iOS developer David Stanfill of Napkin Studio has been looking for a better way to demo his apps during online meetings, as well as to record live videos as the apps run. Well versed in video compression, protocols, and so forth, Stanfill decided to roll his own mirroring client for the Mac.

It wasn't an easy journey. He had to put in a huge effort getting the technology working, to build his first mirroring prototype.

I got a chance to play with this prototype, and the video that follows demonstrates it in action. It's still early days but the mirroring quality is phenomenal.

So what goes next?

Stanfill has to try to convince Apple to approve his app based on its value to the iOS community in general and the developer community in particular. If that turns out to be a no-go, he'll be looking at distributing it outside the Mac App Store.

If you're interested in following the development of this app, keep watching the Napkin Studio website, or drop him a note at his email.

FAQs:

What platforms are supported in the prototype? iPhone 4S and iPad at the current time.

How far away is this app from public release? That's up to Apple.

Do you have to jailbreak your device to use this utility? Nope. All you need is a Mac and an iOS unit.

Will Apple approve this app? Possibly not.

Is audio transmitted as well as video like on Apple TV? Yes, but you don't hear it yet. David writes, "Audio is transmitted using the regular Airtunes protocol. I'm actually listening for it, but I'm not doing anything with the FairPlay negotiation or stream processing on that end because I didn't want to mess with the PTS/DTS (presentation time/decoding time) synchronization with the video."

Hacksugar: Live AirPlay mirroring to Mac originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.