Prior to E3 there was a photo floating about the internet which showed the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play connected to a television with what looked like a HDMI output on the device itself, something which we all know is not available, at least to the public. Well it looks like iOS 5 may have come up with something similar, whether intentional or not.
Ben Dodson who is a freelance developer based in London has been playing around with the AirPlay wireless features of the iOS 5 beta and what he discovered what that through the help of an iPad 2, he could essentially turn his Apple TV into a game console. This is achieved through AirPlay Mirroring mode which is one of the new features of iOS 5 that displays whatever you’re doing on your iPad 2 on to the Apple TV which is then passed to and displayed on your television set. All this is achieved wirelessly and it looks like it is a pretty seamless experience.
Put on a game like Infinity Blade and you could very well fool your friends into thinking that you bought yourself a brand new gaming console. Apart from the possibilities (read Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja on a 40-inch television display), does anyone see a faint resemblance between the iPad 2 + Apple TV setup and the Wii U? If you want to see the demo in action just head on down to Ben Dodson’s blog for the video.