Mountain Lion AirPlay Mirroring: Not So Fast There, Older Macs!

Unless you have a mid-2011 or newer iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, or early-2011 or newer MacBook Pro, you may not be able to enjoy AirPlay Mirroring with your second generation or newer Apple TV when OS X Mountain Lion is released.

Fairer Platform, via MacDailyNews:

Looking forward to broadcasting movies, music and more from your less-than-fresh, though still OS X Mountain Lion compatible, Mac using AirPlay Mirroring? If you don’t have a mid-2011 or newer model, just put that thought out of your mind right now.

Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion specifications and requirements page offers the following requirements for AirPlay Mirroring fans:

Feature-Specific Requirements: AirPlay Mirroring:

Requires a second-generation Apple TV or later. Supports the following Mac models:

• iMac (Mid 2011 or newer)
• Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer)

No mention of why AirPlay mirroring will require such late model equipment, but FP has a theory; “My best guess is that these Macs ship with Intel chips containing the latest and greatest version of Intel Insider, which allows streamed DRM encrypted Hollywood content to play — just guessing…”

What’s your opinion, dear reader? Why would Apple require such new equipment to AirPlay Mirror? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.