I got my Airport Express this morning. This little marvel lets you stream music from iTunes over to your stereo using something Apple calls AirTunes. It took a bit of messing about to get it working on my wired network (IP conflicts mostly) but its working just great now.

Its a pity that it doesn't let you play through the computer and to AirTunes remote speakers, but I suspect network latency would mean they couldn't possibly be kept in sync anyway.

One thing that tripped me up: By default AirTunes won't work if you try to stream to the Airport Express unit through the ethernet port, and the setup guide only covers wireless scenarios. If you want to do this, the trick is to bring up the Airport Admin Utility, Configure your base station, and click on the Base Station Options button on the Airport tab. There is a checkbox there to "Enable AirTunes over Ethernet". Once I did that, it worked like a champ.

What a great product.

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3 Comments:

I've been waiting for you to get yours, and giving your benevolent nod before ordering mine. The site still says 3 to 4 weeks delivery, though. Think that the Apple Store in Barton Creek will stock them?
	By Fraize, at 7/16/2004 10:37 AM
I asked them about it on the day they opened... They said they should get them just a little after the online store. Of course, they may have been taking names too, but shouldn't be as bad...
	By xmlguy, at 7/16/2004 2:03 PM
... now if only Apple (or someone, anyone) would make an audio driver that could push out via AirTunes... Imagine sitting on your couch with your PowerBook, playing Doom3, and having it wireless send the audio to your stereo. Booyakasha!
	By xmlguy, at 7/16/2004 2:31 PM

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