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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."
It's $70 cheaper than the SliMP3. It can replace a base station for many users. Less than the Wireless-G bridge that Linksys sells. Digital outputs for hooking up a stereo! I just ordered mine, hopefully I'll get one of the first ones shipped. I'll probably tell my Mom and brother to get one too-- it's just too damn cool!
How history repeats - the apple personal modem 1200 (other site) plugged into the wall also, and connected your computer to the outside world. Only this time, it's smaller, it's wireless, has audio out, and is 45,000 times faster.
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APPLE makes this to work with APPLE products. There is no law that says they have to make it completely open and work with everything. It works on a PC(w/iTunes) as well from what I've read so what's the big deal.
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.
Just hope my neighbors get 'Airtunes' within a reasonable timeframe...they took forEVER to get a wireless router. Some people are so lazy...
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It appears to me as though you can only share music to the Express from a machine that has the audio locally. But I'd want to control the music from a laptop in the living room, using music shared from my server in a closet, and then close the laptop. Seems like I can't do that, so it sounds like I won't be getting this.
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.
I don't need it, I can't afford it...but it's just so cool. Sigh. Apple really got their foot in the door when I got this PowerBook.
Where is my credit card?
It is unfortunate that it only works with iTunes, but the target market is probably those who already make heavy use of the iTMS, in which case they're pretty much locked into Apple anyway. It's not perfect, but it is pretty cool.
"The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine" -Abraham Lincoln
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.
there is none, except someone making it a big deal. It does exatly what it says it does, plays a playlist to your stereo without a line connection to it. Nothing more, Nothing less. For the money this is probably one of the better solutions out there.
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Nonsense. This is a $130 base station. It has every feature that home users use from the AirPort Extreme base station for a lot less money. The audio features are pure gravy.
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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.
Itunes Remote $59:
s pml
http://www.keyspan.com/products/homepage-Remotes.
>the UI is frankly much better than iTunes anyway (especially if >you have a LOT of music
Cough. To each his own I guess....
Personally, I like the AirTunes idea, though the lack of a display or remote is big. For now, I'll stick with the iPod dock connected to my stereo. Not as slick as wireless, but gives me everything I want or need.
This'll be badass with my shreddin air guitar!!
I also reply below your current threshold.
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/
One of the great features of the Squeezebox (and the recently announced Sonos) is that you can sync multiple devices together and have the same audio playing around the house, regardless of location. There are other ways to do this, of course, but it'd be great to be able to do the same with the Airport Express.
AirTunes is the software driving this thing...but Apple's real device here is AirPort Express. It's a very portable base station, which can create a wireless network for connecting to a WAN through your cable/dsl modem...or extend the range of another base Apple base station.
So, yeah...compared to the full features of a Squeezebox for music, it's lacking. And compared to the price of a Linksys or other 802.11 router...a little more expensive.
I'll take wireless access to my stereo from my G5...which I already drive around via Bluetooth from my phone when I'm too lazy to move off the couch. Who needs a remote??
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
... there comes a point where all this convenience is deadly to fat guys like me. I'll just stick with putting a CD in my stereo, thanks. North America has so much convenience we're all dropping dead. I even have a remote control to turn on my Exercycle from the couch, so my wife thinks I'm excercising when I'm actually watching Smallville reruns.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
Yeah.. that's where you lost me.
A couple of other points you made aren't quite true, i don't think... for instance, arguments like 'has no web interface' and 'only works with Apple software' and 'multi-room synchronization'... those are negated by the fact that it is meant to be used with an iTunes-loaded wireless computer, no?
Also, there are plug-ins for iTunes. And I would call an optical jack a 'proper audio connector' but maybe that's just me.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
dude, you're getting a squeezebox
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
People that use iTunes and iPods have long requested a simple way to stream music to stereos no matter where they are.
Those tiny white earbuds become tiny white pains in the ass if used for any period of time, and I like to hear the phone ring while I'm working.
You can bet your tail this device is only the beginning and can probably offer hints to the next iPod revision: wireless and remote-control modes.
Apple finally has a respectful user-base and they'll do anything they can to keep it for as long as possible.
If you're half as beautiful naked, you'd be 4 times as beautiful with twice as many clothes on.
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
Really. Until now, the offerings on remote stereo hookups were fe and far between. I just set one of my clients up with one. It was cheap. It worked. But it sure can't act as a bridge. This is going to save a lot of people a lot of money. Previously, you had to buy another Airport Extreme for $100+ to create a bridge. Now, only $30 and you get the benefit sharing your printer and iTunes wherever the hell you want. Brillant! (To borrow the word fromthe new Guiness commercials)
If your computer isn't too far away, just use your mobile as the remote and/or display. Bluetooth and Salinger Clicker or Romeo will give you what is effectively a remote with a display.
- It's an 802.11g repeater
- It's a NAT router
- It's a network usb printer server
- It's most likely the only AP that was designed for portability (correct me if I'm wrong)
So sure, if you're buying this thing strictly for music then yeah, you might be buying the wrong, or simply less expensive alternative to squeezebox. But if you want a portable AP/Router that has a nifty added feature of wireless audio support it's a hell of a product.Look at it this way, you have an xbox/ps2 that you want to get online and have also been looking for an easy way to listen to your iTunes music on your stereo. For $129 you get a bridge that will allow you to get your console online and an audio out to pipe into your stereo.
I paid close to $100 for a POS NetGear bridge a while back and it's only a b not g device.
Sounds reasonable. I don't see myself getting one, but that doesn't mean I think it's a watse of money/time and Apple should be slapped for making it.
Itunes Remote $59:
I found mine for $39 with very little effort. Makes a great all-around remote, I've not yet done any custom mapping and it works great for iTunes and MPlayer.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Now my question is is why do people slam Apple for creating products that only work with their products? No one slams Microsoft for creating software that only works with their products. Why is this?
Because Apple hasn't been declared an illegal monopoly which has abused its market position on several occasions in both the US and Europe.
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MP3 and VBR MP3 are 1 format. AAC is the second. WAV doesn't even count. Apple lossless I've never heard of, AIFF I don't use, and I've never heard of Audible.
Most people I know who do real mixing and amateur party DJ'ing use Exact Audio Copy and either FLAC, ogg, or MPC. Cause MP3 sucks. AAC is slightly better but there are too many competing versions, and ITunes can't handle all of them (iTunes was fine for me playing music IT ripped, but not AAC stuff that Nero made for me...) MPC sounds the best overall and has good compression, and FLAC is needed when compression is NOT an option.
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Trolling is a art,
"Kinda important for those of us who shop there from time to time and don't want to re-encode those files"
Perhaps it would be nifty if there was a program that would take files that you bought, you would supply your key, and then it would strip the DRM from the file so you could use your iTMS purchased tunes fairly?
Then you wouldn't be locked into an apple-only solution. Does that make sense?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Since it hasn't been mentioned here yet, I would say that one of the 'sleeper' functionalities in the Airport Express is that it can act as a wireless repeater: if that is seamless, this could be a very handy little product indeed.
So, it's a base station, and you can stream music to it from your computer, and it can be used to extend an existing wireless network, and you can share a printer with it?
This does to many things without doing any of them well. My base station has a WAN port and a 4-port switch as well as wireless. If you want to plug any LAN machines into this, you can't. You'd need a switch/hub upstream, I guess, as well as a firewall. It makes a good base station only for those who only have wireless connections.
Of course, you'd probably have trouble plugging this into your LAN anyway, since you'll want it next to your stereo in order to stream music to it...and I guess you'd put your printer next to your stereo in the living room as well?
I actually think it's a cool idea to have an inexpensive, wireless device for streaming music from iTunes, but this seems like a case of feature creep. "Hey, it's already got the wireless chips, why not make it work as a base station too? Yeah, and if we added ethernet and USB, you could use it as a base station! Cool!"
-podom
We're wanted men. I have the death sentence in 12 systems!
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.
no headphone output or proper audio connectors
Then what the hell is that audio connector?
AirTunes Express Specs
That supports both standard analog miniplug headphones and the digital optical miniplug. Both are very standard. They might not be the 1/4" connector or the TOSLINK, but that jack is very common, compact and serves your choice of analog or digital.
The tech specs on Apple's site say the RJ-45 port is and "intelligent port" for WAN or LAN.
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 get the feeling Apple designed it as a wireless AP that can serve audio or share a USB printer, whichever the users want, rather than as a device for people who have a printer next to their stereo.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
How is it insecure? it fully supports WPA.
And have you ever tried one of those 25 dollar radio transmitters? They suck. I've never had one make it more than 15 feet in open air without turning the audio quality to snap crackly crap. This provides an all digital link which right away eliminates analog noise.
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.
Does anyone know if this will interoperate properly with non-Apple base stations? I'd jump all over this if it would work as a repeater with my cheap-ass Netgear wireless router - the added connection to my stereo would be nice, but the two together in a package small enough to hide behind my audio rack is very, very nice. But only worthwhile if it'll function as a repeater, functionality the construction of my apartment requires.
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
Actually it does have some compatibility with WMA. Maybe you should read the fine print a little better.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/import.html
While I am sure it isn't exactly what you were looking for...it is fine for me. Your mileage may vary. Apple goodness.
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.
Why can't it have a 56k modem built in? That would be a great little device to take with you on trips.. Land lines are generally available everywhere but wireless or LAN isn't. What might also work is if there was a way to plug a USB modem into the USB port (that's supposed to be for printer sharing) and have the unit use that modem..
.02.
Although it is nice that it can automagically act as a wireless bridge.
Just my
Geoffeg
Why would I want a hard drive and an interface? I have a big hard drive in my Power Mac, why should I duplicate all of my music on some MP3 network device and my Power Mac? Why would I want to manage music in 2 places? If I rip a new CD why would I want to add it to the MP3 device too?
This device is half the price of what you mention and it acts as a wireless access point as a side benefit of streaming music. This is perfect for most users. The remote could be an issue, but you can control this with any laptop with iTunes and play the music from a desktop in another room on the speakers in your room. You can also use any of the new bluetooth equipped phones to remote control iTunes. I use the Salling Clicker on my T616 to control iTunes all the time. Hopefully apple will make a remote device soon that uses 802.11b and has a small LCD, I'm sure they will before too long, and if they don't I'm sure a few other companies will.
-matt
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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
The optical out is great news, especially IF it works with the Mac OS X Apple DVD Player and 5.1 audio.
Combine that with an Apple Cinema HD display, and any ADC equiped PowerBook or PowerMac becomes a pretty cool Home Theater PC (HTPC).
Does anyone know if this does/or will work?
Ted
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.
Regarding "open source, plugins or thrid [sic] party". iTunes can play any audio that can be played in QuickTime, and QuickTime supports plug-ins. There is an open-source Ogg Vorbis plug-in, for example.
Regarding "proper audio connectors". True that it only has a mini-jack for analog audio, but it also has a digital audio port, which is certainly "proper" and what you'll want to use if you want high fidelity.
Just for the record, you could also plug headphones into the mini-jack, though I find it somewhat unlikely that people would be interested in plugging there head directly into a power outlet, which is the impression you would get with this device.....
--- What?
Apple's had lots of problems recently with AirPort.
:)
An update a month or two ago completely hosed both the base station and client in terms of speed, signal strength, and reliability. The update was pulled, and a new version was posted a week later.
The new version still had problems. Frequently, users would completely lose signal for 30 seconds to 5 minutes. I specifically had this problem, and looking around the forums, there weren't many who didn't.
Last week, apple posted an update to the client-side driver which seems to have fixed the last of the problems. Even though it's now fixed, apple was really ierresponsible by not just reverting to the old version (they didn't even provide a method to remove the faulty drivers!). I'd expect way more from Apple.
Chances are they waited until all the outstanding bugs were worked out with the current airport stuff before releasing this little gizmo.
I may get one just for the audio features and to act as a bridge in my living room which is logistically impossible to wire.
At $129, it's a friggin' steal. The old AeBS was pretty pricey at $199, and the only things justifying that high price were the USB printserver (which, BTW, doesn't support all printers, especially those which have cardreaders which act as USB hubs), WDS, and the enterprise-grade administration tools. All home users would care about was the print server.
Now, at $129, it's directly in competition with the consumer gear from Linksys, Netgear, and Co. Firstly, apple users always expect to pay a bit on the top for apple-branded gear. The quality you get is usually worth the extra 20% or so -- I've had more Netgear/Linksys power supplies die on me..... Secondly, a decent 802.11g AP WILL cost you a good $80-$90. One with a USB print server will easily cost as much as or more than the Airport Express. An independent wireless USB print server also costs around $100. Only using it as a print server is cost-effective. Finally, the audio feature is unheard of on this kind of multifunction device. You can expect to pay at LEAST $130 for a device which streams audio over the network and does nothing else. Granted, it will usually have some sort of screen and remote, but for the price, it's really not an issue. Oh yeah... did I mention it's tiny? (and very similar to the Power/iBook chargers)
The only feature I would have liked to seen would have been a USB fileserver. Instead of plugging in a printer, plug in a USB Memory Key or Hard drive and serve files off of it. Guess you can't have everything
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
It's an access point for all those hotels with wired connections. Now you can get pr0n on the road in the bed without having an ethernet cord to get in your, um, "escort's" way!
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
yeah, mpg123 and winamp really do have a better gui then iTunes...
or are you saying that there are no good music player UIs out there at all?
I think it's great... Very easy and straightforward management of my music library, which changes content at all times but always takes up about 120 gigs. I can manage all of it easily, find what I'm looking for, and making and managing CD playlists is easy.
But there is no remote or display for the AirTunes, so I can't control things without going to the computer. I can use Bluetooth (my Belkin adapter has a 100 ft. range) and my Palm Tungsten T... hmmm. But I still don't get a playlist display. Can't change the playlist that's currently on, either.
I could buy a Keyspan remote... but a 40 ft. range and RF is not the best way to go, IMHO.
Why do I see a small" iTablet" in Apple's future? About the size of a Palm, stylus or touch controlled, with the ability to pick up shared iPhoto libraries and to control AirTunes wirelessly? Maybe even include some of the Newton's handwriting recognition since Mac OS X has the Inkwell technology in place...
I think AirTunes is a Apple putting their toe in the water to see what feedback they get. The PDA/tablet rumors may actually be tied more to the digital hub than to actual portable computing...
Directly from the Apple page... Secure Connection Rest easy -- AirPort Express takes strong measures to prevent unauthorized intrusion into your wireless network. It features a built-in firewall to protect you from gate-crashers from the Internet. It also features password protection and supports powerful encryption technologies including Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and 128-bit WEP encryption.
Keep It Simple Stupid...
The target audience for this product is a Mac user... people are typically drawn to Mac for it's "it just works" image (which has been dilluted lately).
This seems like a very Mac way to get these functions done... via your existing familiar itunes interface you can play songs on your home stereo w/o a wire from your PC to the stereo.
It also eliminates a router for people who don't use wired devices.
With this less-then-a-typical-brick sized device you can put your cable modem and printer in/on a desk, and hook up your stereo too. Then your Mac's around the house can print, share files, connect to the net and play music on the stereo...
Apple definiately did their homework for this one...
And I was getting so psyched last night because I got my Via EPIA board loaded up with Fedora and XMMS, and could finally stream my favorite streaming audio site, albeit with Ethernet cable (Wi-Fi was on my project plan), and pipe it through my office stereo.
And this little beauty will plug right into the wall socket by my stereo for a lot less money, less hassle, etc.
Anybody wanna buy an EPIA, slightly used?
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Cool gadget...
I've been doing this in more kludgy ways with
wifi laptops hooked up to stereos. This just makes it very nice,easy, and convenient. Always a distinction for Apple stuff.
As for no display or remote, that's kinda moot.
Most people with wifi have a laptop in front of them and can see what's playing.
Imagine,if the next gen iPods are wifi, then it'll be just like having a remote and being able to see/change your songs without wandering into the computer room.
Anyone, see future video coming down the pipe
on one of these from your centralized movie collection on your mac/pc?
Maybe an iTheater app?
I wonder why they didn't include HomePlug support, (ethernet over the power lines in your house). It's slow (I get about 3mbit between opposite sides of my house) but more than enough for media files.
Since this thing doubles as a wall wart and powerline ethernet requires a direct plug connection without a power strip, it should have been a no-brainer to include.
Peace
I noticed one of the bigger differences is that it supports 10 clients and not 50 like the base stations. I wonder if there will be a way to hack away the limitation since I assume its a firmware limitation. Not that most home users will care. But some businesses might want to do it.
Uh, never mind. Yes, "Local network", mentioned at the top, is LAN. :) However in the detailed specs, it only specifically mentions WAN. Confusing at the least.
--- What?
The one thing missing is the CoreAudio drivers for this baby... so that not only iTunes but any app can push out its sound to this baby. Check out http://cvs.opendarwin.org/index.cgi/projects/Netwo rkAudioDevice/ for a stepstone...
I'm sure it won't take long.
Joakim
Peace
MP3 is a defacto open standard.
MP3 is insanely expensive.
AAC is an open standard.
MPEG4 AAC is also expensive.
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.
It looks like Apple is making another foray into the PC market. First they adopted USB, replacing the old ADB, automatically making PC USB peripherals Mac-compatible by default at the hardware level. Then they came out with the PC-compatible iPod. Then they produced the PC version of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. Now this.
I really see this as being a great product for sharing the audio on your laptop and playing it on a friend's stereo. But this device doesn't even come close to what a slimp3 or a Roku Soundbridge can do.
One thing missing from this device is a real optical out. I'm sorry but going analog mini jack -> digi optical doesn't make any sense.
> It's most likely the only AP that was designed for portability (correct me if I'm wrong)
Heck, this is Slashdot - people correct you when you're right.
Keep in mind that right now, they are not advertising this as a plain audio-out device. You won't necessarily be able to play your DVD to your AirTunes device. This is an output for iTunes only. So surround-sound is overkill even for audiophiles. Overkill for everyone except Flaming Lips fans.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
This was what had me intrigued, set up WEP between two of them, and hook one into the router and the other one into a switch and you've created a secure, reasonably fast link between floors in the house.
Does anyone know if this will work? The specs on the site are a little sketchy.
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
The SLIMP3 has a two line florescent display and an infrared remote control; the Airport Express has neither. With the Airport Express there's no way to see -- or control -- what music is playing without running from the living room (where the stereo is) back into the study (where the Mac with AirTunes is).
You could use the ATI Remote Wonder RF remote control in the living room to skip forward and backward in the playlists while flying blind, but that's hardly the same as scrolling through them on the SLIMP3's text display.
What's needed now is something that looks and works like an iPod, but is actually an RF remote control for AirTunes...
-Mark, who wants one anyway for travelling
Firstly, no self-respecting audio professional would use a wireless connection of any kind for critical listening. It's well-shielded, unidirectionally (or bi-directionally) grounded cabling, and fiber optics where applicable.
If you are serious about audio, you're going to use the optical interface, in which case your receiver's DAC is doing all the work.
If you're really serious about audio, you're not going to be doing any of your critical listening through any computer player software like iTunes, WinAMP, or what have you... If you're like me, even raw 16-bit PCM is unacceptable for critical listening. In fact, I went back and digitally remastered my last solo album in 24-bit PCM DVD Audio, and plan to produce all future releases in that format and nothing else.
As much as I love MPEG-4 AAC, anything you have stored as MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, LAME, WMA, Ogg Vorbis or any other multimedia codec short of 24-bit uncompressed AIFF/WAV, is not sufficient enough quality to warrant complaints about the DAC in the Airport Express.
In short, if you're streaming music through a computer and it's not 16- or 24-bit PCM, a DAC is the least of your worries.
On the issue of whether the optical interface supporrts 5.1, 7.1, etc. An optical interface will support whatever's being digitally streamed through it. Whether it's Dolby ProLogic, Dolby Digital 2.0, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Digital Surround EX, DTS, DTS-ES, etc. all depends on your OS and the application from which the music is being streamed.
Dear Apple,
Please stop making so many little, cool geek products. I'm running out of money.
Love, Norm
OK, why spend money on this when you can build an analog oscillator hooked to your computer and using frequency modulation to broadcast your computer's sound over AM radio waves??? I have done this so that way I can listen to my good music outside with a cheap radio. I don't know what AirTunes costs, but my method is very cheap. In fact, it's so awesome you can set it up to broadcast over any frequency! I bet the FCC wouldn't be happy about this, but my signal isn't very strong.
Correction.
Asus WL-330.
Asus gave me one of these back at CES in February. They have a G version now. You can buy it for $60.
I've used it as a bridge, AP, and adapter. I'm currently using it as an adapter for my Vonage VOIP box. I could just as easily be using it to make my printer networkable, or my Xbox, or anything with a USB or Ethernet port. It also has dual antennas. I think I would take two of these to one Airport. Plus Asus makes much better products than Apple does. They actual design them and manufacture them, and they always make sure you can upgrade. They put out more bios updates than anyone. If you don't believe me check their German ftp. ftp.asuscom.de I've been an Asus believe since the Socket 7 based P5A motherboard, and I'm happy to see them become one of the leaders in computer products. They outshine everyone, including Dull and Apple. Those two companies are a bore in comparison.
ignorance is bliss. googlefiberatx.com
Everyone's fixated on music, but the best thing for us road warriors is it's a mobile access point. I can bring it around and use the hotel's wired access wirelessly from my room. And it's tiny and light, so it won't load me down -or- take up a lot of space in the laptop bag.
If you've never been on the road, you don't know how much of a pain it is to be stuck to the crappy desks most hotels have. Go wireless!
You can also (with a y-cable) attach it to the in-room TV, so you can ditch those annoyingly-heavy travel speakers. Yahoo!
Need to enable wireless in a conference room really quick? Plug in one of these puppies, and bang, you're ready to go. You can even configure the drop in the conference room as not connected to the inside net, allowing instant ad-hoc outside access.
It's also something else: a security nightmare for IT. Imagine the problem IT had with unauthorized modems. Now you can have rogue access points the size of a pack of cards hiding out somewhere in your organization. You'd never find the freaking thing.
What a neato gadget!
Yeah, and AAC/MP3 -> digi optical does...? You're not going to be playing audio CDs in your powerbook if you care about this sort of thing, because after all, you've got a $1k CD player, right?
Yeesh, you audio weirdoes...
Please help metamoderate.
No, it isn't missing that much functionality, and it has additional functionality that the Airport does not have, plus it is from a good company, Asus, and will be supported well for years. Expect many, many firmware updates, and of course it costs 1/2 the price
I think not needing a separate AC adapter is very important in terms of "functionality", quite possibly more important than things that will appear as checkboxes in the web-based management GUI.
Considering firmware upgrades as a "feature" betrays a very geek-oriented mindset that most mainstream people don't have (I personally usually fail to resist the urge to update firmware/BIOS/etc when new releases come out, but I *know* it's not normal. And don't they always say, with respect to firmware upgrades, "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?).
I love my Asus P4P800Deluxe motherboard, but it's not like they're a perfect company either. IIRC, one of their founders (fairly recently) jumped ship, releasing a statement saying that management was no longer concerned about quality etc. (does anyone have a link to the story on either The Register or The Inquirer?).
brought the 330 to a couple of the Austin wireless meetings and it was a hit
I hate to say it but if you bring your unit to a meeting and someone brings an Airport Extreme, the latter will be more popular.
Of course, from price point alone, the number of people you meet there who go on to buy a unit for themselves, there'll probably be more Asus buyers.
Just for the record, you could also plug headphones into the mini-jack, though I find it somewhat unlikely that people would be interested in plugging there head directly into a power outlet, which is the impression you would get with this device.....
Funny. After reading some of this discussion (your comment excluded), I honestly couldn't think of a better idea right now.
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
In theory it has enough bandwidth but in practical, real world usage 11g doesn't work well for movie streaming. First the movies must be encoded down to a lower bit rate than straight DVD and even then unless you have adequate buffering you may run into hiccups. The real problem though is if you have 11b devices on your g network because that lowers bandwidth for your g devices somewhat.
However the next generation of wireless protocols will have enough raw bandwidth to stream raw DVDs and sound as well (in theory).
Interestingly people seem to be skipping over the fact that this device is a bridge. Many components in the Entertainment center are, or will be shortly, ethernet enabled. Apple has really covered their bases with this product as it has a lot of appeal to very different market segments. I
--- I do not moderate.
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.
Uhm. I have a Sony Discman, a fairly thin, compact and round device. It's line out port is an optical out and a regular mini-jack as well. My Sony MiniDisc player has a Line-In/Out that is mini-jack/optical too. Apple ain't the first, but they may have the best application of it.
Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
Perhaps we'll see the combination of AirTunes software with Garage Band? The new AirGuitar software should really liven the party up.
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
fark mod points, I've gotta reply.
;-p
Combined optical/minijack examples
Audio out: iriver ihp-1xx series units (atleast, probably more, i just own the 120 model)
Audio in: NJB3, iriver ihp-1xx series, every freakin minidisc portable unit under the sun post like 1995.
Not a flame, but this isnt new, by any long shot.
Now that I've burned my optrotunity to mod this article (and 2 points already gone), I might as well note that if this thing passes through itunes, and anything itunes will play, gets forwarded correctly, then those out there who have dedicated servies already, could run Namp (namp.sourceforge.net) which can build m3u and shoutcast playlists, which do work in itunes, and shuffle your audio that way, *and* even have it be unit independant if you can continually add songs to the list post-creation (I dunno, still installing the modperl stuff on mine).
It would work better if you had (wait for it), a G5 with ssh and stuff running and acting as a server, but yeah, that would make my life a lot simpler anyway.
-- Page
We don't need an "overrated" so much as we need a "you completely missed the parent's point, dumbass..."
I can get a device that connects my stereo to an 802.11 network for $25? Where? I'll buy ten.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
asus probably does put out more bios updates than anyone, and apple most likely puts out LESS than anyone. That says something about both companies, but its not what you think it says. What percentage of bios updates are for new features? I'm sorry, but apple makes better products than asus by far.
The last FM transmitter I used pretty much... sucked. The audio quality was horrible and on the one I had always suffered from interference.
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org
The USB port if for attaching a USB printer. This also acts as a wireless network print server.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
It does exatly what it says it does, plays a playlist to your stereo without a line connection to it. Nothing more, Nothing less.
Actually it does a lot more than that. It can be an 11g base station, it can function as a repeater, it has Ethernet and USB connections and can be used to share a printer over your whole network.
AirTunes has an amazingly powerful remote. It's called a Powerbook (must be purchased separately...). ;->
Now, all I need is a flat big enough to *need* wireless streaming to every room as opposed to 'turn the volume up on my iTunes-connected stereo and leave the doors open'...
(Hmm, I guess I've reached the age when practicality and fiscul prudence take precedence over having the latest cool 1337 hardware. How depressing!)
You must think in Russian.
Source: Jason Snell's blog entry at MacWorld, which has more detail.
That's the first time I've heard Apple get dissed for selling something too inexpensively. You just can't please people. ;-)
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
they dont, they are only good within feet of your stereo and even then usually a effected by things like thunderstorms and such. Also if you live near a major city (like I do, NYC) odds are every single station is taken so you cant get a clear signal even if you tired
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
... is that if you try to order one you find that they are not shipping until July :-(
If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
If it's not good enough for you and doesn't do what you need, don't buy it. Buy something that does. If there isn't anything else that quite does what you need, why are you bitching about Apple not providing all your products for you, especially since you probably would never buy any of their products? How you got modded up, I don't know, but Apple didn't release this saying "This is the best Hi-Fi device ever, and it plays perfect sound and it does everything you'll ever need!!! Insanely great!" Instead, they said "This will let you play music off your stereo instead of your laptop speakers without plugging it in. This will extend your wireless network's range. This will act as a wireless print server for all the computers in your house. It's easy! And cheap!" It's not a fucking high fidelity audio appliance, you tit, it's designed to make things easy and better than they would be if you were playing MP3s off your computer. And that's what it fucking does.
And no, I'm not some fanatic Apple apologist. I just dislike assholes. They make me have to yell.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
Dude, you do realize that you totally sound like an ASUS shill, as well as an Apple-basher, right?
We are in a desperate race between Stupidity and Transcendance; Don't pick the wrong side.
You can use AirPort Express as a wireless bridge to extend the range of your primary base station.
I already want and need two. Sold. Amazing.
You won't need to go back to your computer if you have a mobile phone that can run Bemused or Salling Clicker!
I run the GREAT daapd project on my Gentoo system to stream out my music to all the machines at my home network and to work. I was recently thinking "how much power would it take to embed that project and take on the squeeze box?".
But, knowing how small the mach kernel is, could this all be run via real software? Airport is mainly run my hardware controlled by a tinny bit of firmware, but given this thing has more features than your average home router, do you think Apple has stripped down Darwin to create it?
Think about, the development for getting CUPS, mDNS, DHCPD, their DAAP, their firewall, the airport driver might out weigh the cost of a hardware with enough power to run an embedded system.
.\.\att Clare
Actually, that's a bit misleading. You're the second person today I had to disabuse of this notion... so forgive me if this comes off a bit harsh.
First, look at the very top of the specs page for AirPort Express, and you'll notice a picture of the device with its ports clearly labeled with call-outs. Right next to the ethernet port, it says: "10/100Base-T Ethernet / Intelligent port for connecting to DSL or cable modems or a local network" (emphasis mine)
Yes, this slightly contradicts what's in the features table lower down on the page, but only if you're literal minded. The more expensive AirPort Extreme base stations include two ethernet ports, one designated WAN, the other designated LAN. The purpose of providing two ports is so that you can use an AirPort Extreme base station as a single firewall for both your wired and wireless networks.
The fact is, this device has a single ethernet port, just like the original AirPort base station (which only supported 802.11b, not 802.11g, and only supported 10Base-T and not 100Base-T). That table is therefore simply misleading; they had to list the single port on the AirPort Express device somewhere, so they called it a WAN port, but it can function either way, depending on configuration.
To further support my claims, I recommend that you read this article by Jason Snell. He got a lot of his information directly from Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of hardware product marketing, and he even edited the article once because of Joswiak's input. There are all kinds of nifty wired-wireless bridging capabilities for this device. But you only get a single ethernet port, so it's not quite as flexible as some of its bigger brethren when it comes to configuration. But yes, one of those possible configurations is connection to a wired LAN. One line in the article states: (Again, emphasis mine.) Which implies that the single ethernet port can (and does) serve both functions, but not at the same time obviously.
Incidentally, configuration of this base station is identical to the configuration of any other Apple base station, using the AirPort admin tools. That means you get the same set of options (and fairly advanced ones, at that) for configuration across the entire product line.
Personal aside: This is the second time I've seen someone claiming that the AirPort Express doesn't support LAN connectivity based on what they saw in the product comparison matrix. (The first time was on the MacCentral discussion boards.) What I want to know is, how could you miss the big pretty picture right at the very top of the page? I mean, am I the only person who looks at the picture with call-outs first, and then looks at the table with the specs? Maybe I'm just more visually oriented than most.
TOSlinks only cost $3 , they could have had optical built in for less than $1 factory cost.
I think these days companies giving crap/limited ports on devices are a scam to sell expensive ass cables with adaptors at 500% profit margines for nothing more than a bit of plastic covering some copper and perhaps 1 or 2 resistors with a capacitor/transistor.
as a virtual 'make believe example';
Do the math, 500000 adaptors at $20 profit = $10m profit, when they could have spent $1 per device to have it avail by default.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
So.. really nifty little device. The one glaring omission: a remote control.
The solution: I'm betting a WiFi module/adapter for the iPod. You can either stream music from the iPod to the AE, or you can use the iPod's controls and display to control (the possibly larger) library on your computer.
iPod -> WiFi -> Airport Express
or
iPod -> WiFi -> Computer w/ iTunes -> WiFi -> Airport Express
Since you'd be using it around the house/office/hotel, the lessened run time of the iPod from powering the WiFi adapter would not be an issue.
As an ancillary benefit, the iPod would also function as a remote control for iPhoto and Keynote.
iBook, iPod and Airport Express, your total wireless presentation system.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Luckily, since I had FreeBSD 5.2.1 (Release) running on the old Celeron HP Desktop, I was able to use the built in FireWire support, load the Apple File System Geometry kernel extension and compile a UFS/UFS+ file system mounting utilities on FreeBSD and get the previously underused FireWire drive shared over the network via SAMBA (as well as it's 2 internal 8GB Drives). All told, it took like 45 minutes to get it up and running.
Unfortunately, the HP is rather loud (the power supply fan) and annoying to have on. A EPIA based setup would be PERFECT to run FreeBSD and serve as a general file server.
Also, I suspect that whatever protocol Apple is using to stream audio over the network to the Airport Express will soon be dissected and reverse engineered (love those Slashdot Hardware hackers!!) and you'll soon be able to stream from your EPIA as well as use your Firewire drives as NAS. But if you want to ditch the EPIA setup right now, drop me an e-mail.
DaveC
There are no stupid questions...just stupid people.
And stunningly, apple didn't make it $250.
The optical jack avoids several of the ground loop and other issues I might have.
My wallwart solution - 15 years ago doing pro-audio with lots of power strips - was to take a little 2 prong extension cord - the kind with the 3 plugs on the end; cut it down to be about 16", put a new plug on it and have a thing that held 2 wall warts, velco'd together that could sit outside the effects box - self wrapped around the handle and be out of my way and secure. Wall warts needn't be attached to the wall anymore. A $3 cord can handle 2. Work with it.
Personally, I'm tired of voltage/device. I'm tired of different PLUG per device. I have a large 12VDC power supply powering a couple switches, a soekris and a couple other things. I now seek out 12VDC things.
Where MS talked about zero config devices, Apple has put out Rendezvous. As an IETF standard. Which means that I have tools for it. On FreeBSD. A little work in /usr/ports (like "make install" - oh that's hard), and I can play with Rendezvous devices.
One presumes that configuring it will be more towards "$Mom can do it" than the typical Windows
"Wait until a full moon; reconfigure your interrupts so the devices are found alphabetically; swing the chicken innards over the heat sync and reboot 13 times while chanting the Rolling Stones verse: 'You make a grown man cry' 13 times backwards at the stroke of midnight."
Instead, I'll suspect you'll do something like plug it in, hit it with a web browser or even iTunes 4.6 and say "find new device" and it will autoconfigure.
*I* just want to know if I can auto conf it from FreeBSD and feed it tunes from a BSD box.
another poster mentioned the Salling Clicker software, but it's cool enough to mention again.
I have this for my Palm Tungsten and Nokia 3650 phone, both bluetooth enabled. You can basically control most any application on your mac. ITunes is the most compelling example. Bring it up on your phone and it connects via Bluetooth to you Mac. From there you can start itunes, and navigate to the songs/playlists/browse-whatever (just like the iPod) and completely control iTunes. You can pause, fast forward, control the volume. The album art shows up for the currently playing song. It really is unbelievably cool. The only thing missing up to now was an actual use, for me at least. I can now control my stereo fully from my phone.
Oh, another cool thing: incoming calls cause it to pause. Same with DVDs.
Not bad for $20.
An lcd
A remote control
Anything from M-Audio! - MIDI interface, keyboard, a (real) audio interface...
microcontroller --> endless possibilities....
flash drive, or a flash card reader
usb drive enclosure - harddrive, CD-R...
I'm tired of different PLUG per device. I have a large 12VDC power supply powering a couple switches, a soekris and a couple other things. I now seek out 12VDC things.
Many things that use less than 12V DC run just fine at 12V DC I mod quite a bit of bunk to POE and always overestimate voltage drop. My rule of thumb is 5 - 9V devices go to the 12V power supply.
1) Integrate remote audio into all media apps in Mac OS X. What's good for iTunes is good for DVD player and QT; hell, it should be possible, on the desktop, to select a remote audio "AirTunes" connection as your standard audio output, with a CoreAudio interface, so that we can use things like Detour to choose the audio for any part of our system to go there. At minimum, though, it should cover all consumer media apps, and should be made open to Real and Microsoft ( if they *ever* release another version of WMP, that is... )
2) Integrate it into a next-gen iPod. If someone comes over with their iPod, I want them to be able to select my stereo and play music. It's a great idea, and it's just yet another reason why the iPod needs WiFi.
3) While you're at it, allow people to put their iPods into "broadcast" mode while they're listening, and let us select the audio from any other iPod in the area. I'm not saying I want to browse their collections - I just want the opportunity to listen to what someone else is listening to. If we can do more than that, great, but I'd settle for a live stream.
4) Pass out this technology to all the games console folks. They can choose whether they decide to include it in their console, turning each console into an AirTunes port I can select, or decide to allow you to select an AirTunes port as the game audio port.
The benefits of this stuff won't really be there until absolutely anything can use it; open it up.
-- A mind is a terrible thing.
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.