AirPlay is the Secret Weapon

I've been pleased to see some nice third party tools for extended the iOS AirPlay technology. AirParrot streams a Mac display to an AppleTV and Reflection streams iOS displays to a Mac. These are good starts but are not feature complete. AirParrot, for example, does not stream the audio to the AppleTV.

This technology is a small step towards the iOS computer. Forget docks. Forget adapters and USB cables. The ideal way to use an iPad as a computer, is to walk up to my desk, sit down and have the iPad display mirrored to my main screen and the Bluetooth keyboard auto-pair.¹

I honestly think AirPlay is a sleeper technology that Apple is slowly evolving to make a wireless iOS dock. AirPlay continually gets better and now Mountain Lion is scheduled to incorporate more AirPlay features. I think it's only a matter of time before the AppleTV gets a new name and just becomes AirPlay Dock.