“AirPlay, a proprietary protocol by Apple allowing for worry-free wireless streaming of audio, video, photos and related metadata between certified devices, is about to gain an enhanced support for the wireless Bluetooth standard via a new chip, Japanese blog Macotakara has learned,” Christian Zibreg reports for 9to5Mac.
“Apple apparently announced the new certification chip at a Shenzen, China conference organized for two thousand members of their MFI (Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod) program,” Zibreg reports. “The company is aiming to expand the market for wireless iOS accessories by a factor of seven by taking the IAP via Bluetooth (iPod Accessory Protocol) – first implemented in iOS 5 – to the Bluetooth 4.0 heights.”
Zibreg reports, “The new piece of silicon will enable future wireless accessories certified for use with the iPod, iPhone or iPad to stream content to and from a host iOS device using Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, in addition to WiFi AirPlay support.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Peter from Europe” for the heads up.]
Now could someone explain this to me in plain English?
This will make it possible for iOS devices, Macs and AppleTVs to communicate even when no wi-fi connection is available.
I wonder if it will be possible to stream a movie (say) in parallel, simultaneously using both technologies — wifi and bluetooth. That would boost the speed of the data transfer without any incremental expense for users.
Bluetooth has a short range, but that’s not ordinarily a major problem for users of hand-held, personal devices.
The short answer is no. TCP/IP encapsulation means you have to map a port number and an IP to the outgoing packet which is then traced back to the originating port by the responder packet. Thus you cannot split a single stream of data into two outgoing ports or network interfaces. This applies to a unicast like streaming music where packets are traveling primarily one way without the need to impose a SYN/ACK frame.
I wonder if this will let me take a movie stored on my iPhone, and have it show on the screen of my iPad? One step further would be AirPlay mirroring from iPhone to iPad. Maybe even some sort of tethering that the carriers can’t stop?
Does this mean nice wireless stereo headphones?
I hope so!
Major problem with AirPlay devices are initial configuration. A bluetooth connectivity can make the initial configuration easier as well as provide a another communication medium beyond wifi. I suspect this is mostly for config purpose or for new AirPlay class of devices such as headphones, since there are many bluetooth speakers already at much more reasonable prices than AirPlay ones.
“AirPlay, a proprietary protocol by Apple allowing for worry-free wireless streaming of audio,” <– Is that a joke?
I don't know anyone who has had "worry-free wireless streaming of audio" using AirPlay.
When the concept first came out, I was so excited I bought 4 Airport Expresses and placed them throughout one floor, with powered speakers in each Airport.
Sometimes it works fine for up to a week.
And then the drop-outs start. The irritating, maddening, unlistenable drop-outs.
If this new system fixes that drop-out problem and makes music streaming throughout the house "worry-free", that will be an amazing improvement on Airplay.
I have worry free audio and video. I can play a video on my apple tv upstairs, decide I want to watch it in the kitchen, and switch it no problems at all. The only time I have a problem is if multiple people are trying to do really data heavy things at the same time, but that’s not an airplay problem, that’s a wifi problem.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060512044141904
Dropouts can be caused by a variety of things including interference from other devices using the same frequencies (e.g. microwave ovens, cordless phones, cell phones, etc.), network configuration issues, busy host computer, and disk spin down.
Investigate and fix, NHL. Apple has various technical notes on AirTunes/AirPlay drop-outs.
Wireless surround for Apple TV.
Bluetooth is a great way to wirelessly transmit audio and data too. It is probably not any sort of coincidence that Siri might be able to make good use of that sort of technology in conjunction with other devices such as Macs or Apple TVs.