AirServer is an OS X utility I first reviewed in May that allows you send music, photos and videos from iOS devices to a Mac’s display using AirPlay. Unlike similar apps that enabled such functionality before, AirServer stood out because the first release was stable, fast, and cheap at $3. Since then the price increased to $4.99, but the developers released a plethora of updates (seriously, I’m pretty sure I updated the app more than 10 times) to bring several other functionalities like dual display support, a different icon, a settings panel, audio controls, service rebroadcasting, and more.
With the latest 2.2 update, however, the developers have gone all out to implement early support for iOS 5 and OS X Lion. Both OSes aren’t out yet, but if you’re rocking the betas on your device or computer you’ll be able to use AirServer to beam music and videos – you’ll just have to disable dual-mode AirPlay on iOS 5 for now. The devs also said that they’re looking into implementing iOS 5’s AirPlay Mirroring on AirServer (iOS apps mirrored on a Mac, that would be nice), but that could be difficult as it uses Apple’s FairPlay encryption.
Alongside OS compatibility, recent AirServer updates also brought audio controls in video apps, support for Boxee, XBMC, FrontRow, Wake on Demand, as well as 24-bit audio support. I’ve tested AirServer with iOS 5 and Snow Leopard and it works very well, with songs and YouTube videos playing just fine on my MacBook Pro.
Go download Air Server here.
