Apple in their infinite greed has limited Mirroring, a key feature in their new OS X Mountain Lion update, to MacBook models made in mid 2011 or later. We see no practical reason for this other than to entice owners of older models to upgrade their hardware.
The team here at ClearCode Software currently use an application called AirParrot which provides this feature on all MacBook models, regardless of manufacture date. This proves the hardware on older MacBooks is fully capable of such a feature.
AirParrot is a fine solution, one that has met our needs consistently. However, we were hoping for a slight performance boost and more efficient use of resources by having this feature built directly into the OS. We will continue to use AirParrot on our older MacBooks, but we feel cheated by Apple’s decision.
Are you considering upgrading to Mountain Lion on an older MacBook? Take our early adoption experience as an argument for pause. Apple has a history of limiting new features to new hardware, and it seems this practice is still live and well.
Alienating long time customers seems to be Apple’s montra.