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Wireless (Apple) Hardware

Ars Reviews AirPort Express 304

Posted by CmdrTaco from the it-fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand dept.
ack154 writes "Ars Technica has a nice, comprehensive review of the new AirPort Express from Apple. There is a breakdown of each of the main features: music streaming, a mobile base station, a base station extender, and networking a printer. All features were tested from both Mac and Windows perspectives. Overall it got an 8/10 with points mainly lost for no means of remote control and no audio cable included in the package."
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Ars Reviews AirPort Express More

Ars Reviews AirPort Express

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  • This is fine and well, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 ) <pig.hogger@gmail ... m minus caffeine> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:24PM (#9773139) Journal
    ... Airport is not legal in some European countries, as it operates on military frequencies...

    • Re:This is fine and well, but... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:29PM (#9773194)
      Airport is not legal in some European countries, as it operates on military frequencies

      Those are probably precisely the countries we want to jam.

    • Can that be correct? Doesn't it just operate on the same frequencies as any other Wi-fi device?
      • Yeah, WiFi is developed for US open frequencies. That's why GSM phones don't work here and there unless they are special. The US reserves 800 MHz for GSM and 900 MHz for military communication. Europe does the opposite. I think both use 1900 MHz, but there could be issues there as well.

    • Re:This is fine and well, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PaulusMagnus ( 797138 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:35PM (#9773275)
      You mean some European countries use the 802.11 2.4GHz frequency for military communications? Airport just sticks to the standards laid down in the IEEE standards. They didn't do a "Microsoft" and create their own standards.

      BTW Which European countries, as there are a lot of devices that use this band now?

    • "Airport is not legal in some European countries, as it operates on military frequencies..."

      So they'll be able to groove to my Mel Torme [spaceagepop.com] collection while going head-to-head with the OpFor? Sweet.

  • Product: AirPort Express (product page)

    Goes to mircosoft.com on Office:Mac 2004. How could they possibly do that?

  • Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Oculus Habent ( 562837 ) * <oculus.habent@g m a il.com> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:28PM (#9773185) Journal
    It looks like one sweet piece of technology. I'd be interested to know it sends the audio or the file... I wonder how long until we see compatible technology - something else that will stream to an AirPort Express and something else that will show up on the pop-up in iTunes. I love iTunes, but it would be nice if other streaming hardware/software could be compatible.

    • Re:Interesting (Score:4, Informative)

      by foidulus ( 743482 ) * on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:36PM (#9773280)
      It's not in the article, but in the WWDC Jobs mentioned that, "It's encrypted, so the labels will like it". I don't know how it is encrypted(whether it uses WEP or a proprietary encryption algorithm), so they will have to do a lot of toying arond to come up with a compatible product.
      • It's not in the article, but in the WWDC Jobs mentioned that, "It's encrypted, so the labels will like it".

        After reading the article, I'm under the impression that even as a wireless bridge it supports 128-bit WEP, and as a wireless access point is also supports WPA. That way, when I'm transferring all my illegit MP3's between my Mac and other people's laptops, they'll be encrypted so that no one else can unlawfully eavesdrop on our file transfer.

        • It supports it, but it's not mandatory. I wonder if the RIAA "influenced" them to make encryption of songs mandatory.
          Hell, maybe this could create a new sport, instead of wardriving, you drive around till you find an Aiport Express house and change their Brittany to "The Chipmunks sing the Death Metal hits"
      • Hmm, the transfer to the airport express uses the Apple lossless codec (so says the article), I wonder if they wrap it in a FairPlay style wrapper where it's encoded on the iTunes PC and sent to the Airport Express for decrypting and decompression, if that's it then that little bugger has quite a bit of CPU power for such a small device that also does wireless, DHCP, ethernet bridging, etc.
        • The article does state that on a G4 powerbook, there is a slight, but noticible cpu spike when streaming audio.
          Might be a clue something a bit fancy is going on here....

    • Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)

      by zsmooth ( 12005 )

      I'd be interested to know it sends the audio or the file...

      It sends an RSA encrypted Apple Lossless stream over RTSP on ports 5000 and 6000.

      • I understand that iTunes will send the ALC encrypted to the AirPort Express, so that the FairPlay protected AACs can be streamed to it in a way that pleases record labels, but I was wondering if the base itself would accept if a client streamed unencrypted content to it. That would really help Linux clients, for instance. Is it just do a netcat to ports 5000 and 6000 of an ALC stream? :)
      • I hope that stream has the new cover sheet on it. They got the memo, right? ::Digitac
    • Anyone know if there is anything similar out there that can be used to send any audio, not just iTunes? I would love to have a wireless connect to my speakers, but iTunes only is a complete cop-out.

      So I can listen to my music wirelessly, assuming I'm running either Windows or have an Apple with iTunes, and when it's time to watch a movie, or anything else, the sound reverts to my laptop's internal speakers? Pretty weak.

      • Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)

        by oscast ( 653817 )
        You can run iTunes on Windows too you know...

      • Re:Interesting (Score:3, Insightful)

        by aristotle-dude ( 626586 )
        Yes, that's right. What did you expect? This is designed for use with "iTunes", not as wireless speaker system. Hence, it has the name of "AirTunes". Get it?

      • Re:Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

        by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @04:35PM (#9773777) Homepage
        So I can listen to my music wirelessly, assuming I'm running either Windows or have an Apple with iTunes, and when it's time to watch a movie, or anything else, the sound reverts to my laptop's internal speakers? Pretty weak.

        It seems to me a lot of people are criticizing this device just because it doesn't do everything. 'No remote? No display on it? Doesn't work with [insert Linux technology here]? That's no good.'

        Well, this is Apple's first iteration of a new technology, and it'll take some time to develop. Apple will probably open some parts of this technology to 3rd party developers, and let them come up with things to do with it. I'd expect Apple has plans to do something neat to tie in this wireless-music-broadcast idea to an upcoming generation of the iPod. (broadcasting to your stereo from the iPod in your pocket might be kind of neat, right?)

        ...Or, you could look at it the other way, in that this isn't a new technology, but Apple added a really neat feature to a product that didn't need it at all. I think this would be a pretty neat little wireless access point on it's own, but add in the print-server and music streaming, and that's a pretty impressive piece of technology in a nice little package. No, it doesn't do everything... but not everyone needs everything. And how are you going to make a product that does everything?

        Apple tends to like to start small, introduce a product that only does what it does, but does it well, and without much hassle. Then they start evolving it, over years, by adding features individually, making sure that feature works right, and then looking at new features. The alternative would be to try to pack in as many features as possible, all at once, then spending years making all the features work right.

        I suspect the first generation of these will find a limited audience whose specific needs are met by the first generation. The second generation will do more, and therefore find a bigger audience, and so on.

        I also suspect that, no matter how much it does, there will people who will complain that it doesn't do things that it just wasn't designed to do. Are you going to complain that the iPod doesn't play CDs, or that your refridgerator doesn't have a built-in stove?

    • RTFA (Score:2, Informative)

      by GnomeAttic ( 97126 )
      If you're interested to know whether it sends the audio or the file, see subject.

  • No Remote? (Score:5, Informative)

    by joeblakethesnake ( 246440 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:28PM (#9773186) Homepage
    Now, I haven't read the article yet, so I dont know the context, but isn't a computer running iTunes supposed to be the remote control?
    • Technically sure...

      But say your stereo is in the living room and you're streaming the music to it from your PC in your bedroom... Do you want to leave your party in the living room to go change songs in the bedroom? Maybe you will if you have to, but wouldn't a remote be cool?
      • I have a remote [mac.com].... i don't know why everyone is griping...

      • Re:No Remote? (Score:5, Informative)

        by cbelt3 ( 741637 ) <cbelt @ y a h o o.com> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:38PM (#9773307) Journal
        Apple's solution to that is "Party Shuffle", a feature on the newer iTunes client (and iPod firmware). The idea is you set up your party list much like you used to have to 'mix' custom CD's for your party guests. Think of it as a replacement for feeding CDR's into your drive and burning mix copies for your 5 CD changer on your stereo. If you want to have a 'remote', well hell- just buy an iPod and plug it into the amp. Skip the whole streaming thing. This then becomes more like a 'portable party mix' issue, but with waaay more flexibility. The main thing to me is the portability of a wireless AP. The music is gravy.
      • Well, if you have a laptop or any device that can connect to the internet, you can turn it into a remote. All you need to do is, if you run Apache on your main pc, you can write a quick web front end that calls some Apple Script(well, not exactly sure how you would do that on a windows machine) that can play, pause, next track etc.
        I would do it, cept I don't have $130 to blow on an Airport Express... I'm sure projects will appear on sourceforge shortly that accomplish the same goal.
      • What kind of UI do you imagine on that remote? It has no idea about your songs/playlists. And even if it had (say firewire sync), wouldn't you rather go to bedroom than search for what you want with iPod-like interface?

        You would need a settop box connected to your TV and audio system and a wireless keyboard to have a usable remote interface to iTunes. Or, on a more practical note, an iBook.
    • The reviewer wanted a way to control the playlist from the stereo which seems to be missing a point to me, but whatever, that's what they wanted. IMHO, hey, if that's what you want, set up the stream from your laptop, and use that as the 'remote', eh? Or, as Apple has already suggested, wait for someone to make one. It's coming.

      The reviewer said they had a hard time coming up with a score due to the fact that the Airport Extreme does at least 3 somewhat different things ( music streaming, 802.11g bridge, 8

    • Re:No Remote? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Cajal ( 154122 )
      Right, which is why Airport Express isn't all that interesting - it's basically a fancy wireless speaker for your powerbook. The other big problem with Airport Express is that you can only play to one of them at a time. So if you have one AE in your kitchen, another in your living room and one in your bedroom, you can only play a song on one of them at a time. Something like the Roku SoundBridge/a would be a lot more useful, except that it can't play protected AAC files (and it's about twice the price of th [rokulabs.com]
  • Since a number of people missed this in some other forums: the audio jack supports both a headphone type connector and an optical connector, but not at the same time.

  • Gratuitous point loss (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:37PM (#9773293) Journal
    Maybe you could argue the lack of remote (or maybe not given this is first generation, and a remote function might have doubled the price... you don't just toss a remote function in there... that's hardware), but a point off for no audio cable is complete dump. Everyone's situation is going to be different. Do they put in a 3' cable? A 6' cable? A 9' cable? MonsterCable? Lamp cord? It's like dinging a mouse for not including the mouse pad. I have a box full of included cables I have never used.
  • That's my question. A secondly, if it can, can it be used to share an ethernet printer and extend an existing wireless network at the same time?
  • Perhaps you could boost your phone's bluetooth and use SallingClicker [mac.com]...

  • This came to my mind ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Chiron Taltos ( 694030 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:42PM (#9773342) Journal
    ... while reading this sentence.

    After the welcome screen, the Assistant inquired politely as to whether I wished to set up my Express to create a new wireless network, or connect to my current wireless network.

    It's a nice bit of Journalism, which makes for a good read, but I couldn't help thinking it would next inquire politely ... "Would you like some coffee while you wait for the set up to finish"?

    • Does it work as well out-of-the-box whether you're a Mac or Windows user? The short answer is yes. The long answer is that Windows users will sometimes have to go through a few extra steps to achieve the same result as someone using Mac OS X.

      Whew! Good thing he gave us the short answer before we had to plow through the long answer!

  • I was wondering if there is third party firmware for my router (D-Link Wireless router, dunno the name, don't have access to it right now), so that I can get an airport express to act as a repeater with it? Is there 3rd party and/or linux based firmware for this that will support the standard that the airport express uses to act as a repeater?

  • Walt Mossberg Reviewed it Also (Score:4, Informative)

    by Meddel ( 152734 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @03:45PM (#9773365)
    Walt Mossberg reviewed it in today's Wall Street Journal, as well. You can find the article here [wsj.com]. He mostly likes it, but wants to be able to play through multple outputs (either two Airport Expresses or an Airport Express and the local speakers). Also, the lack of remote control and display was a huge downside for him.

  • Woohoo ... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Chiron Taltos ( 694030 )
    I use a Mac at home, but I purchased the Linksys WRT54G router for my wireless network [slashdot.org] instead of the Apple Airport Extreme. It was recommended by a Mac friend who has more experience with technology than myself. The following is great news ...

    Bridging and the Linksys WRT54G [arstechnica.com]

  • After reading the article, I see clearly that this device is exactly as Apple has described - it was almost like reading from Apple's own materials on Airport Express [apple.com].

    Particularly interesting was how well it worked with both Windows and Apple environments.

    This review makes me keenly aware that this product is a 'must' have luxury' for the road warrior who needs a single, small, device to handle multiple calls of duty. Armed with this iPod sized device, a few cables, and the install CD (or access to the In
    • The feature was called "Home on iPod" and was to be released in Panther. (more here [macrumors.com] or here [google.com])

      It woudl be the single biggest boon to a PDA type device in the history of PDAs so perhaps Apple pulled it from Panther to make it into their version of the Personal Digital Assistant ("Archive").
  • Looking how easy it is to set up simple home networking makes me jealous. Configuring an smb.conf file is a bitch and always has trouble. That's not to say samba is bad since they started from nothing. In fact it's just another example of how apple can make a product very usable when they have control of a protocol and api.
  • I think it's plainly obvious that apple plans to introduce an AirTunes enabled iPod.

    Toshiba delivered 60gb iPod drives around the same time that the price dropped 'Pods came out.

    Apple types have said that they're waiting for expess to be a bit more ubiquitous before they release some other stuff (roughtly paraphrased from foggy memory).

    You don't need a crayon to connect these dots.

    • I think it's plainly obvious that apple plans to introduce an AirTunes enabled iPod.

      Don't think that's too likely, myself. WiFi is ubiquitous, but by no means cheap or small to install. I can't imagine that a WiFi broadcaster would be gentle on an iPod's battery, either.

      Besides, all you'd really need to do is unplug the audio cable from your AirPort Express and stick it into your iPod instead. Why add WiFi to something that's already practically the definition of portability?
    • Its possible. Steve Jobs has repeatedly stated now that there is no 60 iPod in the release schedule (check the Newsweek article I think, but for sure its been mentioned on the news page over at ipodlounge.com).

      That said though, this could simply be them saying "there is no 60 gig ipod in the release schedule any time soon", leaving it open that the Keynote in January (where they announced the minipod this year) would include the announcement of a wifi-enabled 60 gig ipod.

      I have a 30 gig 3g, and while

  • From the article:

    Wireless Internet access requires a wireless-enabled computer, a base station or other access point and Internet access (fees may apply). Some ISPs are not currently compatible with AirPort Express.

    Am I supposed to parse this as:

    "Wireless Internet access requires (a wireless-enabled computer, (a base station or other access point) and Internet access)"

    Or:

    "Wireless Internet access requires ((a wireless-enabled computer, a base station or other access point) and Internet access)"

    T

  • Sure, the Ronco Turnip Twaddler is advertised to slice, dice, mince, and julienne every root vegetable in your garden.

    Hardly surprising, but someone over at Ars has read their Bloom County...

  • Airport? Express? (Score:3, Funny)

    by lifebouy ( 115193 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @04:25PM (#9773710) Journal
    Anyone who can use the words "airport" and "express" in the same sentence, obviously hasn't been to one in a few years.

  • There's a lot of other products that will pull mp3s from your computer and play them on your stereo in the living room. Most come with remotes! Here's a big-ass list [ehomeupgrade.com].
  • I followed the directions to the letter but when it says "Your WDS is now being configured..." it fails with "Base station error". Is there anymore info floating around out there on how to do this?

  • You want a remote? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mbourgon ( 186257 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @06:35PM (#9774650) Homepage
    The Salling Clicker [mac.com], at least for Macs.

    And an interesting quote from Mossberg:
    "AirPort Express gives you no way to see what song, or play list, is currently playing, and no way to change the music.[...]Apple hints that it will be addressing this problem in a future version or via some kind of add-on product"

    Any bets? You could do a wi-fi remote (with LCD to see what's playing), but I'm hoping they'll use that USB port for something... like a video out.

  • WDS / extending wifi network insecure? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pedx1ng ( 746214 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @06:51PM (#9774762)
    I was considering getting an AirPort Basestation Extreme and Express together to extend the wireless network. But then I came across this note in the review:
    One note: when using the AirPort Express as a WDS, you are limited to either using 128-bit WEP or turning off security altogether. This was not mentioned on the AirPort Express pages on apple.com, although it is addressed in the manual. WPA is generally not supported over bridged connections on WiFi products due to the fact that WPA encrypts the MAC addresses which WDS relies on for communication. Keep this limitation in mind when using the Express as a bridge.
    Please enlighten me if I am incorrect, but I was under the impression that WEP was basically worthless as far as security is concerned, and that one should always use WPA.

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