A look at Apple’s AirTunes, AirPort Express and the future

17 Comments

“Wi-Fi networking is almost pass

17 Comments

  3. I hope that Windozers actually wake up and realize that another great new Apple product has arrived that they can use also. Good for Apples bottom line and good for giving them a taste of what it really is like so they might choose to come into the light.

    I always wonder what it must be like to be a windoze user. It is hard to get my head around it. I mean if I was using a product that I knew had problems because I was experiencing them first hand and had somebody telling me that there was a great product that solved all these problems I would really look into it. I think the reason they don’t is because they have been so brainwashed over the years by M$ that they have already filed Apple away somewhere under “not an option because A) it is incompatible, B) there is no software for it, and C) it is really expensive. That is the only thing I can think of.

    They don’t realize that OS X has created a new paradigm and A) Apple is mega compatible, B) Software exists to do almost anything they want, and C) The price differential has greatly decreased. PLUS there are either none at all or a very reduced number of the headaches which plague them on windows.

    I have never met a windoze user who was as enthusiatic about his platform as dozens and dozens of Mac Users I have met are. You think this would make most people wonder why enough to look seriously into it.

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  4. Is it possible, theoretically, if they put a visual connection to the AE to have your iChat AV’s via a TV?
    With a modified iSight connected to your TV wirelessly linked to your Mac, it would be very impressive indeed to video chat over your existing TV set, but is this a viable possibility?

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  5. Some analysts are commending Apple for making AirExpress and AirTunes a limited device. M$ is going to come out with a similar system that will be able to stream video as well. But it will be very expensive in comparison with lots of things that could go wrong, etc. Apple fans sometimes want too much. Look at the success of the iPod amongst Windows users – more iPods sold to them then Mac users according to SJ. The reason is that it does one thing very well. It holds music. Add video and you complicate matters and force the price to go even higher. Add Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and it goes even higher. It’s not needed. Simplicity is the name of the game methinks.

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  6. I agree wholeheartedly pkradd. Its easy to want to put more shit into devices. It’s very “first thought”. But what makes a device great is not having extra features, but having essential features that work beautifully.

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  11. Yeah, Simplicity is great. The real art is in being able to decide WHAT is essential. The interface of the iPod is actually quite sophisticated and complex, it only FEELS simple to the user. Which is how things should be.

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  12. Steve Jobs gets it. The Wintel crowd is only starting to understand. Perhaps this accounts for some of Longhorn delays. Gates runs the alpha and says, “It still stinks.” In his middle age, Jobs is perhaps able to articulate his vision better and get it done right by force of will.

    When I first saw iTunes I thought: just a great way of handling playlists. I mean, I could burn with Toast, rip with a variety of apps, IDTag with MP3_Rage… what’s the big deal? The sucker isn’t even skinnable! Heh heh … I couldn’t forsee the iPod, iTMS on the playlist pane (though I wanted that pane to do more than just visual effects). Now I have to admit that I am staggered at how “just a fancy playlist system” is in effect an amazingly integrated piece of software in a whole enterprise. It ain’t perfect but it’s hard to imagine how a competitor could even come close after hearing the recent iTMS presentation.

    Humbling.

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  14. I will most definitely be getting an Airport Express – we have been wanting to be able to print to the USB printer that sits in another room for quite a while now, and couldn’t justify the expense in replacing a perfectly good original Graphite Base Station just to get a USB port (have a Dual USB iBook with an original airport card, too, so there was that, too). At half the price and all the fixins at $130, even my wife has said, and several times now “Honey, we <need> one of those” – and you know that means – I’ll be standing in the line at the Apple Store the day they come out – hopefully on the early side of “mid- July”.

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  15. Imagine if Apple changed the audio port on the AirPort Express to be an audio/video port the same way you connect a projector/TV to the iBooks/PowerBooks. All you would need is the Video Adapter then hook it up the your TV and you could wirelessly send your iPhoto slideshow, iTunes music and iMovies over to play on the big screen. Similar to the Home Media option with TiVo, only with more features.

    I see this as a big plus and don’t see that it would really be that difficult to add to it, at least Macs-only. I would guess that only computers with 802.11g would be able to do the movies, but 802.11b is fast enough for music and photos.

    Apple would have to add another iApp in order to handle this at least for the movies, so maybe that would be included with either the AirPort Express Utility or iLife ’05. Who knows, maybe that could turn the Mac into a wireless DVR.

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  16. Well, on one hand Jobs wanted to reassure the Mac community that this processor had headroom for expansion..

    On the other hand successful computer companies in the 80’s went under pre-announcing new products too soon. Buyers held off for the new product, cash flow dropped to zero, and that was that. Out Of Business.

    I’m sure that Jobs was aware of all of these possiblities and decided to go with the massive pre-announce option. He wanted to look CONFIDANT, he wanted to BRAG.

    Okay, so there’s a delay. I believe that a LOT of people have been waiting for the 3.0, and when it hits the shelves the sales will be brisk.

    In my opinion, for every G5 buyer that has held off for the 3.0 (thus causing the G5 to look like an anemic product) THERE IS ALSO A BUYER WHO HAS NOT JUMPED SHIP because of a fear that Apple can’t deliver the speed in the future.

    If you ask me.

    David Vesey

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