happens in the GPU of the Mac and there is no loss in frame-rates. Picture quality setting are now customizable and give you control over the sharpening, brightness, contrast, saturation and hue.

AirServer also fully supports AirPlay mirroring. This means you can wirelessly stream whatever’s on your iPad 2, iPad 3 or iPhone 4S to your Mac running AirServer with mirroring feature enabled.

Below is full list of AirServer 4.2 improvements:

• Optimized for the new iPad.
• Apple TV 3 Full-HD support added.
• Added Mirroring post-processing settings.
• Improved gaming performance (FPS) over Mirroring.
• Fixed random disconnects during Mirroring.
• Fixed Growl notifications.
• Fixed audio related issues.
• Reduced memory usage.

The new AirServer costs $14.99 and can be purchased from here.

You may also want to read:
AirServer 3.0 brings AirPlay to your Mac
aTV Flash (black) 1.4 for Apple TV 2 released
Apple TV software update 5.0 (9B179b) now available worldwide
Giveaway: Win the new, third-generation Apple TV

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

This week in “Apple TV News from the Web”:

1. Siri on Apple TV?
2. Real Racing 2 AirPlay and Party Play
3. Coming to Apple TV – iTunes Match
4. Movie streaming

We are open for submissions: if you find anything related to Apple TV and you think it may fit here, send us a tweet or a Facebook comment and we’ll post it the coming week.

—————-

1. Siri on Apple TV?

Now here’s an interesting idea, the intelligent personal assistant from iPhone 4S, Siri, could be integrated in your Apple TV. It would be amazing for us to get away from the remote controllers and finally use this great assistant. In the near future, we will be able to simply talk to our TVs, let’s hope they will talk back.

9to5mac, Is Siri coming to your television

2. Real Racing 2 Airplay and Party Play

Real Racing 2 comes with an amazing update, like AirPlay with the Party Play mode. They also fixed the bugs and increased the memory optimizations. The popular car racing game from Firemint will definitely take advantage of the new iOS 5 and iPhone 4S/iPad 2 so you can enjoy a great performance.

Firemint, Party Play Update

3. Coming soon to Apple TV – iTunes Match

Apple is bringing another great feature to the owners of little black boxes. If you will subscribe to soon-to-be-released  iTunes Match, you will be able to access your entire music collection from iCloud — including songs you’ve imported from CDs or bought somewhere other than iTunes — right from your Apple TV. The service will be $24.99 a year.

iTunes Match has a scan-and-match feature — all the songs in your iTunes library are scanned and then matched with those available on the iTunes Store. Matched songs are instantly added to your iCloud library with no uploading needed. Any remaining songs are automatically uploaded from your computer to iCloud.

4. Movie streaming

Apple could be streaming movies on iTunes Store, in fact, they are negotiating with the film studios to make this happen. Imagine that in the near future you can stream movies or TV shows to your favorite devices from Apple with transferring them. You don’t have to search for films that can be played only with an iOS device. In the future we may have a simple solution for this.

TUAW, Apple negotiating for streaming movies on iTunes Store

You may also want to read:
How to Jailbreak Apple TV 2 on iOS 5 (Apple TV 4.4) Using Seas0nPass – Tethered
Apple TV 2 Software Update 4.4.1 – Released and Pulled (Updated)
AirServer 3.0 brings AirPlay to your Mac (Updated: Giveaway!)

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch have been generously updated by Apple with over 200 new features yesterday, and the Cupertino-based company didn’t forget about its “hobby device”. Apple released the Apple TV 4.4 software update, which adds Photo Stream, AirPlay mirroring, NHL live games, Wall Street Journal news, support for subtitles in Netflix, new movie trailers section and some new slideshow themes.

With Photo Stream in iCloud, your last 1000 photos automatically appear in a special Photo Stream album on your Apple TV 2.  No matter which device you used to take the picture. No syncing. No sending. iCloud’s Photo Stream service automatically uploads the photos you take or import on any of your devices and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices and computers.

AirPlay mirroring lets you wirelessly stream what’s on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S to your HDTV. It lets you to mirror every app to the big screen, including web browsers and games.

Other new features:

• National Hockey League: watch live games. View highlights, scores, and more.
• Wall Street Journal: watch up-to-date news, business commentary, and financial analysis from leading experts.
• New Slideshow themes: enjoy your photos on your HDTV with new slideshow themes: Photo Wall, Flip-up, Shifting Tiles.
• Netflix: added support for subtitles when available.
• Trailers: browse and view hundreds of the latest theatrical trailers

As always – don’t update to 4.4 if you don’t want to lose your jailbreak. @nitoTV and @firecore are already working hard on the new jailbreak. We’ll have a tutorial on how to jailbreak your Apple TV on firmware 4.4 as soon as the new jailbreak is out.

Our readers report that Apple is still signing the 4.3 software, which means that if you didn’t update and your atv is still running 4.3, you can jailbreak it using SeasOnPass 0.7.7 or sn0wbreeze.

You may also want to read:
AirPlay Mirroring Coming to iPhone 4S
How to Jailbreak Apple TV 2 on iOS 4.3 or iOS 5 Beta with Seas0nPass 0.7.7 (untethered)
How to Jailbreak Apple TV 2 on iOS 4.3 with sn0wbreeze (untethered)

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Deep inside the iOS 5 file system 9to5Mac has found an evidence for a next-generation Apple TV being in the works – a reference to ‘Apple TV 3,1’ (current model is listed as 2,1). According to 9to5Mac, the number changing from 2 to 3 should signify a major upgrade. What changes can we expect? Most likely, the device will get a dual-core A5 processor that would open door to true 1080p. In July AppleInsider reported that Apple may be preparing to begin supporting 1080p movies in its iTunes Store later this year. True 1080p would be a nice update for iPhone 4S owners since the device allows to shoot 1080p videos and then stream it to Apple TV via AirPlay. Games mirrored in 1080p, like Real Racing 2 HD, would also be awesome. The current Apple TV’s A4 processor only allows 720p playback.

The Apple TV 3 should also come with some more RAM and a bluetooth support. Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross thinks that Apple could even put Siri into the Apple TV or an Apple branded television, reports FORTUNE (click here to find out what our Facebook fans would say to Siri if it was running on Apple TV).

Unfortunately, we shouldn’t expect the new Apple TV to be out soon. MacRumors reminds that when the previous iPhone references have been found in iOS releases, we’ve seen a lead time of up to 15 months. Earlier reports claimed Apple is not planning a hardware update for the device this year.

You may also want to read:
AirPlay Mirroring Coming to iPhone 4S
Real Racing 2 HD First to Support Wireless Gaming over AirPlay on Apple TV 2
No Apple TV 2 update this year?

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

First announced for iPad 2 back in June,  AirPlay mirroring is now coming to iPhone 4S. This feature will let you see on your TV (with the Apple TV 2 plugged in) exactly what’s on your new iPhone. Although iOS 4 natively supports AirPlay for photos, videos and music, and there are iPhone apps that let you AirPlay pretty everything – web pages (Web Browser for Apple TV), live view of your iPhone’s camera (Camera for Apple TV), maps, text editor (TVOut Genie!) – one thing still missing are games. Well, it will finally change with the arrival of the iPhone 4S and, as this video shows, we can expect it will work as smooth as we are hoping for.

According to Apple, AirPlay mirroring will be available only for iPhone 4S and iPad 2, the only Apple devices powered by A5 chip, as the other devices are simply not powerful enough to handle the mirroring. Hopefully, we’ll soon be seeing an iOS 5 apps with AirPlay feature built-in, which would let us to AirPlay the app without the necessity of mirroring your iPhone.

Short after the iOS 5 has been unveiled, Firemint announced that its Real Racing 2 HD will be the “first title to support full screen wireless gaming over AirPlay”. According to the developer, this won’t be just mirroring – the players will be able to play Real Racing 2 HD on their big screens without a cable, while their iPad 2 displays racing telemetry in real-time.

And if you don’t have the second generation Apple TV, you can also plug in the HDMI cable and mirror your device over the wire as well.

You may also want to read:
Photo Stream and AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2 Coming to Apple TV 2
AirPlay-Enabled Apps: Web Browser, Camera and Videos for Apple TV, TVOut Genie! (review)
Real Racing 2 HD First to Support Wireless Gaming over AirPlay on Apple TV 2

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!