According to WSJ's Walt Mossberg, AP Express Falls Short

[Arel]

AirPort Express Does What Apple Claims, But It Still Falls Short

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

The race to help consumers wirelessly stream music from their computers to their stereos continues apace. And now it has been joined by a real heavy hitter: Apple Computer.

Apple is uniquely positioned to do this job right. It was the first computer maker to offer Wi-Fi networking widely, and its iconic iPod portable music player makes it the unquestioned leader in digital music. So I tried out Apple's new $129 streaming gadget, AirPort Express, which not only transfers music wirelessly around a house but is also a full-fledged Wi-Fi base station.

Alas, I found that while AirPort Express works as promised, it falls far short of being an ideal solution for listening to computer-based music in a distant room.

The first thing to know about AirPort Express is that, like the iPod and iTunes, it works just as well with Windows PCs as it does with Apple's own Macintosh computers. You can use it happily in a Windows-only home.

Read WSJ's Walt Mossberg's Complete Review

[dBAGZiq]

That's why we have our SEs and Salling Clicker/Romeo. Very wireless...Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, ang saya nun


Edit: That's what i do before, i plug in my Book to the stereo system and leave it there with Salling Clicker to control iTunes anywhere in the inside the house.

[Edited on 7-23-2004 by dBAGZiq]

[Lester]

Or maybe the 5th gen. iPod will take care of Airport Express' current shortcomings (a wifi iPod would serve as a very cool controller!).

[hoobner]

So, the Airport Express:

1) works precisely as advertised
a) wi-fi base station
b) wi-fi repeater
c) wireless music-streaming device

2) sets up extremely easily
a) plug it in, it works, in most cases
b) when it doesn't the Apple-supplied app works

3) is well-designed, looks cool, etc.

But falls short as a music streaming device because it lacks a remote. Reasonable criticism, but if a basketball player hit 9 out of 10 every time, they would be absolutely incredible.

In my experience, nothing comes close to 9 out of 10, every time, in the Windows world...

[vicicasas]

If the lack of a remote is the only shortcoming that Mossberg can come up with (I confess, I haven't bothered to read his review) it's something that I'm willing to bet will be easily addressed either by Apple or (more likely) by third party accessory manufacturers before the end of the year.

Personally, I'm more disappointed with the fact that the Airport Express will not function as a bridge with any but Apple-branded wireless base stations. I own a Linksys base station and I'd say 95 percent of the wireless hotspots I frequent use Linksys hardware as well.

[alfiesy]

Question: How about if you connect Airport Express to your DSL modem and have the Linksys act as the bridge. Will that work?

[dude_funk]

Mossberg says: "But the biggest problem with AirPort Express is more fundamental. Unlike most of its competitors, Apple's product lacks any remote control or remote user interface. If you are sitting in the room where the music is playing remotely, AirPort Express gives you no way to see what song, or play list, is currently playing, and no way to change the music. To get any information, or to change songs or play lists, you have to tromp back to the computer."

Can someone enlighten me? I don't understand what he wants. He wants to place a UI (LCD screen?) on the AirPort Express unit so that you could see your playlist? Or does he want a separate WiFi handheld unit like an iPod (but without storage) with the Playlists beamed from iTunes? What the heck does he want?

I'm confused.

But if I understand him correctly, then he is being unreasonable. Nothing will satisfy him.

One reason for having WiFi so that you could lug around your WiFi enabled laptop around the house. Isn't the complete iTunes GUI sufficient enough as a remote/interface for him? <-- I think this is one of the main reasons why AirPort Express was created.

[gbbles]

Yes, it's actually possible but voids your warranty. Here's a snippet taken from the Arstechnica review of the AE.


Bridging and the Linksys WRT54G

Sure, Apple says the Express will only do bridging with AirPort Base Stations. That's because WDS is not a standardized part of the 802.11g spec. However, being the inquisitive types that we are here at Ars, we knew we had to see for ourselves. Was the limitation a case of Apple stubbornness, technical limitations, or some proprietary technology used by Apple to enable bridging between two Apple wireless products?


We can report that it will work with the Linksys WRT54G 802.11g router. The procedure for getting it working involves using the open source firmware and is fairly straightforward. But it's not for the faint of heart: keep in mind that if you do update using the open source firmware, you will find your router outside the tender embrace of Linksys customer support.


First off, you may need to update the firmware in your WRT54G. You can find version 4.0 here. After that you'll need to provide the MAC address for the Express, turn lazy WDS and the WDS subnet off. Then set the channel to one, turn off loopback and the firewall, and set "ignore anonymous requests" to off. Then use the Airport Admin Utility to configure your Express. Set it to join the existing Linksys network. Add the Express' MAC address to the network and change the network name and password on the Express to match the Linksys. If you're using a 128-bit hex passphrase, be sure to preface it with a $.


After following the above procedure we were all set.

[dBAGZiq]

Yes, he wants a remote to change the song wherever he is, just like an infrared remote but using the wifi tech. I know Apple says streaming music not controlling iTunes using wifi, i think. Well correct me if im wrong.

[vicicasas]

Originally posted by gbbles
Yes, it's actually possible but voids your warranty. Here's a snippet taken from the Arstechnica review of the AE.


Bridging and the Linksys WRT54G

Yup I read that too ... but unfortunately, my Linksys is a "b" and not a "g".