OS 10.7: Airplay Support From iOS To Use Mac Display Would Be Great, Keyboard & Mouse Support Too

I have one wish for the next OS X upgrade.  I know that with some apps, we can use the iPad's screen as an extension for the Mac if you need a secondary screen.  It's not a setup I've done but it's something I'm looking into.

What I'm interested in is being able to Airplay from an iOS device to the Macbook's screens.  This would be an awesome setup that would entice upgrades of Macs and iOS devices that may create a very sophisticated and beneficial halo effect for all of Apple's products and ecosystem in in general.

Such augmented Airplay features would also work with the iMac's screen or even a Cinema Display.  And I'm not just talking about mirroring.

Mirroring would be a great first step. But I like to see it go further.  When the Mac with the display is being used as the Airplay display, it should automatically know and allow added features to be implemented.

For instance, the user would be able to use the Mac's keyboard to control the iOS setup.  Say you have your iPhone mirrored over to the Macbook Air, you can then use the Air's keyboard to type a letter or surf the Web.

We may even see the iOS device use the Mac's Internet connection rather than the iOS's own to save power.

Such a feature could use the power-saving Bluetooth implementation rather than through WiFi.

If such a feature is introduced by Apple, we likely won't get everything at once.  We'll probably get mirroring to start and maybe the keyboard function.  The rest could come later as Apple wait and see how it works out and what features would make the setup better or as demanded by users or Apple itself.

There is plenty of need and use for such an implementation.  Gaming and watching videos comes to mind quickly.  You might have a presentation on your iPhone but nothing else to show it on but your client's Macbook Pro.  Or you just want to do a screencast or some form.

The thing is such a tie-in is a natural progression on both the iOS and OS X.  There is a school of though that Apple will eventually merge iOS and OS X into one OS, not unlike what Apple has now for Windows 8.

So, creating this new Airplay feature to merge an iOS device for use on a Mac screen would help Apple go a long way in trying to research for the future.  It'll be like when iPhone users began using the iPad.  There was little or no learning curve at all.

If Mac and iOS users become familiar with new functions in such a setup that could serve for a future mobile platform, any hybrid OS that Apple could eventually move to will be very familiar to users with all the powerful features and more.