Apple just announced something that has gotten my full attention, and my change my computer buying plans in the short and long term: the next release of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion, allows a Mac to share it’s screen via an AppleTV at 720p, over the wireless network.

I know there’s lots of easy ways to hook a Mac up to your television, or cross-convert your media library to work on an AppleTV, but this setup allows for seamless access to any video content on your Mac in your living room. No more worries about using Handbrake to make a copy for your iPhone and then a second copy for your AppleTV – you just load the media into iTunes and it plays back over the AppleTV via screen sharing.

At the moment screen sharing appears limited to 720p, but I imagine that as 802.11ac is developed, and the next generation of the AppleTV is released, 1080p will be supported. It also means that I now want to keep my Mac Pro when I get the iMac, as I can easily hook the machine up to the TV in the living room without having to find space in the TV cabinet for the MacPro and all it’s bulk, heat and noise.

Keeps a man thinking, right?