Android Wireless Screen Sharing with WiDi Miracast

We’re all used to being hunched over our smartphones and tablets, watching films, playing games or browsing the web. But sometimes the content on our smartphones screams out to be enjoyed on a larger display or shown off more easily to our friends without dealing with cumbersome wires.

A lot of smartphones and modern televisions can achieve this, to an extent, using protocols such as DLNA or UPnP, but these unfortunately have limitations. The problem with DLNA is that it only works with local content; meaning YouTube and games, for example, can’t be streamed wirelessly to a screen.

On the other hand, Intel WiDi Miracast is more like having a second display on your computer – except it’s for your smartphone instead. With an Intel powered smartphone or Android tablet, you can connect wirelessly to your living room TV or anything with a HDMI port and a WiDi adapter, in full 1080p HD resolution.

Intel WiDi Miracast technology really opens up the potential for Android devices as self-contained games consoles and controllers as well. Both Chrome and Opera Beta browsers are x86 optimised for Android devices with Intel hardware, meaning HTML5 games run seamlessly and smoothly. This makes for a far more enjoyable gaming experience. Don’t forget about the benefits of developing native Android apps using the Android NDK as well.

Check out this video of Intel WiDi Miracast in action to really get a feel for the capabilities. It will be interesting to see what industrious developers can do by leveraging wireless screen displays in applications!

How could you use this capability? Read more about WiDi Miracast here and leave a comment below.

• This blog post is written by Softtalkblog, and is sponsored by the Intel Developer Zone, which helps you to develop, market and sell software and apps for prominent platforms and emerging technologies powered by Intel Architecture.

For the latest Intel Developer Blogs, click here.