“Mountain Lion, the latest version of Apple’s OS X desktop operating system, went public Wednesday to the delight of Mac users everywhere,” Roberto Baldwin reports for Wired. “But while the world fawns over updates to Safari and a number of features cribbed from iOS, most people are skipping over perhaps the most significant update of all: AirPlay Mirroring.”
“Don’t look now, but Apple just created a formidable cord-cutting platform. The new operating system can change the way we watch video in the living room, and might even compel some users to finally cancel their cable and satellite services,” Baldwin reports. “Any video content that’s available for the computer can now be just as easily watched on an HDTV. All you need is a Mac running Mountain Lion, and a $100 Apple TV.”
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV actually costs just $99 (with that extra dollar, you could buy a pack of gum) and – shameless plug – you can get it quickly and easily from MacMall.
Baldwin reports, “The new AirPlay mirroring feature should have the Xfinitys and DirecTVs of the world very concerned… Hulu’s free, PC-only streaming library is suddenly available on your TV without Hulu’s $8 monthly tax in the form of a Hulu Plus subscription (this tax is imposed on set-top devices like the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation). And then there’s CBS.com. On the network’s website, you can watch (and now AirPlay mirror) tons of network TV shows. Yes, these shows also appear in the CBS iOS app, but the app doesn’t support AirPlay mirroring. The same holds true for ABC content: It can be mirrored via ABC.com, but not via ABC’s iOS app.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Michael T.” for the heads up.]
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Some hobby: Apple TV outsold Xbox 360 last quarter – July 25, 2012
Strategy Analytics: With 32% share, Apple leading ‘Connected TV’ market with ‘hobby’ Apple TV – December 12, 2011
Only works with the latest Macs.
I think airlay is great but its not really a replacement for cable or sat.
Computers have had TV out for years most modern TVs have VGA inputs. If that change didn’t kill cable then I doubt airplay will do it.
The AppleTV with the correct content has a better chance at hurting cable and sat
For many folks in the US, their cable provider is also their Internet provider. The cable companies usually won’t sell an Internet subscription without bundling it to a cable subscription, at least for residential customers. Also, in many areas, cable Internet is the fastest Internet service available.
No, cable will be alive and well for years to come.
I’ve had cheap cable without TV for a long time on Charter here in Oregon. 30MBps down 5Mbps up, and I can upgrade to 100Mbit for an extra $15/month but that seems like overkill for my needs.
Comcast sells high speed internet as a stand alone in Colorado, their cable TV flat sucks, you have to pay extra to only get high speed internet.
This is great news: Wall Street is waking up to the looming Windows 8 catastrophe.
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2012/07/26/value-guys-give-up-on-microsoft/
Bye bye Ballmer
Bye bye MSFT
Time it takes for ABC, Hulu, TBS, TNT, HBO, CBS to block Air Play mirroring on Mountain Lion 3…2…1
These old media publishers wouldn’t realize it for months unless articles pointed it out like this one. Which media mogal just said “Whatz Airplay?”
Not to dispute what you’re saying, but exactly how is a existing network going to block something obtained from [pick your source] legal or otherwise, then streamed to a private computer, then streamed over a private internal wireless network-most likely encrypted- then to a private Appletv box and then to a private TV?
They technically couldn’t that without blocking all video playback on Macs from a web browser.
And what is a TV anyway–just a big ass monitor. So instead of watching the content on a directly connected monitor you are watching on a bigger, wirelessly connected monitor.
They can’t block the content, it’s all linked as what you see content.
This is not like Google TV that was blocked, Apple is allowing anything that shows on your screen to be air played onto another Device, and that includes the Apple TV, iPads, iPhones and all Macs that have the new Mtn.Lion, it’s very diffrent then the direct RSS linking Google did.
AirPlay is fascinating because of the fact you get content that can’t be block, and it’s considered as what you see on one device is what you see on all other devices.
I look forward to finally Airplay mirroring HBO Go. There is no good reason you can’t mirror it from your iOS device.
Not trying to be rude but why would one want to airplay HBO GO? You have to have HBO to have HBO GO. Why not just watch HBO on your HDTV?
2nd tv without a box.
2009 Mac Mini, no AirPlay : sad
“Apple TV actually costs just $99” thanks for the savvy reporting – nice to know it is not $100. freakin’ idjits.
Apple needs to open up airplay mirroring beyond just the absolute newest Macs. This was the feature I was looking forward to the most in Mountain Lion with my not even 3 year old MacBook Pro, and now big disappointment.
Try AirParrot. It will mirror your display.
I’ve demo’d AirParrot. It works (barely).
Which is about as well as AirPlay would have worked on earlier Macs running Mountain Lion.
AirPlay only works on new Macs because of H.264 Intel-based hardware encoding included in the new integrated graphics chips.
Then, how does AirParrot (in its own less than average way) work with older Macs?
The answer is that it mirrors but drops frames.
software
Yes, the cord is cut. Safari 6’s failings were enough to cut the cord for me. I will sit out this upgrade. I honestly do not believe Apple is really testing their software before they release. It is too easy to let us test it for us and to think, we are paying to work out the bugs for Apple. Neat marketing trick.
I believe Apple has lost its’ edge.
Not sure which Safari 6 you are using but my browsing has never been better.
Safaris unified search is a train wreck, thinking about going to Firefox if Apple doesn’t fix it.
I agree unified search and URL isn’t my favorite change, but it is more than made up for in the performance. This will perhaps address my favorite pet peeve about Safari for iPad: the default of typing text in the search bar when I already know the URLs by heart.
Mine is better too. I just switched to Firefox. Thanks Apple!