One killer feature inside iOS that most folks love is AirPlay. It’s a simple but effective feature that allows any iProduct (iPod, iPad, iPhone, and iMac) to talk to the Apple TV box. Suddenly, you have the ability to ‘Mirror’ most things on your device to your television such as pictures, music, games, video, etc. Apple was the only one to offer this seamless experience up until now.
There’s a new standard for video streaming to compete with the giant Cupertino based tech company, and it’s called Miracast. Miracast along with The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced the start of a certification program for what it hopes will be true competition to Apple’s AirPlay. Besides it being capable of doing similar task as DLNA or AirPlay, Miracast can be used in places with no Wi-Fi network available, as it supports streaming over Wi-Fi Direct.
Wi-Fi Alliance’s Kevin Robinson told Ars Technica that Miracast adds “the ability to negotiate the particulars of streaming audio and video.” He continued saying “There are common codecs that all of these devices can support, common resolutions that all these devices support, mechanisms to negotiate the best possible resolution between devices. It’s all the additional negotiation that needs to happen to make the audio and video experience as seamless as possible to the user. They don’t have to worry about whether the other device has the right codec or resolution.”
The fact that Miracast is going to be available for both the Samsung Galaxy S III and the newly announced LG Optimus G is pretty cool. That said, getting all devices to carry this certification will take at least another couple of years.
[Ars Technica; via The Verge]