News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

February 20, 2008

apple_tv

Airfoil 3.1 Apple TV-friendly

Posted Feb. 20, ’08, 8:25 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Apple TV
airfoilATV3.jpg

I talked about Apple TV’s new AirTunes feature, which allows you to broadcast music to the Apple TV directly from iTunes. Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba wrote a great run-down of this feature and all its capabilities, but noted the famed Airfoil — Rogue Amoeba’s app to broadcast any audio from your Mac to AirTunes — was not yet compatible.

Well put a smile on: Today, the microscopic audio mavens have shipped Airfoil 3.1, which offers full-blown broadcast-to-Apple-TV support. In fact, it does it in a very, very cool way. From Paul:

So, I’m sending from iTunes, via Airfoil running on my MacBook, to the AppleTV. When iTunes sends to the ATV, it sends album art, but of course, we don’t have that. So, on Leopard, we’re figuring out your exact machine (a MacBook in my case) and showing [an image of it], then badging it with the source (iTunes). To top it off, we’re grabbing your screen, with the audio source (iTunes, as you can see here), and slapping it on the screen.

Paul calls it “ridiculous.” I call it pretty freakin’ sweet.

Airfoil 3.1 is a free update for Airfoil 3 users, and includes several other fixes and feature improvements. Airfoil itself costs $25, but there’s a trial version available at the site. Check it out and let us know how it works for you.


1 Comments

Dean said:

You are so right: Putting that picture of your computer with its actual desktop when it streams to the Apple TV is a very cool trick.

February 20, 2008 6:06 PM

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