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Ars Reviews AirPort Express

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the it-fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand dept.

ack154 writes "Ars Technica has a nice, comprehensive review of the new AirPort Express from Apple. There is a breakdown of each of the main features: music streaming, a mobile base station, a base station extender, and networking a printer. All features were tested from both Mac and Windows perspectives. Overall it got an 8/10 with points mainly lost for no means of remote control and no audio cable included in the package."

12 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. This is fine and well, but... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... Airport is not legal in some European countries, as it operates on military frequencies...

    1. Re:This is fine and well, but... by BobTheLawyer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Can that be correct? Doesn't it just operate on the same frequencies as any other Wi-fi device?

    2. Re:This is fine and well, but... by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, WiFi is developed for US open frequencies. That's why GSM phones don't work here and there unless they are special. The US reserves 800 MHz for GSM and 900 MHz for military communication. Europe does the opposite. I think both use 1900 MHz, but there could be issues there as well.

      --
      Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
  2. Interesting by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It looks like one sweet piece of technology. I'd be interested to know it sends the audio or the file... I wonder how long until we see compatible technology - something else that will stream to an AirPort Express and something else that will show up on the pop-up in iTunes. I love iTunes, but it would be nice if other streaming hardware/software could be compatible.

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    1. Re:Interesting by nine-times · · Score: 4, Interesting
      So I can listen to my music wirelessly, assuming I'm running either Windows or have an Apple with iTunes, and when it's time to watch a movie, or anything else, the sound reverts to my laptop's internal speakers? Pretty weak.

      It seems to me a lot of people are criticizing this device just because it doesn't do everything. 'No remote? No display on it? Doesn't work with [insert Linux technology here]? That's no good.'

      Well, this is Apple's first iteration of a new technology, and it'll take some time to develop. Apple will probably open some parts of this technology to 3rd party developers, and let them come up with things to do with it. I'd expect Apple has plans to do something neat to tie in this wireless-music-broadcast idea to an upcoming generation of the iPod. (broadcasting to your stereo from the iPod in your pocket might be kind of neat, right?)

      ...Or, you could look at it the other way, in that this isn't a new technology, but Apple added a really neat feature to a product that didn't need it at all. I think this would be a pretty neat little wireless access point on it's own, but add in the print-server and music streaming, and that's a pretty impressive piece of technology in a nice little package. No, it doesn't do everything... but not everyone needs everything. And how are you going to make a product that does everything?

      Apple tends to like to start small, introduce a product that only does what it does, but does it well, and without much hassle. Then they start evolving it, over years, by adding features individually, making sure that feature works right, and then looking at new features. The alternative would be to try to pack in as many features as possible, all at once, then spending years making all the features work right.

      I suspect the first generation of these will find a limited audience whose specific needs are met by the first generation. The second generation will do more, and therefore find a bigger audience, and so on.

      I also suspect that, no matter how much it does, there will people who will complain that it doesn't do things that it just wasn't designed to do. Are you going to complain that the iPod doesn't play CDs, or that your refridgerator doesn't have a built-in stove?

  3. what I want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I want Apple to allow sound from any source on the computer to play throught the airport express. I watch DVDs on my powerbook, and if I could stream from DVD player (obviously a trivial thing technically) I might actually get one.

  4. Re:Audio Cable by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find the mini-->RCA adaptors to be less than completely reliable. A misaligned connection is rather annoying, particularly when the audio signal is encoded with dolby surround. The optical connection is a nice touch, though.

  5. Re:Actually, it's not like that at all. by ffsnjb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A quick guess would be that you had your computer and stereo on different circuits, introducing a ground loop causing interference. Not much to go on, though. Try plugging your receiver into the same power strip your pc is on and see if the interference still exists.

    --
    "Why do you consent to live in ignorance and fear?" - Bad Religion
  6. Re:Walt Mossberg Reviewed it Also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I bet simultaneous output would be really hard. This is, after all, a network device, so there's going to be a large (I've heard about 1 second) and unpredictable latency (how fast can the computer reencode the audio to ALC, how fast is the network stack, how congested is the network, how often are packets lost due to intereference / bad reception, etc?). Since the latency is unpredictable, you'd have to synchronize the clocks on the computer and the airport express(es) and time stamp the audio to impose a known latency. In order for any delays to be inaudible, you would need to be able to sync the clocks to within a few hundredths of a second. Is NTP, or some other algorithm, up to that task?

  7. This is Apple, not HP or Epson by billybob · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I understand what you're saying, but remember that this product is coming from Apple, not HP or Epson. Apple is typically the type of company that likes to make things as easy as possible for the end user, but not in an insulting way or anything. I would expect them to include everything you need to make a product work with all functionality out of the box.

    I think this is a lot different than a printer not coming with a USB cable. Although not including a USB cable is a pretty crappy thing as well these days, since I'd guess >90% of end users have USB ports on their computers.

    --
    Joseph?
  8. You want a remote? by mbourgon · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The Salling Clicker, at least for Macs.

    And an interesting quote from Mossberg:
    "AirPort Express gives you no way to see what song, or play list, is currently playing, and no way to change the music.[...]Apple hints that it will be addressing this problem in a future version or via some kind of add-on product"

    Any bets? You could do a wi-fi remote (with LCD to see what's playing), but I'm hoping they'll use that USB port for something... like a video out.
    --
    "Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
  9. WDS / extending wifi network insecure? by pedx1ng · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I was considering getting an AirPort Basestation Extreme and Express together to extend the wireless network. But then I came across this note in the review:
    One note: when using the AirPort Express as a WDS, you are limited to either using 128-bit WEP or turning off security altogether. This was not mentioned on the AirPort Express pages on apple.com, although it is addressed in the manual. WPA is generally not supported over bridged connections on WiFi products due to the fact that WPA encrypts the MAC addresses which WDS relies on for communication. Keep this limitation in mind when using the Express as a bridge.
    Please enlighten me if I am incorrect, but I was under the impression that WEP was basically worthless as far as security is concerned, and that one should always use WPA.