Recipe: Using External Screens

There are many ways to use external screens with iOS 5. Take the iPad 2, for example. It offers built-in screen mirroring. Attach a VGA or HDMI cable and your content can be shown on external displays as well as on the built-in screen. Starting with iOS 5, certain devices also allow you to mirror screens wirelessly to Apple TV using AirPlay. These mirroring features are extremely handy, but you’re not limited to simply copying content from one screen to another in iOS.

The UIScreen class allows you to detect and write to external screens independently. You can treat any connected display as a new window and create content for that display separate from any view you’re showing on the primary device screen. You can do this for any wired screen, and starting with iOS 5 and the iPad 2, you can do so wirelessly using AirPlay to Apple TV 2.