A new beta of AirParrot, an app that streams your Mac’s display to your Apple TV 2 or Apple TV 3 over AirPlay, is now available. AirParrot 1.3 beta5 comes with 1080p support for the third-generation Apple TV,  individual app mirroring, “greatly” improved mirror speed and some stability fixes. The new version uses an almost completely rewritten method for mirroring and encoding frames. This results in lower CPU usage and faster frame rates.

AirParrot also features audio mirroring and external monitor support. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 and works with Apple TV 3 and Apple TV 2 running firmware 4.4 or 5.0; no hacking/jailbreaking needed.

AirParrot is available from here and costs $9.99 for a single license or $29.99 for 5 licenses. 20 minutes trial version is also available.

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AirParrot does one simply thing – it streams your Mac’s display to your Apple TV 2 over AirPlay, in real time. Although the app is still in its early stages, it already does its job pretty well. Recently updated to version 1.2, AirParrot now features audio mirroring and external monitor support. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 and a second-generation Apple TV running firmware 4.4., no hacking/jailbreaking needed.

We are giving away 5 free licenses for AirParrot. So if you don’t want to wait until Mountain Lion with AirPlay Mirroring is released (this summer), join us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to have a chance to enjoy AirPlay mirroring right now. Here are the details on how to participate in the giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Just one day before Apple announced it will bring AirPlay Mirroring to Mountain Lion this summer, AirParrot, an app that does exactly the same thing ML will do – mirrors your Mac’s screen to your HDTV connected to the Apple TV 2 – has been released. So if you don’t want to wait six months until the new Apple’s OS is released or you don’t own a Mac with a second-generation Intel Core (it seems that AirPlay Mirroring in ML only works on the Macs with second-generation Intel Core, while AirParrot works fine on older macs), you can give AirParrot a try just now. And AirParrot’s developers promise they will be offering “features that Mountain Lion doesn’t currently have or advertise as coming.”

AirParrot does one simply thing – streams your computer’s display (the app works by encoding your display’s image as H.264 video) to your Apple TV 2 over AirPlay, in real time. And it does it pretty well: airplaying my Mac’s screen to Apple TV while surfing in Chrome, playing movies and watching photo slideshows worked quite seamlessly during my tests. Mirroring stopped only once, when I tried to play a video in QuickTime on full screen. However, on second attempt, it worked just as it should.

For now, you can’t AirPlay audio but the developers admit they are “dying” to add this in the next update. They will be also adding support for second monitor and higher video quality support in a future update.

UPDATE: AirParrot 1.1 has just been released with audio mirroring, external monitor support, password support and some performance enhancements. AirParrot 1.1 also supports trial versions.

AirParrot is available from here and costs $9.99 for a single license or $29.99 for 5 licenses. You don’t need any hacking; AirParrot requires Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 and a second-generation Apple TV running firmware 4.4.

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Apple today unveiled the developer preview of Mountain Lion, a new version of Mac OS X that includes new features like Notification Center, Messages, Game Center, Notes, Reminders and Twitter. But the coolest feature of Mountain Lion is undoubtedly AirPlay Mirroring that lets you stream what’s on your Mac to your HDTV via Apple TV 2.

With AirPlay Mirroring built into Mac OS, you will be able to stream whatever is on your desktop – webpages, photos, videos,  presentation – directly to your HDTV, with only one click on an AirPlay icon on the OS X menu bar.

AirPlay mirroring has already been available for some iDevices for a while, letting you wirelessly share whatever is on the screen on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4s to your HDTV using Apple TV 2. Now you can do the same thing from your Mac.

Mountain Lion automatically detects an Apple TV when it’s on the same network and AirPlay icon simply appears in the menu bar. Mirroring sends a 720p video stream with stereo audio. All information sent using AirPlay Mirroring uses encryption.

According to Engadget, Apple is also working to let users stream full-screen content directly from iTunes.

Game Center

Now that Mountain Lion also includes Game Center, and thanks to AirPlay Mirroring, your Mac becomes a game console. PC Mag is guessing that you’ll be able to use it with game-style input devices plugged into your Mac’s USB ports.

Both The Verge and Laptop Magazine report that Apple showed them a “very impressive demo” of an iPad and a MacBook Air (yes, Game Center for Mac is cross-compatible with iOS!) playing Real Racing head-to-head, with the Mac streaming to a TV “with little to no lag”. “What we saw was definitely amazing,” said The Verge’s Nilay Patel.

Apple TV set

Apple has been long rumored to be working on an Apple TV set that, according to Gene Munster, could be introduced around WWDC 2012. Edward Mendelson from pcmag.com believes AirPlay Mirroring built into Mac OS X could be another evidence that the Cupertino-based company will unveil its own television soon: “Apple of course didn’t say anything about the much-rumored Apple-branded television, but I somehow doubt that AirPlay Mirroring got into OS X only because Apple wanted to sell a few set-top boxes,” he said.

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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!