With the release of iOS 4.2 today, Apple introduced one of the features they’ve been busy promoting in the past months: AirPlay. While based on complex technology and a variety of Apple’s proprietary frameworks, what consumers get is really simple: streaming of audio and video content from any iOS 4.2 device to Apple TV, an AirPort Express station with connected speakers or AirPlay-enabled speakers. It’s one-way streaming from iOS to other Apple “living room devices” made simple and fast.

AirPlay went through a complicated iteration during the iOS 4.2 developer betas and GM seeds, but what we have today is a fairly stable feature easy to use for anyone. Apple, however, was apparently forced to remove some functionalities and some content providers decided to exclude AirPlay’s streaming support from their apps. Read more