At some point you've probably heard about AirPlay, a wireless streaming feature found on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or any Mac or Windows PC running iTunes. While some features had been available for years under the AirTunes moniker, Apple rolled out the AirPlay name and an expanded feature list in the fall of 2010. With the arrival of iOS 4.3, AirPlay has been further enhanced, and--perhaps most significantly--third-party consumer electronics manufacturers are adding it to their products.
Apple sums up the technology like this on its regularly updated 'Using AirPlay' page, which has some troubleshooting tips.
With AirPlay, you can wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to Apple TV (2nd generation) and stream music to AirPlay speakers or receivers, including AirPort Express. You can also wirelessly stream videos and music from your computer to Apple TV (2nd generation) and stream music to AirPlay speakers or receivers, including AirPort Express.
That pretty much tells you what it's all about, but here's a closer look at what you need to know about AirPlay and some tips for getting the most out of it.
- Only a limited number of products are currently AirPlay-compatible: Right now, only a handful of products offer AirPlay compatibility (see slideshow, below) and they tend to be fairly expensive. The exception is the
Apple TV , which only costs $99, and Apple'sAirPort Express (also $99 list). The majority of early AirPlay products are speaker systems, plus a few AV receivers that offer built-in AirPlay support. - Video and photo streaming options are limited. At the moment, the Apple TV is the only product that allows you to stream video and photos to your TV from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. In the future, there will certainly be other boxes that offer AirPlay video support, and rumor has it Apple is talking to TV manufacturers about licensing AirPlay technology so they can build it into HDTVs.
- The number of applications that support Airplay is growing. It's pretty easy to stream audio from nearly any iOS app to an AirPlay-enabled speaker. However, more apps with deeper AirPlay integration--such as streaming video to Apple TV--are beginning to appear in the App Store. For instance, the free Vevo app lets you play music videos directly on your TV. (Unfortunately, the helpful filter that once highlighted AirPlay-optimized apps on Apple's Web site no longer appears to be active.)
- Wi-Fi is better than Bluetooth--but it's still not perfect. AirPlay works over your Wi-Fi network and, as anybody who uses Wi-Fi knows, it's not always rock-solid. In testing some AirPlay speakers, we experienced the occasional dropout and even a few complete disconnections. However, unlike with Bluetooth streaming, your music doesn't get compressed, so it should sound better, depending on the quality of the speaker you're streaming to.
- Using your iOS handheld as a music source has limitations. When you stream music stored locally on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you can only stream it to one device (such as a speaker or Apple TV) at a time. You connect to that device using an AirPlay-compatible app and it becomes a monogamous streaming relationship.
- To stream to multiple devices, you have to use your computer-based iTunes music collection as the audio source. For whatever reason, running iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC provides more flexibility for AirPlay. Using iTunes on your computer, you can stream music to multiple AirPlay receivers or speakers throughout your network (say, an Apple TV in the living room and a
Zeppelin Air in the bedroom), and control their volume levels independently as well. - The free Remote app can access and control those computer-based iTunes servers. Here's where things get confusing. Even if you're streaming audio from a PC- or Mac-based iTunes collection, you can still use an iOS device--iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch--to control the music you're hearing over the AirPlay speakers. Just download Apple's free Remote app. Once it's set up, you can choose iTunes songs and playlists and control volume levels (again, in multiple rooms) from the app itself. This is great if the computer running iTunes is in, say, an upstairs bedroom, but you're listening (and controlling) via Wi-Fi in a downstairs kitchen.
- You currently can't stream different music to different rooms. True multiroom audio systems like
Sonos ZonePlayer allow you to stream different music sources or playlists to different rooms simultaneously. Not so with AirPlay. Currently, you can only access and stream one source at a time. - You can't use a Time Capsule or networked storage drive as an AirPlay source (unless the computer stays powered on). Many people have their music stored on a networked attached storage drive (NAS), such as Apple's own
Time Capsule . Alas, even if your entire iTunes library is stored on the Time Capsule--or any other NAS--you can't access that music on an AirPlay device unless a host computer is running iTunes. Again, the Sonos system edges out Apple here; on a Sonos system, you can stream music files directly from some (but not all) NAS drives even when there's no computer powered up in the house. - Use the latest firmware and software to ensure the smoothest AirPlay setup. We'd say this goes without saying--except that it needs to be said. Before you get AirPlay up and running, you'll want to make sure you have the latest versions of the firmware and software on all applicable products. That means the latest version of iTunes (on your Mac or Windows PC); the latest version of iOS (on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone); and the latest firmware on your AirPlay-compatible playback device (be it Apple TV, Apple AirPort Express, or any third-party device). You'll also want to turn on Home Sharing on iTunes.
Choosing to use a Mac doesn’t mean you have to leave behind Windows OS and all of the software. You can set up a dual-boot system to run both in parallel, or use a Windows emulator for Mac. In fact, if you have to deal with various platforms then a Mac would even be a great choice.
With powerful hardware, Mac computers can run any operating system flawlessly. Using Mac computers is also the only way to run (legally) Windows, macOS, and Linux. That’s obviously one of the advantages.
When you want to play, edit, or convert a video file that's located on your laptop or desktop PC, Windows 10 and macOS have solid official software that works well enough most of the time. IOS App Signer is an application for Mac that combines various IPA files and (re)sign into a single application. That reformed application is ready to install on an iPhone or iPad. It supports various file types; IPA, deb, app, Xcarchive. IOS App Signer will install Kodi on your device. Apple apparently released iTunes 12.6.3 as an alternative version because “certain business partners might still need to use iTunes to install apps.” But even if you are not a “business partner” you can still download and install iTunes 12.6.3 and use the version of iTunes to manage apps with an iPhone or iPad connected through a Mac or Windows PC.
Nox Emulator has emerged as one of the best app players for Windows & Mac. Thankfully, it is supported on all the commonly used Windows versions including Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7. Thankfully, it is supported on all the commonly used Windows versions including Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7.
For those of you who are looking for an easy way to run Windows on your Mac, just keep reading and I will show you everything you need right below.
macOS does have built-in support for Windows called Boot Camp. This feature let you turn your Mac into a dual-boot system with both macOS and Windows installed on it. But if you just need to get Windows up and use a particular application, using a Windows emulator will be a better solution and save a lot of hassle.
In this article, I’m going to show you the list of best Windows emulators (FREE & PAID) that I have used and had good experiences with. Just scroll down, learn about them and choose a good one for your Mac!
1. Parallels Desktop
Parallels is the virtual machine software that lets you run Windows on your Mac without rebooting and use Windows applications like they are native to Mac or PC. It also supports plenty of other operating systems such as Chromium, Android, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu.
Parallels gives you several ways to run Windows. You can clone an existing computer by using the “Transfer Windows from a PC”, or install a fresh version from Microsoft. If you’ve used Boot Camp before, you can reuse this existing Boot Camp installation. Parallels also allows you to purchase and download original Windows ISO file right from within the program.
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What I love the most about Parallels is its Coherence, which is a view mode that allows you to run Windows apps on your Mac, as though they were native Mac applications.
Under the Coherence mode, you can run Windows apps directly from the Mac Dock and easily switch between both your Windows and Mac apps without managing two separate desktops or rebooting.
Another key feature of Parallels is the ability to install and let users play Windows games. Note that it’s just a virtual software, so using Parallels would be ideal for playing certain games casually or games that don’t require a lot of powerful processing. If you want to try big games that are graphically intensive, I recommend Boot Camp.
2. VMWare Fusion
VMWare Fusion & Parallels do fundamentally the same thing, but they have some differences in features, performance & user subscriptions.
Parallels calls their windowed mode support “Coherence”, while in VMware Fusion it’s called “Unity”. There are some minor differences between the ways that each program handles these modes, but they work in essentially the same way. They both allow you to run Windows apps on your Mac desktop so you can copy, paste between Windows and Mac apps, move and resize them.
About the performance of these two Windows emulators, TekRevue has benchmarked both of them and VirtualBox – the virtual machine I will show you right below. And according to LifeHacker, Parallels tends to do best in CPU-related tests, while VMware does best in graphic-related tests.
When it comes to the costs, both VMware Fusion & Parallels have the same price tag of $79.99 for an annual license. The difference? Well, Parallels is licensed on a per Mac basis while Fusion is licensed per user. So if you have multiple Macs, VMware Fusion would be the best bet.
3. VirtualBox
VirtualBox is another Windows emulator for Mac but unlike Parallels and VMware, it’s open source software and completely free.
With VirtualBox, the set-up process of virtual machines is more tricky than two commercial competitors above. You’ll need to tweak a bunch of system settings, including how many processor cores & how much memory the virtual machine gets. Then, you’ll need an installation disc, USB drive, or ISO file (you can download to your Mac) to install from.
![Use iphone app on mac Use iphone app on mac](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126451689/714047844.jpg)
In terms of features and performance, it’s also not as polished as VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. The windowed mode of VirtualBox named Seamless Mode hasn’t worked with Windows 10 yet. And it has no feature that allows you to open up individual Windows apps from the dock. That means you’ll have to launch the virtual machine manually before using your Windows apps.
However, if you just want a Windows emulator that can run some simple Windows apps on your Mac, a free service like VirtualBox may suit your needs. There are many tutorials on how to set up a virtual machine with VirtualBox out there so I don’t think it’ll be a big hassle. You can give it a try before considering VMware or Parallels.
4. WineBottler
WineBottler is not a virtual machine application but it can provide you with an easy way to wrap a Windows application into something that will run natively on OS X. This is an ideal solution if you just need to run one application and don’t really want to mess with all other stuff.
Once you’ve installed WineBottler, you can choose a program from the list within the app. WineBottler will then automatically download, install, and configure the program for you.
If you can’t find the program you want, you can download the .exe file of the program and open it by right-clicking on it and selecting Open With > Wine. You can then either execute the .exe file directly or choose to create the .app file for Mac and install.
Note that WineBottler doesn’t work well with some Windows applications. In this case, it may crash or not run at all.
5. Windows Emulator: CrossOver
CrossOver is another commercial choice for running Windows on Mac. It works just in the same way as WineBottler. It is proprietary software with out-of-the-box support for many commercial Windows applications like MS Office, Adobe Lightroom, DirectX, etc.
You can also use this software to play some popular Windows games such as Counter-Strike, Diablo, StarCraft,… CrossOver will be a better choice than WineBottler for professionals and organizations. Its licenses start at $39.95.
Play Apple App For Mac On Windows 10
Dan is a web developer, a digital nomad, and a lifelong Apple fan. At iPhonebyte, his job is to help you get the most out of your iOS and Mac devices. Read the story about him and the website here.