Tweet of the Day: AirPlay Is Apple?s Little Thing to Make a Big Difference

When we’re constantly barraged with new computers, smartphones and tablets, it’s hard to take the time to appreciate small details that have a lot of significance. Take AirPlay, for example: a feature integrated into Apple’s iOS devices to wirelessly stream content to the new Apple TV.

That feature has the potential to be killer, even at its most practical level, my friend Arnold Kim of MacRumors.com points out in today’s Tweet of the Day: “didn’t really occur to me before, but instantly streaming iphone 4 captured vids to appletv via AirPlay is a pretty killer feature.”

Think about it: You shoot some video of your kids running around in Disneyland, and when relatives or friends visit, you whip out your iPhone, tap “AirPlay” and boom ? that video is streaming to your Apple TV and playing on the big screen. �(You can do the same with a photo slideshow or music stored on your iOS device.)

Sharing personal media isn’t normally so seamless: You usually have to plug in a cord and copy files onto a drive, or upload media to a website and wait for it to process. Streaming, on the other hand, is instant.

Here at Wired.com we’ve pondered about the big-picture potential for the Apple TV to be a real game changer thanks to iOS and AirPlay. If third-party apps such as Hulu, Netflix or ABC Player are able to incorporate AirPlay to wirelessly stream online video content to a TV without requiring a mess of cords or extra accessories, then Apple TV might finally be a smashing hit. Turning the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad into a multimedia remote was a clever move that effectively turned Apple TV into a�media ecosystem built around iOS mobile devices;�Wired.com chief�Evan Hansen thinks this strategy will disrupt the cable industry.

But as marvelous as that all sounds, building up a major alternative to the traditional cable TV subscription is going to take a great deal of time, even for Apple. In the nearer future, when the Apple TV ships in the next week or two, the hassle-free convenience of being able to share your personal media with a tap of a button should be extremely compelling for gadget lovers.

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