Apple News, Analysis and Podcasts

Come with me for a moment into my world. One of the hats I wear is being a salesman, and along with that, making presentations. Sometimes those presentations happen in the familiar surroundings of our office. This is where I have “home court advantage” — where everything is comfortable: I use our projector, access our wi-fi network, control the mood with our lighting,... everything is pretty much under my control.

However, that is not the case when I'm at a customer site. I have to show up early to see if I'll use my projector or someone else's. I need to find a wi-fi connection and then whether I can access it. FInally I can't  run through the presentation in case someone else is in the room watching — it'll ruin any “surprise” I've put together. Presenting at a client's site can be a big pain. I've also noticed many companies now have HDTV's in their conference rooms. This is where Apple could really take a giant leap forward and make AppleTV a salesman’s best friend.

Imagine if AppleTV could not only download movies, TV-shows, display your iTunes music and video library, but could also do something cool — wirelessly become a “second monitor” to your computer. Follow me here. Instead of carrying around a bulky projector, I have the small AppleTV in my bag with an HDMI cable. I show up at the client’s site and connect the AppleTV to their HDTV. I then pull out my iPhone 4 and turn on "Personal Hotspot" (my wi-fi connection). Now I launch Keynote on my MacBook Air (or iPad). Viola! My presentation now magically appears on the HDTV like it was a second monitor to my computer. I also have access to the internet, so I'm ready to go. There are no wires wandering across the table (which looks clunky and limits me to where I can stand in the room). There is no loud projector fan to talk over and no need to fuss with the placement of the projector to ensure the image looks straight and is bright enough for the lighting in the room. Finally, clients are going to start wondering (especially the IT guys) “How did he do that?!?”

Making a great impression is as important as the content of your presentation. No one hears the message if the messenger is having technical difficulties or their setup is distracting. Polished, professional and no wires — isn't that the Apple way? That's why this “second monitor” feature to AppleTV could really do wonders for sales people. Buying a portable device that will work on any modern HDTV for $99 sure beats spending $1,000+ on a projector whose bulb could burn out or break at any moment. Here's to encouraging Apple to add this feature to AppleTV3!

5 Comments

1. Kishi23 ~ July 8, 2011 16:33
   With iOS5 video mirroring this might be possible very soon on current AppleTV
2. CouchGuy ~ July 8, 2011 16:55
   Uh... Why not just run the presentation from Keynote on an iPad 2, mirrored on the Apple TV 2. You can do that with the existing hardware. Or am I missing something?
3. Pat ~ July 8, 2011 17:06
   I think you should have your wish with iOS 5. The display mirroring when teamed with iPad 2 will support any application which support TV out like keynote. Here is a link with a demo video http://bendodson.com/weblog/2011/06/09/airplay-mirroring-tv-out-and-the-apple-tv-as-a-games-console/
4. E. Werner Reschke ~ July 8, 2011 17:14
   Hi CouchGuy, Yeah - I know you can do that with an iPad2, but I want to be able to do it with my laptop (why can't Apple do that?). I also don't want any cables involved. When giving a presentation it is very nice to be able to wander around without thinking, "Okay, now I've got to get back to my iPad to go to the next slide". Think of Steve Jobs. Imagine him having to go somewhere to go to the next slide... nope everything is magic, wireless.
5. Gary ~ July 9, 2011 00:29
   You can do display mirroring wirelessly in iOS5. Albeit with black bars on sides because it is mirroring the iPad aspect ratio, but quite cool. Exact mirroring as default, smart display in aware apps (e.g. Keynote has choice of options for the presenter). I can show video on my laptop via iTune, so I can't understand why we couldn't get this to work on other applications if Apple put in a little effort.

Leave your reply