That's where Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil comes in. Or maybe you're just watching a movie on your computer but want to stream the audio to your higher-quality AirPlay speakers.
Perhaps you're listening to a speech in Safari that you'd like to stream to your TV. For example, you might be listening to a great playlist on Spotify on your Mac and don't want to switch over to an iOS device in order to stream it (as I am right now, in fact, as I write this). And as I have discovered recently, there are potentially many non-iTunes apps that you may want to stream media from. Sure, you can stream music from within iTunes on both a Mac and PC, but when it comes to anything outside of the iTunes universe, users are out of luck. (The Apple TV has its own built-in YouTube app, but trust me: when friends are over, it's easier and more fun to use the iPad as a YouTube video selection device.) On occasion, I also stream my iPad's screen to the Apple TV in order to show off an app or a game I'm playing.īut, as with many things made by Apple, AirPlay's capabilities can be somewhat limited-especially when it comes to streaming from a computer. My primary uses for AirPlay usually involve streaming Pandora from my iPhone to my TV (the main speakers for my living room), and passing around an iPad when friends are over so we can easily browse and watch funny YouTube videos on the big screen. And of course, you can still stream audio to an AirPort Express, which itself can be hooked up to any manner of speakers you like. For those unfamiliar, AirPlay allows iOS and iTunes users to stream media like music, video, and photos to an AirPlay-enabled device-in my case, an Apple TV is the only one of those devices I own, but Apple also allows third-party speaker manufacturers to license AirPlay so that they can receive streamed audio.
More specifically, I'm a fan of using AirPlay to stream media to my Apple TV. As some of you who follow my coverage may know, I like using my Apple TV.