AirPlay is built into iOS and OS X these days, making it simple to mirror anything on any of your devices to your Apple TV. Oddly, though, there’s no built-in way to steam your iOS screen to a Mac using AirPlay, even though the 27” iMac might as well be a TV at that size.
As is so often the case, there’s an app for that. There’s AirServer, the tool that, once installed, lives in your Mac’s Preferences and makes it easy to stream from iOS to your Mac, and Reflector, which makes it look like you’ve actually got an iOS device on your Mac screen. Then, there’s the brand-new X-Mirage that aims to be the best tool both for AirPlay streaming and one-touch recording of anything on your iOS device screen.
Keep reading to see how it stacks up to the competition, and to get a chance to win one of 5 copies of X-Mirage.
Bridging Apple’s Own Tech
X-Mirage gives you an easy way to mirror your iOS devices to your Mac. Just start the app (you may need to right-click on the app and select open the first time, since the app is, oddly enough, not signed), and allow it to accept incoming network connections, then choose the resolution you’d like and set a name for your Mac if you don’t want to stick with the default. Then, just jump over to your iOS device and enable AirPlay mirroring or stream media over AirPlay, and it’ll automatically open in a clean window on your Mac.
Simple, one-touch recording
That’s when you’ll see X-Mirage’s signature one-click recording option that’ll appear when the AirPlay mirroring window first opens. You’ll also see play/pause buttons to control media if you’re streaming music or videos from your iOS device to your Mac instead of just mirroring your whole screen. It’s great for mirroring, and works just as you’d expect, with minor lagging if your Wifi connection isn’t strong but otherwise solid performance.
Recording is similarly simple. Just tap the record button, then use your iOS device as normal, and tap the record button again in X-Mirage when you’re finished to stop recording. Then, you’ll be prompted to choose your video format and quality, and will be able to save it to your Mac or upload it directly from QuickTime. It’s simple, and works great.
X-Mirage Versus the Competition
The quality’s good enough I literally forgot and tried to touch my MacBook screen.
If you just want to mirror your iOS device to your Mac, X-Mirage, AirServer, and Reflector are all great apps. At $16, $15, and $13, respectively, they’re all similarly priced. They all three get very similar performance with AirPlay streaming, but in testing I’d say that Reflector seemed to fare the worst while AirServer and X-Mirage gave almost the same quality.
With recording, X-Mirage makes it the simplest with a one-click option to record, while maintaining the nice play/pause buttons that AirServer also includes that makes it nice for use as just an AirPlay server without the recording features. That makes it the nicest of the 3 if you want it for AirPlay streaming and iOS device recording. There’s only two things it needs: its UI could use a bit of Reflector’s class, and it needs to be signed so it’ll run by default in OS X.
Win a Copy of X-Mirage!
Whether you just want a way to play iOS games on the big screen — where your iMac, and not the TV, is the big screen — or want to record app tutorials and more, X-Mirage is a great way to do it. And you just might be able to get it 100% for free, since we’ve got 5 copies to giveaway. Just leave a comment below and let us know what you think looks nicest about X-Mirage to enter the giveaway. Then, share the post on your social networks and leave another comment below with a link to your post for an extra entry.
Hurry and get your entry in — we’re closing the giveaway on Tuesday, October 22nd.
Envato staff or those who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm are ineligible to enter.
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