so there is no way my mid 2010 mac book pro can do airplay mirroring?

There is a third party app called airparrot http://www.airparrot.com which does basically the same thing and works on 'older' macs like yours. Have a go with the free trial to see.

Jules

This has been talked about before and for some reason, Apple doesn't want it for older machines. I've been using AirParrot to link my AppleTV with my mid 2009 Macbook Pro for sometime now, even before Airplay was announced. I've always asked, if it is possible via third party app, shouldn't it be acheivable via native software?