Apple today announced it has begun shipping AirPort Express, the world’s first 802.11g mobile base station that features wireless Internet connections and USB printing that can be used at home or on the road to bring wireless freedom to hotel rooms with broadband connections. AirPort Express also features both analog and digital audio outputs that can be connected to a home stereo, and together with AirTunes music networking software gives users a simple and inexpensive way to wirelessly stream music from iTunes on their Mac or PC to any room in the house. Apple has received more than 80,000 pre-orders for AirPort Express, which was introduced last month.
“With over 80,000 pre-orders, AirPort Express is off to a great start as the first 802.11g mobile base station for Mac and PC users,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing in the press release. “With the breakthrough AirTunes feature, music lovers can now listen to their iTunes music collection streamed wirelessly to a stereo located anywhere in their home.”
AirPort Express includes a built-in combination digital and analog audio connector allowing users to connect it to a home stereo, powered analog speakers or the latest digital 5.1 surround sound systems. iTunes 4.6 automatically detects the remote speakers and displays them in a simple pop-up list for the user to select. Once the remote speakers are selected, AirTunes wirelessly streams the iTunes music from the computer to the AirPort Express base station. AirTunes music is encoded to protect it from theft while streaming across the wireless music network and uses Apple’s lossless compression technology to ensure no loss of sound quality. AirPort Express provides a range of up to 150 feet, and multiple AirPort Express base stations can be bridged together to send music to extended areas (actual range may vary).
AirPort Express mobile base station features a single-piece, compact design weighing just 6.7 ounces, providing maximum portability. AirPort Express offers both Mac and PC users the ability to share a single DSL or cable broadband account with up to 10 simultaneous users and a single USB
printer with multiple users. With its advanced security features, AirPort Express safeguards data on networked computers with support for WiFi Protected Access (WPA), 128-bit encryption and a built-in firewall.
AirPort Express is available now through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $129 (US). AirTunes requires iTunes 4.6, which is available as a free download. Wireless printing over USB requires Mac OS X version 10.2.7 or later or Windows XP or Windows 2000 and a compatible printer.
More about Apple’s AirPort Express and AirTunes here.
WOW!
Great start. Pre-orders are nearly the same as for the iPod mini!
Yet more Apple lies, Airport Express is a failure and how many of these 80,000 pre-orders have actually been shipped anyway.
Apple is rotten to the core: it is subverting WMA by removing WMA support from the iPod, and they even had the gall to put support for some non-standard HTML tags in the Tiger beta of Safari and Dashboard when they know that making Web browsers operate in a non-standard way is Microsoft’s job.
Apple is a very bad company; I don’t like them and if you carry on buying their products, I’ll hold my breath until I turn purple.
I’ve just placed an order for every product Apple sells, hoping Mr. Thurrott will keep his promise and the world will once again be a better place to live.
I hear you twelveightyone, I’ll soon order myself a iPod mini and a Airport Express! Lets see his face turn purple!!
iPod mini and Airport Express! Feel the love!
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http://homepage.mac.com/johnhood
Is my Math correct? 80,000 Airport expresses at $130 a pop translates to $10,040,000.00 in sales so far? $10 Million….that’s not too shabby.
O.K. Another great Apple product that’s hot. So is Apple going to advertise this to the world or not?
Waiting for another cool Apple ad…
80,000 units is incredible. I’m curious though to future software updates that may allow you to utilize the USB connection for other devices from digital camcorders, webcams, external harddrives and even iPod docks. I’m not sure how many people keep their stereos near their printers but that’s why you get 2 or 3 of these things, right? lol.
only 80,000?? that’s a failure! another apple miscue!
lalalaaa..
Dak, Move that “4” to the left one space and your math is correct. Hey, why short Apple $360,000?
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Seems to me that if preorders are 80,000 then advertising the product is not necessary — unless you have another 160,000 just sittin’ in a warehouse somewhere. And what if you only have 50,000? Apple can’t even advertise the eMac or iMac at the moment. Besides glossies in the business magazines, I’m afraid you’re gonna have to live with more dancing silhouettes for a while. (I wonder if Ellen Feiss can dance….)
I was listening to music on my Dell DJ, and it was like … p-p-p-p-p-p-pee .. and then, like, half of my music was gone. And I was like … [spastic shrug] … nnN? It devoured my music. It was really good music. And then I had to download it again and I had to do it fast so it wasn’t as good. It’s kind of … [eyes shut wide] … a bummer?
“I’m curious though to future software updates that may allow you to utilize the USB connection for other devices from digital camcorders, webcams, external harddrives and even iPod docks.”
Quite possible. While I was at WWDC, the session on the Image Capture APIs implied that this was something that Apple was considering/working on. The example given was the ability to use a scanner hooked to someone else’s computer (so you don’t have to have a dedicated scanner/computer combo). But I could see this sort of thing going into Airport as well.
thurrott is getting a few of these.. so don’t bother.. he’s sticking by his iPod mini conspiracy though
hey Less is More..
isn’t that what it’s gonna be like when Janus comes out..?
huh?! I subscribed to my music.. missed a payment.. now i gotta download it again..!? how else can you manage a playlist unless you have files on there… (in reponse to supposed ‘streaming’ argument)
I have two on order that shipped yesterday! Alright, coverage in my house, finally!
Janus is gonna sound like Uranus. Actually, if I was Ellen, I’d offer to do an ad to the highest bidder. The publicity alone would be tremendous.
I was listenin’ to my iPod, and it was like … p-p-p-p-p-p-pee … Ballmer on the phone. He said, “How’d ya like a Janus?” and I went … [spastic shrug] … nnN? So I told him where to stick it. He reminds me of like … [eyes wide shut] … a Hummer?