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Apple Rolls Out AirPort Express, AirTunes
das writes "Apple has introduced AirPort Express (specs), a palm-sized, portable 802.11g base station with 10/100 ethernet, USB printer sharing, and analog and optical audio output, for connection to a stereo system or powered speakers for streaming your music collection via 'AirTunes.' It supports multiple profiles for easy use at multiple locations It can plug directly into the wall as a "power brick", or use a longer power cord, similar to the newer PowerBook AC adapters. AirTunes requires iTunes 4.6, expected to be available soon."
This looks like a great product, and kudos to Apple for letting it work with PCs.
Next step: having an iPod with WiFi that streams music/video to this baby! That would be super cool, and such a fun party trick. No more cables.
this product is going to sell like crazy. 99% of consumers don't care about the fact that you have to use apple software, or that it is closed-source, or that it has no web interface. haven't you read the articles about wireless recently? most people don't even realize that there is a web-interface in their routers!
notice as well.. the thing has OPTICAL out capabilities. i see 5.1 surround coming from itunes soon.
It is not clear from the information provided -- will it be able to stream to multiple locations at once? Will it be able to keep those locations in sync on the same source of music, as well as allow you to stream different playlists to different sources?
It looks like you can also use this in a wired fashion, where you connect this device to your wired network, and it will do the audio out as well. For me this would be more handy, because I already have ethernet wire to my stereo, but need a good way to get audio out of that... Is this actually how it will work?
One thing this is missing is a way to control iTunes remotely. I still think slimp3 is on the right track. A server with a web interface that lets you control what music you're playing where. I might want my PC in my office in charge of storing and dishing out the music, but have a webpad or something floating around my house to let people control what is playing where.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
I think the way to think of this is that it's a Wireless-G router with no LAN-side ethernet ports, but instead has an audio-out connector. Bottom line -- maybe it's not a Squeezebox, but the fact that it costs less than routers with similar feature sets, AND will work really well for those of us who have already bought into the Mac platform, makes it a potential huge winner.
My friends often listen to music on their iBooks while sitting on the couch, they currently have a long speaker cable from the audio out to their stereo system. They will buy this in a second.
I'll be grabbing one as a wireless printer server and WiFi extender.
Did anyone else not see this product coming? It completely caught me by surprise/
heh that's funny. My sister's boyfriend is the CEO of that company. She was yelling at me last night for having an ipod and not a squeeze box. I told her: "Whatever product meets one's needs for the right price is clearly the way to go." I suspect apple will eat this whole market up and away from squeezebox.
especially since it is $60 cheaper.
- "Never let a computer tell me shit." - DelTron Zero
Forgive me for being rude, but the LAME thing here is your quickness at dismissing it. It is a pretty cool product for the price.
Boom Shanka
Seriously, Apple folds innovations on top of other innovations they make. This is the next ipod, people, they are already approaching the home stereo which is now integral to the home theater as well. 802.11g has more than enough bandwidth to stream movies, right? Now, Apple has completely outflanked MS's "media center" methodology by saying "why for the love of god to you need a completely separate computer to run your home entertainment system?" what is a receiver except for a specialized computer, a computer that can be linked with other computers through a router. My prediction: a wireless OLED remote with a bare-bones OS X-style interface controlling (wirelessly) all the media in computers around the house. All this for around 300 bucks. Apple won't produce a PDA because that has no defined role, it's too nebulous and from that comes confusion. BUT Apple has all the experience needed for a kick-ass remote that just HAPPENS to do email, surf the net, etc.Or, what if the ipod BECOMES the remote? Mark my words, this is coming within a year and it will be huge and considerably less-expensive than the microsoft solution. Plus, it will all integrate with the ipod, I'm betting. You know how OS X hooks up with bluetooth phones? Same idea. This is huge and it is huge because it will be cheap, seamless, and not smacking of convergence.
Apple: You are SOOOO close on this.
... whatever). I want to stream whatever would be coming out of my audio port. I want to sit on my couch, put in a DVD, and watch and hear a movie without wires everywhere.
However, I don't *want* to stream iTunes (AirTunes
Can *any* device do this without a TV? I found this DVD player, but it's not what I'm looking for, either.
I have a D-Link wireless router here, I was thinking of lugging it back and forth everywhere I go, then I saw this beauty. I thought, "no, it will cost to much" then I saw the price, and I'll be ordering one ASAP. thanks again apple. I was wondering though, could this act as a repeater for my D-Link router? The d-link is in my (detached) garage, and only works in parts of the house, what if I plugged this into the house, could it repeat the D-Link's signal? Either way, I know I'm buying one. I wasn't even expecting this.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Wow. That's all I can say. This has to be one of Apple's best products - kudos to Apple, you understand our needs completely! I'm even more excited because this will take wireless out of the hands of Wi-Fi start-ups (i.e. the ones that inexplicably charge people for Wi-Fi) and put it in the hands of people who benefit from wireless. Even better, this will give people motivation to buy that laptop, because now they can set up wireless base stations virtually anywhere. This may sound like hyperbole, but a product like this could have a similar effect as did the iPod. So then lies my only question: when is this product going to be available in Canada? Because if any Apple people are reading this, the customer base in Canada is hungry for stuff like this.
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Pretty much, what it's for is to make your music play from much nicer speakers than the ones in your laptop, and you can sit in the same room as the stereo and change songs by clicking on the screen.
I'm planning to purchase one and hook it up to Input 2 of my powered speakers (Input 1 goes to the television.) That way, I can sprawl on the couch and, when I run out of things to watch on the Tivo, click buttons on Synergy (an iTunes menu-bar controller) or the iTunes window, and instead of coming out of my Powerbook's cheap speakers, the music will play out of the much better Sonys.
Plus, it's a wireless print server, so I could get a photo printer and stick it in the living room on the lowest shelf of the TV cart and print out photos from time to time. And it's a wireless repeater, which means I can finally sit on the porch on nice evenings and surf the web. (That last might not work until I get an Apple branded basestation, but I won't know for sure till I get one of these things.)
As for audio connectors - it's got a standard 1/8" headphone jack. You can use any adapters you like for hooking up stereo equipment to that. My speakers will (I think; I'm at work) require a 1/8" to RCA adapter cable, and I happen to have several lying in a drawer here in the video equipment pile.
I'm going to get this so I don't have to splurge for the home media option on the Tivo - I don't like the interface the Tivo is using, I don't need the photo streaming, I do need a wireless repeater, and the print server function may someday be useful to me.
i am a soviet space shuttle
Applescript and Salling Clicker will make this awesome. And a $130 bridge will help me to get better reception in the bedroom, which is very far from the base station and through a cinder-block wall and a chimney.
This thing is amazing... just amazing.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Peace
Creative Labs is already shipping a similar product for streaming audio off your computer, but theirs has a wireless RF remote.a sp?catego ry=119&subcategory=121&product=9192#
http://us.creative.com/products/product.
Apple has the marketing power so their solution will probably sell better. Maybe when Apple let's you control the music via your iPod, it'll be as nice. Until then I'd take Creative Labs system, even if it's not perfect.
But, a 12" Powerbook with a built-in Airport card suddenly makes for a very nice remote.
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
Reading the complaints from previous posts, I can see most people are probably thinking in terms of a desktop user. However, if you think with the mindset of a laptop user, this Airport Express opens up wonders (especially for iBook users).
First, the Airport Extreme gives laptop users a wireless path to the Internet (or an extended range if they already have a router).
Second, the last major tether to the desk can finally be removed off a laptop: the printer. With the Airport Express, a laptop user can finally roam freely on a WiFi network and not have to re-wire in order to print a document.
Third, especially for iBook users, a laptop user will not have to be restricted to their tiny built-in speakers in order to listen to music while moving around the house. The Airport Extreme will cut the wire from having an awesome external speaker connected to the laptop, and give users the ability to listen to their laptop music through those speakers wherever they go. And since a laptop user usually brings their laptops along, no remote is usually necessary (unless you're extremely lazy).
While the lack of remote support can be a pain to desktop users, the Airport Express, in my view, is a godsend to laptop users.
Setup is pretty much as follows:
Both my Xbox (modded & running XBMC) and my studio box (older PM G4) access my fileserver via a Samba share. Both XBMC and iTunes are controlled via my handspring visor's (using a Xircom springboard modules) browser (XBMC has integrated webbrowsing, but I had to use DeadEnd's webRemote to control iTunes). Next, Both devices are mixed in through an old Fostex board and broadcast via a low powered stereo transmitter.
This not only allows me to play all of my Ogg, Mp3 and AAC files on any stereo (or walkman) on (and around ;-) ) my home/property, it also allows me to control the tunes as I choose.
It works quite well... but with a lot of obvious steps. (The biggest is using both the Xbox and the Mac... which I could overcome if I'd go ahead and strip my protected AAC's). Not sure if I'll go Apple's preferred route or not... but it is tempting.
#SickNotWeak
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Since apple went through the trouble to start a new brand name as opposed to simply calling the AirPort Express "iTunes Enabled" I have a feeling that they are going to be allowing other manufacturers to add this functionality to their products.
Imagine home electronics with a built-in WIFI receiver that is able to decode Protected-AAC and will show up in iTunes automatically as soon as you plug it in!
I can't wait to buy a AirTunes iPod.
Sure, they will have their own devices, but I bet it will also be a new "port" for other companies to use - same as FireWire has become so ubiquitous on video equipment.
And for all you audiophiles out there, remember, iTunes can play apple's loss-less compressed format and the AirPort Express does have a digital audio out, so don't whine about the sound quality of playing compressed audio through your $40,000 stereo.