Airplay from iOS to multiple speakers?

Currently, iTunes can do that, so it's not much of a stretch for iOS to have the same ability. I'd say the article is legit.

(I'm sure there's someone out there with 4.2 installed that can confirm this.)

BS. airplay does not work to multiple speakers from the iphone or ipad. you can only airplay from your itunes on your computer to multiple speakers using the remote app. and that is what the screen shot he is showing. it is a screen shot from the remote app

jas1973 said:

BS. airplay does not work to multiple speakers from the iphone or ipad. you can only airplay from your itunes on your computer to multiple speakers using the remote app. and that is what the screen shot he is showing. it is a screen shot from the remote app

Click to expand...

Right, its to select music from iTunes to multiple speakers. And control the volume on multiple speakers.

By the way, those are my screenshots.

Maybe I'm missing something here but this looks to be the same thing tuaw demonstrates.

http://www.tuaw.com/tag/iphone/page/2/

Nice, didn't see that on TUAW before. Seems as if they had it figured out before I did.

this feature is not new to 4.2

it has been around since the previous update i believe

Yes, it's legit

I discovered the functionality worked when I set up my Apple TV and iTunes. I configured Home Sharing and was able to stream anything from my library to the Apple TV. Surprisingly, the function works well. I expected an echo effect as I usually do with Bluetooth but didn't hear one. It's extremely nice and doesn't miss a beat! It allowed me to play music from the iMac (computer room) to the Apple TV (living room). Having the ability to control the volume on either unit from the iMac was nice.
I then tested the function with the iPhone Apple "Remote" app and gave the the same functionality. I'm not sure if I was given that option prior to this week's iTunes update. To ensure you have the option, I'd suggest updating your Mac OS and iTunes version. This feature works with iOS 4.1.

Keep in mind, you must enable Home Sharing, enable ALL remotes within iTunes to pair with iPod, iPad, & iPhone under the same iTunes account.

Lastly, if iTunes, Apple TV or the Remote app does not find either of your shared libraries, ensure that libraries are SHARED/ON and that your iOS devices are on the same wireless/wired network. All iOS devices and Mac/PC systems must be within or fall under the same IP range and subnet. You may have to setup port-forwarding or open certain ports. I can't recall the port numbers on your routers.

I can't think of anything else. Create DJ playlists. Anyone in your household with access to your library can be the DJ or request songs from their iOS device. Great for bars, parties, etc.

I can't wait for more Airplay compatible speakers to come out. I'll be first in line to grab a set for my basement, garage, and patio. So far, I'm very pleased. Music in every room at an affordable price and zero wires. Good luck!

As others have said, this article is very misleading: The screenshot is from the remote app.
iTunes (and Apple TV) has been able to stream to multiple speakers for a long, long time and the Remote app is just exposing that functionality (and has done since the first version). This has absolutely nothing to do with AirPlay or 4.2
AirPlay allows you to stream content on your iOS device to remote speakers: This has been added in 4.2 and only allows you to stream to a single remote speaker (AirPort Express or Apple TV Version 2)

I agree with Phil.

If you think about it why would you want to use Airplay to stream sound from an iOS device to multiple speakers?
Situation 1: You are at home and you want to listen to music all over the house. Obviously you open the Remote app and airplay to every speaker from you desktop.
1. Because your desktop obviously has all or more music than on your iDevice.
2. There's no need to drain your iDevice battery if you can do it from a continued power source connected device (Mac, etc).
Situation 2: You are watching a movie on you iDevice and go into the living room and want to continue watching it on the big screen. In this case there is no need for airplay to multiple speakers since you will only stay in one room and the sound is related to video so there is no reason why one should want to listen to a movie but not see it.

To me personally the Remote app and the Airplay functionality separate these cases very well.

I see a lot of people on forums complaining about why Apple doesn't add a certain functionality and in many cases are right, but in some cases they don't even think if it will be useful. They just want to have the option even though they will never use it and that my friends is the definition of bloated UI.

I like air playing from my iphone instead of from the remote app. If I get a phone call the music shuts down so I can take a call with out looking for the remote to turn down the stereo volume or miss the call. I agree it runs your battery down faster but you are usually home when doing this so getting it charged before i need to leave usually isn't a problem. My itunes library isn't larger then my 32 gb iPhone so that is not an issue I have it all on my iPhone. Except movies. With all that said if I need to play at multiple locations I just stream from my itunes library using the remote app. But would be cool to play to multiple locations from your iOS device as well as your itunes library.And also not everyone just listens to their iTunes library. I airplay more from pocket tunes and xm radio which you can't do using your itunes library and remote app. You have to use your iOS device.

So just because it is not useful in your case doesn't mean it would not be useful to many others. And they have a legitimate complaint.

Forgot to take into account Pandora and all the rest, you're right.
Another good point was with the phone call.
Maybe we'll get lucky with an update in 4.3

andrei.barbuta said:

Forgot to take into account Pandora and all the rest, you're right.
Another good point was with the phone call.
Maybe we'll get lucky with an update in 4.3

Click to expand...

yes hopefully. and hopefully they will open an atv app store

Airplay to multiple speakers is great only for parties.
What would be great for a single user that walks around the house and listens to music is to have a way that it detects where you are and provide a crossfade to the speakers in the room you are vis-a-vis the room you were. That would be really awesome.
The tech is here, GPS, airplay all we need now is Apple to give the go ahead to their engineers.

I use Airplay to play music from my iPad or iPhone. I have two Apple TV's in different rooms. If I want to display the current song from the iPad on both in need to be able to address multiple systems at the same time. This works fine from my PC. Not sure why they would not provide the same function in IOS.

tomswift said:

I use Airplay to play music from my iPad or iPhone. I have two Apple TV's in different rooms. If I want to display the current song from the iPad on both in need to be able to address multiple systems at the same time. This works fine from my PC. Not sure why they would not provide the same function in IOS.

Click to expand...

Exactly!

Anyone trying to differentiate this kind of functionality based on Os vs iOS has totally missed the point.