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Reflection and AirParrot apps bring Windows screen mirroring to Apple TV, iOS mirroring to PCs

We told you about Mac OS X apps AirParrot and Reflection in the past. Developed by app makers Squirrels, AirParrot allows you to mirror your Mac’s screen on an Apple TV-connected TV, while Reflection provides mirroring of iOS devices to any Mac display. The developers have since followed up with updates to both of the apps bringing many requested features such as audio and Mountain Lion support, but they released PC versions of both apps today that allow you to mirror your iOS device to a Windows machine or a PC’s screen to an Apple TV.

As for the Windows version of Reflection, it will release with all the same features as the OS X client, including: screen recording, audio support, frame colors, full screen mode, multiple device mirroring, and more. The first release of the AirParrot PC app will just provide basic screen mirroring features initially due to roadblocks during development. Head developer David Stanfill, who is also the founder of Napkin Studio, told us about the difficulties of bringing the AirPlay mirroring functionality to PCs and provided us with screenshots of the apps below:

“We saw some interesting challenges porting to Windows. Apple gives developers access to a very rich set of frameworks and technologies for audio and video processing that Microsoft just hasn’t matched While developing for Windows, we realized we were going to need to research and license those missing codecs and frameworks.”

Apple is set to introduce AirPlay mirroring in Mountain Lion, which will bring many of the features offered in AirParrot to OS X. We already saw a video demonstration of the feature in action. However, the developers behind the Reflection and AirParrot apps think they are giving Mountain Lion and Apple “a run for its money” with its latest updates to AirParrot including: 1080p support for the third-gen Apple TV, app mirroring, AirPlay password support, and extended display functionality to use your Apple TV as a second display. Screenshots from the new Windows apps are below:

The developers plan to release updated “perfected versions” of the apps this summer that will bring almost all the features included in the OS X versions to the Windows apps. The PC version of AirParrot for $14.99 ($49.99 5-person license) and Reflection for $19.99 ($59.99 for a 5-person license) is available now.

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Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.