iOS 5.0 and higher allows you to stream audio or video signals from Aplle tablet of any generation that is iPad Air, iPad / iPad 2 / iPad 3 / iPad 4 and iPad mini to remote device with relevant feature called AirPlay. This streaming may be either wireless or via an Apple HDMI or VGA connected cable. Owners of the original iPad may take advantage of AirPlay only by installing application/s specifically capable of this feature. The signature of such capability is the Airplay button found directly in the app interface.
Mind you, if you have the original iPad and developers have not written the specific app to support Airplay then you're out of business and cannot stream say music from your tablet directly to AirPlay-enabled speakers, but you are lucky if they have.
The switching ON Airplay on your iPad is a piece a cake, as there is no need to do this. By default if AirPlay-enabled devices are within your environment iPad will pick them up automatically. So all you need to stream say your video to Apple TV is to find AirPlay button in the interface of your video app, tap it and tap Apple TV in the list.
iPad 2/iPad 3 / iPad 4/ iPad mini and the newest iPad Air perform AirPlay routine even more efficiently, as these Apple tablets allow to mirror output of any app. Tablets running iOS < 7.0 (not a case of iPad Air and iPad mini Retina) have a default AirPlay switch along with volume controls in the multitasking tray.
Accessing AirPlay from any app is possible as long as your AirPlay - compatible devices are properly configured. To stream music / video from Airplay-capable iPads running say iOS 6 family do the following:
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- Bring up the multitasking tray by using four-fingers gesture.
- Swipe from left to very right to bring up the AirPlay Button.
- Tap AirPlay Button (the list of available AirPlay-enabled devices on your network will appear).
- Tap the device you want to use. Apple tablet will be set up to stream from any music / video app you decide to use.
On devices running iOS 7 the AirPlay button is nested inside Control Center that can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. So streaming, say from iPad Air or iPad mini of 2nd gen, involves procedures similar to above ones except the very first two steps: instead of going to multitasking panel you should reach Control Center and find the AirPlay button there. Mind you, this button comes up only if you are on a WiFi network with a device that supports AirPlay technique. Fiddling with tablet may encourage you to unveil 50+ secrets that can help you maintain iPad