This morning while I was eating breakfast in the living room, I was also streaming music from the bedroom over the airport network in my house.
It's no secret, but a lot of people never really pay attention to these features so let me explain.
The Mac Mini in the bedroom was playing the music over the speakers in the bedroom, and simultaneously over the speakers in the living room over the WiFi network via the AppleTV in said living room.
I like to play it that way, so I don't have to turn the music up to hear it all over the house. It works very well.
But this morning I decided I wanted to watch the latest smosh video podcast while I was eating breakfast and I really didn't want to have to go back into the bedroom to pause the music. Since I didn't have my iPhone (which also has a nifty remote control that works over WiFi) to pause the Mac Mini, I did what any consumer would do: I aimed my infrared remote at the Apple TV and pressed pause.
I expected the music to stop streaming, but I didn't expect iTunes in the other room to actually pause. I thought it'd keep playing in there until I got around to going in there and pausing it.
So I was amazed that Apple had the forethought to make the master iTunes Mac Mini in the other room pause when I pressed pause for the AppleTV that was acting as a speaker wire for the extension.
Sweet. This is just another one of those little details that Apple pays attention to that no one ever understands until they start using it.
Way to go Apple, it is a very cool system you've built for me in my house.
