iOS 5: Setting Up Wireless AirPlay for Presentations, Games and More

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If you have an Apple TV and an iOS device running iOS 5, then you have the ability to use wireless AirPlay to stream the screen of your iPad onto an external display through the Apple TV. As someone who does public speaking for a living, I looked forward to this feature. I downloaded the new Keynote update, fired up my Apple TV and started Keynote on my iPad. I couldn’t find anything in the new version of Keynote that had anything to do with AirPlay. Fortunately, I found the solution and want to share it with you.

The implementation of running Keynote presentations through AirPlay has a very non-Apple feel to it. Instead of being simple and straightforward, the feature is hidden.

Here’s how to find it and get it going:

1. Make sure that the Apple TV and iPad can communicate by first playing a video on the iPad
2. While the video is playing tap the AirPlay button next to the player controls and select Apple TV – if it plays move onto the next step
3. Exit the video on the iPad and double tap the Home button to reveal the Task Manager at the bottom
4. Swipe from the left to the right to reveal the iPod player controls
5. Tap the AirPlay button, just like you did in step 3 – it sits between the forward and volume controls (see above)
6. Select Apple TV and turn Mirroring to On
7. Tap the Home button again to close the Task Manager and open the app you wish to use with your Apple TV, in our case Keynote
8. Open a presentation and run it as you normally would

You can select between multiple presentation modes, but my favorite is shown above with the speaker notes below the current slide. You can also reveal the thumbnails of all the slides in the presentation by swiping from the left edge of the screen inward.

Wireless mirroring and AirPlay works well with a number of other apps. Real Racing 2 HD will give you the ability to not only play your game using the iOS device as the controller, but now with the most recent update ($6.99) you can play against up to three other players in a split screen mode.

2Screens ($4.99) is a nice whiteboard app that works with AirPlay. The app shows only the white surface on the external screen connected to the Apple TV and on your iPad gives you a screen with the interface that lets you draw, type, and add pictures from your Camera Roll. Anything you add on the iPad will be displayed on the Apple TV, but not the toolbars or selection box when you add images from the Camera Roll.

If you find other great apps for use with the new wireless mirroring on the Apple TV with AirPlay, let us know in the comments below.

About the Author (Author Profile)

Kevin loves notebooks, tablets, gadgets and photography. He grew up with computers starting out on a Vic 20 and Commodore 64. The first computer he owned himself was an 8086 Compaq Deskpro. His foray into tablet computing began when he bought a Samsung Q1 Ultra. The smartphone market opened up for him with his Palm Treo 600.