Apple Gadget

Tuesday June 8, 2004 at 12:39 am | Filed under Gadgetry, Mac

airtunes!Wow, cool stuff was announced by Apple today, but not just for Apple folk. It’s Mac and PC compatible, by cracky! It’s called the AirPort Express, and it’s actually not available until July sometime, but it’s still exciting because of what this puppy does. Here’s Apple’s official line:

    Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house. Share a single broadband Internet connection and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go. Extend the range of your current wireless network. How many devices do you need to do all this? Just one.

It’s an extender of your wireless network (but only if you have an Airport base station), it’s a way to distribute audio from any computer on your network to any stereo in your house, it’s a way to share a USB printer without having it hooked up to a computer, and much more… wait, you don’t have a wireless network? Well, this thing will start one for you! Just plug it into the wall, plug your cable modem or other high-speed connection into it, and blammo, you got a wireless network that can be piked up with any wireless computer in the house (of course it has built-in WEP so no one can get a free ride). This feature is very cool for when you’re traveling with your laptop and you want wireless in your internet-ready hotel room.

The audio distribution is a very cool feature. They’re calling it AirTunes and it involces hooking any stero up to the AirPort Express with an 1/8″ plug, then plugging the AE into the wall. Then going to any computer on the network and playing something in itunes while using the new drop-down menu in iTunes 4.6 that will let you pick which room you have the music played in!

Another cool part is the price. I would have nailed this for $199 knowing Apple’s habit of pricing things just over what I think it should be priced at. It sells for $129! Not a bad deal at all!

Now the speculations about it acting as a wireless bridge for wired devices are pouring in, and you can read all about it in this thread. It may be the answer to getting your playstation/xbox/tivo/replaytv/etc online wirelessly as well!

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No Responses to “Apple Gadget”

  1. Arlen Says:
    June 8th, 2004 at 3:18 pm

    That’s really cool. I don’t think it would work with my iBook, though, cuz all I have is the normal AirPort card, not the Extreme.

  2. Joe Says:
    June 8th, 2004 at 11:59 pm

    Silly man, it works plenty okay with the regular airport cards. The only time you need an Airport Extreme is when you want the Airport Express to EXTEND your network.

  3. Jon Says:
    June 11th, 2004 at 11:16 am

    As you know, I’ve been researching wireless network options, especially as it pertains to media distribution (and it’d be nice to get my PS2 online someday, too). This sounds cool, but it sounds like I’d have to use iTunes (which I didn’t like). I’ll keep my eye on this to see what kinds of creative things people do with it.