Apple Rolls Out AirPort Express, AirTunes 795
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."
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow what a POS (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This rocks! They will sell millions. (Score:5, Insightful)
Place your bets... (Score:1, Insightful)
-HJ
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One Big LAME (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple listens to customers... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
This thing will sell like hotcakes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wow what a POS (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:1, Insightful)
And I am not locked in. I can use the app on Mac or PC... I can interact with the store contents on the Web using various tools to read the XML.
Why would Apple release a product to help Napster? Of course, it should work with their product. The same way third-parties try to support all options... Corporations try to support their products.
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:1, Insightful)
AAC is an open standard.
Perhaps you're confused with Apple's DRM they layer on top of AAC?
Re:Wow what a POS (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Modem (Score:3, Insightful)
Although it is nice that it can automagically act as a wireless bridge.
Just my
Geoffeg
Re:Wow what a POS (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's think this remote thing out... (Score:4, Insightful)
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...
KISS (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Wait til the next gen iPods are WIFI.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
Re:Apple listens to customers... (Score:5, Insightful)
What I'm about to say may have been your intention, but if not, you may have hit on a huge selling point for these things.
A fair amount of complaints about this device have been the fact that it has no local display and can only be controlled from a computer with iTunes. What if the next gen iPod could act like a remote (using IP over WiFi) for this thing? You could turn on your iPod, select the "Stereo" menu and see what's playing, queue up new songs (likely only those stored on you computer, since you'd want to shut off the iPod to avoid draining battery), etc all from the spiffy iPod interface.
With something like that, Apple would be offering the ultimate music experience and give tons of people a reason to drop money into Apple's bank account. Get a Mac to organize all your tunes (or stick with the PC, if you like that sort of thing), buy a few of the devices for all your stereos/rooms, blanket your house in WiFi all the time, then buy an iPod for you/spouse/kids, etc that they can use to hear their favorite music wherever they are in the house. When you go out, you've got a portable jukebox as well.
Apple is well on the way to revolutionizing the music experience. They are just a few steps away from the ultimate in convienice.
Mac and PC compatible (Score:2, Insightful)
Airport Express != slimp3 (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [rokulabs.com] 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.
Re:Audio Specs (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:Airport Express != slimp3 (Score:5, Insightful)
Which will be sitting on your lap instead of across the room next to the TV. Which will have a 1 megapixel or bigger display, instead of a 2x24 character LCD.
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.
Do you really think placing the LED 12" differently in either direction matters? It's not like the DAC is all optical internally.
A mobile access point! (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:It's got no local display or controls... (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean, like an iBook [apple.com]?
Re:This is perfect for it's target market (Score:4, Insightful)
could it be a CYA so as not to have to worry about supporting who-knows-what stations out there?
THe Airport Extreme is based on the broadcom chipset IIRC (it's not like Apple has their own chip fabs), and so it shares the lineage of the linksys boxes etc.; how apple extreme base stations extend wireless range is through WDS, which last I checked is not an apple proprietary system.
of course until the machines show up and someone tries it with a non-apple box (and blogs about it), we can't really be sure..
Re:Note to Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you imagine the latencies? The sound and image would never be in sync.
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:One Big LAME (Score:2, Insightful)
-matt
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:2, Insightful)
Second - More elegant? The thing has a f*cking wall-wart!
'nuff said.
Re:This rocks! They will sell millions. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, Slashdot has proven time and time again that they understand what's Apple's doing better than Steve Jobs.
Do I REALLY need to link back to all the early postings about the iPod, about how it was tooo little too late, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz, nothing new.
How about the iPod mini dicussions? About how the colors were stupid and gay looking, how little the hard drive was, how no one needed a smaller iPod, etc.?
I think there's ONE thing that has been established on Slashdot without a doubt:
YOU DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT WHAT REGULAR PEOPLE WANT AND EVEN LESS ABOUT HOW APPLE'S PRODUCTS FIT IN, SO ******STFU****** and get on about your lives.
And I just got down.
Re:Apple listens to customers... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Movies over 802.11g (Score:2, Insightful)
Even w/o optimum connection, 11g could do this.
But most of the things you'd stream from your computer wouldn't be DVD. Players are $30 with a remote and already in the correct room.
But imagine having a wireless virtual external monitor. For presentations, iTunes visualization, and remote machine control...
As usual, Apple's onto something here.
Ooh! Shiny! (Score:4, Insightful)
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!)
how Airtunes works (Score:3, Insightful)
Source: Jason Snell's blog entry [macworld.com] at MacWorld, which has more detail.
Re:typical apple apologist (Score:3, Insightful)
And no, I'm not some fanatic Apple apologist. I just dislike assholes. They make me have to yell.
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:2, Insightful)
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 $1 per device to have it avail by default.
Re:Odd info on the ASUS site... (Score:4, Insightful)
Where MS talked about zero config devices, Apple has put out Rendezvous. As an IETF standard. Which means that I have tools for it. On FreeBSD. A little work in /usr/ports (like "make install" - oh that's hard), and I can play with Rendezvous devices.
One presumes that configuring it will be more towards "$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.
Re:Nifty for the price - but not a Squeezebox (Score:1, Insightful)
Captain Obvious here, sorry I'm late! (Score:1, Insightful)
Anyway, I'm sure by now that this has already been said, but it's clear that the next step will be AirPort Express with RCA A/V jacks and/or S-Video, for connection to a home theater rig-- stream your iMovies and DVDs wirelessly to your living room.
This would be an amazing move-- a suitcase nuke to Microsoft's "Fat Man" media center crapola. You wouldn't need an unwieldy PC shitting up your entertainment center-- just the same Mac you've always had, projecting its media throughout the house wirelessly via some rather unobtrusive modules. I imagine the video version would need some sort of remote.
Re:One Big LAME (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple is great at coming up with new things on their own, and while they have in times past had alot of "not invented here syndrome" they seem to have gotten over it. Perhaps they'll adopt the Bluetooth phone remote concept themselves. A couple of standard utilities, dev library, and good AppleScript support would be pretty neat.
~Lake