“With the return of AirPlay 2 in iOS 11.4, it appears that Apple still has some tricks up its sleeve,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac. “Readers and Redditors are reporting that the AirPort Express (the ‘latest’ model released in 2012) is showing up as a speaker accessory in the Home app.”
“This suggests the new AirPort Express will support AirPlay 2 to participate in features like multi-room playback alongside other speakers like the HomePod,” Mayo reports. “Based on behavior in the first iOS 11.4 beta, it appears support will be limited to the 2012 AirPort Express generation only. Older models are not showing up in the Home app at all. The appearance of AirPort Express in Home app mirrors how the Apple TV works under AirPlay 2; they also appear as speaker devices in the Home app.”
“Of course,” Mayo reports, “we don’t know when AirPlay 2 will actually be released…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Potentially good news for late-model AirPort Express users!
Apple has finally discovered that its prior model Airport Express units were limited to 802.11n ? It’s a BREAKTHROUGH.
Adding Airport Express to good speakers is a better way to enable wireless speakers than buying Bluetooth junk. Problem was, Apple just couldn’t get up to speed on its wireless hardware.
So you’re declaring the AirPort Extreme never existed?
I don’t think that’s what he is trying to say. The Express was the only Airport that allowed for audio networking using analog minijack or digital toslink. The Extreme can’t do that. Problem was, the Express was not as capable in wireless capability. It appeared to everyone that Apple had abandoned the entire Airport lineup, which is a stupid strategy. All of Apples products these days rely on wireless networking. You’d think Apple would want to make it all work together seamlessly.
Here’s a good guide: https://www.macworld.com/article/1160417/home-tech/how-to-build-your-own-airplay-audio-system.html
The Airport equipment was some of the most reliable (and for the Extreme fastest) equipment out there. As I’ve said on this site before, I know people who won’t buy *any* Apple equipment, but they have an Airport Extreme and one or more Airport Expresses. They intend to use them until they die because they are extremely stable for them.
The unfortunate part was that Apple completely abandoned the line of products and never brought the Express up to “ac” like the Extreme. Apple should be ashamed for doing so. Killing off one of its most respected product lines (both within and without the Apple community) has been just plain stupid.
Exactly.
Had an Extreme for years and as said before when we moved from small loft to a 5 bedroom two story brick house with office and three car garage I decided it was time to step up to a mesh system, but until I could find the best one I plugged in the old Extreme and voila! it lit up the entire house with 5o Mbps (of 100) upstairs where I added an Express for a bridge to a 5 port switch for all the gear (to cut down on wifi traffic and because an old gamebox had no 802.11n reception) and Airplay for Roon. Also added an Express in the garage to an old Technics receiver and cheap pair of Dayton speakers so once again can stream Roon while I tinker.
But of course, Apple has bigger (farm raised, free range, organic gluten free, forward thinking) fish to fry than WiFi….
Thanks Apple!
I’m always somewhat bemused when I hear people talking about the incredible reliability of Apple’s AirPort range. I’ve bought a hell of a lot of Apple equipment since 1989 and virtually everything has worked flawlessly – well beyond any concept of a reasonable lifespan for electronic equipment, but I’ve had four different AirPort devices ranging from the original ‘frisbee’ style through Airport Extreme and AirPort Express and every one of them has failed earlier than I would hope.
When they were working they were fabulous, but after my last one failed, I had to give up on them altogether.
On the face of it, a device which has no moving parts, which remains stationary in a near constant comfortable temperature and is always powered up should be about as reliable as it’s possible to be, but that’s not how it has worked out for me.
AirPort Express was especially disappointing for me when it packed up because I had come to rely on distributing high quality audio wirelessly around my house through it and then had to devise another solution.