Friday, 23 July 2004|
AirPort Express: Three Views. Apple's AirPort Express may quickly become one of the most reviewed pieces of new wireless technology: It will receive many reviews for several reasons, including the fact that it's the smallest Wi-Fi gateway (when you include its built-in power supply); it's the only one to stream audio in the particular way it does; it includes several interesting features in one wrapper; it's relatively cheap for any two of its four unique set features*. It's also from Apple and had 80,000 pre-orders, so it's a natural. (Amazon.com now shows it not first arriving until August 1, and other sources indicate a three-week backorder. But the Apple Store in Seattle says they should have another supply any day now.) I've been working with an AirPort Express for a few days, and it's just about as easy to setup and use as Apple promises. There are no obscure settings. Joining an existing AirPort Extreme network was a snap. So was reconfiguring it as a base station and assigning it a WPA encryption key. So was playing music through its attached speakers from any copy of iTunes anywhere in our wired/Wi-Fi office. My officemates threatened to play strange music into the speakers in my office, as any copy of iTunes can use any set of AirPort Express speakers on a network unless you password protect access to the speakers. Three reviews check in today from well-respected sources. David Pogue walks through the pros and cons of the device in The New York Times, and comes down reasonably heavy on the pro side. He misses having a remote control and notes that it's odd you can't play through several sets of speakers at once each connected to their own AirPort Express as you can with other devices. The total of the parts in one well-designed package adds to a winner for him, however. He notes that you'd need two or three other devices to come close to the Express--and in that comparison, he leaves out the Express's client mode (to connect for streaming/printer sharing to any Wi-Fi network) and its USB printer sharing, which is an expensive stand-alone add-on for 802.11g networks. Walt Mossberg's take was substantially more negative because of a few flaws he felt were significant. He finds the lack of a remote-control a total showstopper, and I admit that that was one of my reactions on first hearing about AirTunes streaming music....
[Source: Wi-Fi Networking News] |
Last update: 18/8/04; 9:53:26 AM .
