According to 9to5Mac, a New Feature of iOS7 is "Open Airplay Audio".
New for accessory makers in iOS 7: Open AirPlay audio, Apple-designed hearing aid tech, device management, much more
I'm not sure exactly what this means, and we could guess at a variety of things, but one possibility is that hardware vendors might be allowed to make devices that receive airplay audio without the licensing fees. I was wondering if that's what OPEN is referring to, in the phrase "Open Airplay Audio"
As I understand it, there may be certain apple chips required to support airplay, so I'm not sure how this would all tie together.
But one possibility I'm excited about is the idea that this could make it less expensive for sonos (and other hardware manufacturers) to support full airplay streaming (from phone to sonos, etc) without the restrictions of Sonos' current streaming, and without the need to add an airport express to do so. If that were the case, more manufacturers, such as Sonos, might include full Airplay support in the box. (Which would be really cool for me)
Currently, because Sonos does not fully support Airplay, you'd either have to add an airport express to get full airplay support (which I've done), or else stream ONLY iTunes tracks to your Sonos (using the Sonos iOS app), with no ability to stream audio from other apps.
Anyone have some actual info about what this new support for "Open Airplay Audio" might actually mean ?
Pete
New for accessory makers in iOS 7: Open AirPlay audio, Apple-designed hearing aid tech, device management, much more
I'm not sure exactly what this means, and we could guess at a variety of things, but one possibility is that hardware vendors might be allowed to make devices that receive airplay audio without the licensing fees. I was wondering if that's what OPEN is referring to, in the phrase "Open Airplay Audio"
As I understand it, there may be certain apple chips required to support airplay, so I'm not sure how this would all tie together.
But one possibility I'm excited about is the idea that this could make it less expensive for sonos (and other hardware manufacturers) to support full airplay streaming (from phone to sonos, etc) without the restrictions of Sonos' current streaming, and without the need to add an airport express to do so. If that were the case, more manufacturers, such as Sonos, might include full Airplay support in the box. (Which would be really cool for me)
Currently, because Sonos does not fully support Airplay, you'd either have to add an airport express to get full airplay support (which I've done), or else stream ONLY iTunes tracks to your Sonos (using the Sonos iOS app), with no ability to stream audio from other apps.
Anyone have some actual info about what this new support for "Open Airplay Audio" might actually mean ?
Pete