Continuum Tips and Tricks: Episode 2 – How to use Continuum without buying an adapter

Dear MNB Readers!

Welcome to another episode of Continuum Tips and Tricks! I would like to demonstrate how users can use Continuum for phones without having to buy a Miracast Wireless Display Adapter (or wired Continuum Dock) by utilizing devices that you may already own.

Continuum utilizes a technology called Miracast (my wife says it sounds like I am saying Meerkat!) to connect to devices wirelessly. The best thing about Miracast is that it is a Wi-Fi standards technology, aka, not owned by Google, Microsoft or any tech company and therefore, should work with most devices that have Miracast hardware built in. This keeps companies from limiting device or software compatibility (hint: Chromecast only works with certain Android devices, certain Android versions and certain apps since Chromecast doesn’t use Miracast technology).

From the official Wi-Fi organization website:

Miracast is an industry-wide solution, so the technology works well across devices, regardless of brand. Connections are easy to set up and use since the devices choose the appropriate settings automatically. Miracast supports premium content—like Blu-ray feature films, live television shows and sports, or any other copy-protected premium content—allowing you to watch what you want, where you want.

Since Miracast is a standards driven technology, some devices that you may already own have the ability to receive or transmit data (images, videos, sound and more) via Miracast from device to device and this is where the ability to enjoy Continuum, without having to spend extra money, comes in:

Back in time:

Once upon a time, a wired connection was the ONLY affordable way to mirror the content of  a device. Here are a couple of videos I made years ago of Symbian and Maemo devices using a wired connection to mirror the display to a larger screen.

I actually still have the 3.5mm AV cable from Nokia that came with my N900. Those are some of the best built cables that I have ever used and I still wish more devices supported the non-HD connection as not everyone has a HDMI enabled display. We all know that new sub HD connections aren’t going to happen though as we are firmly in the HD+ digital age now. The wired, sub-HD (VGA) video out was fantastic for the time but I sure am thankful for the ultra-fast, high-definition, wireless Miracast Wi-Fi standard that we have today.

Do any of you regularly wirelessly connect your mobile display to a second display? If so, what device do you use? Do you see Miracast being useful and if so, what ways would you or do you use Miracast? If you currently do not have a device that enables you to wirelessly display content from your mobile device, what wireless display device would you buy?

Do you prefer a wired or wireless Continuum setup and regardless of your choice, what are the benefits and disadvantages of that choice?

As always, thank you for visiting MyNokiaBlog and have a great day!

Sincerely,

Demitrius Harris

Tags: Continuum, Lumia 950, Microsoft, Miracast, Nokia

Category: How to:, Lumia, Maemo, Microsoft, Nokia, Symbian, Video, Windows