soeren says » Blog Archive

AirPort Proper

February 29th, 2008

Erik rightly complains about the lack of a does-it-all AirPort base station from Apple.

Inexplicably, the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule don’t offer AirTunes. This might make you think AirTunes as an idea has been quietly canned, but Apple recently added it to the Apple TV.

The AirPort Express isn’t 802.11n yet.

The Apple TV offers no bridging. Speaking of which, neither does a regular Mac OS X client. Windows XP Professional, on the other hand, did this just fine six years ago.

Given that AirTunes (not astonishingly) requires some form of audio-out port (ideally an analog and digital one, like on the AirPort Express), this isn’t a feature that could be added in software to the AirPort Extreme, nor to the Time Capsule. Why, though, has this not been added long ago, such as part of the switch to 802.11n and new design, over a year ago?

Similarly, adding 802.11n to the AirPort Express requires different hardware — fair enough.

But!

Allow the AppleTV to bridge via its ethernet port. [..] This should just be a software thing, right?

Exactly. Much like they’ve added AirTunes, they should add bridging.

Of course, just as I’m about to post this, Jesper has already put it more succinctly.

Tagged AirPort, Apple, Hardware, Mac, WiFi
Posted in Chuckellania

Others' Thoughts

# Uli Kusterer
Comment on March 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

I can tell you why Time Capsule doesn’t have the music stuff built in: It contains a hard disk, it makes noise. Since the AirTunes stuff is intended to let you listen to music, nobody wants that noise to go with it. Time Capsule is the base station you put on top of or inside a cupboard, or in the attic, where nobody will see or hear it, and where your backup is physically separated from your computer.

The Express is the little thing you put in your living room next to where the phone line comes in or next to the TV where your cable modem sits, to have it quietly forward the network to your computer, and to have it forward music kept on your computer’s noisy hard disk to your stereo in the living room.

At least that’s how I see them.

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