As alert readers might have discovered, my videos are back. They’re called “60 Seconds with David Pogue,” and they illustrate whatever my column is about. I make one about every other week. (Here is last week’s, on light bulbs.)
The thing is, more and more often, creating tech videos requires filming the screen of the phone, and that’s a nightmare. There’s grease, there are reflections, there are exposure problems. And there are blocking problems — as you demonstrate some phone feature for the camera, you can’t help your hand getting in between the camera and the phone, blocking the very thing you’re trying to film. (The camera starts focusing on your hand instead of the screen, and things just keep getting worse.)
The Times’s technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the industry in his free, weekly e-mail newsletter.
Sign up | See Sample
If you saw my video about Google Maps, you might have noticed that I’ve solved this problem. I’ve found a way to capture the live video from the iPhone’s screen — brilliantly, clearly, easily and without using a camera at all.
It’s a $13 Mac program called Reflector (a time-limited trial is available), and it transmits the iPhone/iPad/Touch’s video image to the screen of your Mac or PC. From there, you can record it or project it.
The clever part is how it works. AirPlay is Apple’s wireless video-transmission technology. Most people use it to view their Mac, iPhone or iPad’s screen image on a big TV — for example, to watch a Netflix or Hulu show on the TV screen instead of the laptop. (Your TV requires an Apple TV box, about $100.)
But Reflector turns AirPlay inside out. It tricks the iPhone into thinking that your Mac or PC is an Apple TV.
Both have to be on the same network. When you’re ready to project the iPhone to the computer, you double-press the Home button. The usual app switcher appears. Scroll it to the right until you see the AirPlay button. Tap it, choose Reflector’s name, and boom: the iPhone’s live video image shows up on the computer’s screen, with incredibly high resolution and clarity. (It also works with the iPad or iPod Touch.)
Reflector transmits audio, too. In other words, the computer plays whatever the phone is playing.
You can opt to see a frame around the image, representing the body of the phone or tablet itself. You can even specify which iPhone/iPad color you want that frame to be.
There’s a Start Recording command right there in the menu. It creates a movie of whatever you’re doing on the phone, which is handy for people who make tech videos (ahem).
I couldn’t believe how simple and smooth the answer was to the problem I’ve had for years. Reflector is terrific for anyone who wants to make videos, but it’s also great for trainers, teachers or product demos. It means that, for the first time, there’s a high-quality way to project the phone’s image onto a big screen (via a projector attached to the computer) — and to amplify its sound.
I haven’t researched Android equivalents — if they exist, maybe you can let us know in the comments to this post. But for iPhone and Mac, Reflector is a brilliant solution to a sticky problem.