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Next gen airport express

macOSX-tastic

macOSX-tastic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 9, 2005
853
3
At the Airport. UK
hi guys, i have just had a thought about what the future could hold in terms of apple's airport express base station.

what if, in the future revisions, the following features could be introduced?

1) USB port on the express that can become cross compatible with not just printers, but ANY usb device, including hubs.....enabling the true "wireless setup" for your portable or your desktop (applications in the portable market would obviously be more practical).

2) Audio source can be extended from itunes to any OS X system sound, such as DVD player, iLife, system sounds, the internet, etc.

only two really cool features that i would like to see in the future revisions of airport express. i tell ya, this would make me buy one. im probably completely wrong and im sure there would be many technological challenges along the way, but one can hope i guess. :D

can anyone think of any others?

a bit of fun speculation here on MR.....and who can blame me, i havent posted in about an hour:D
 
#2 is already possible with some piece of software.. I forget what it is though. I bet mad jew'll be here in about 2 seconds and be able to tell us.

I'd love to see video-out on AirPort express, kinda like AirTunes does now..
That'd be nifty!

also, maybe an antenna... my AirPort sometimes is teh crap and would be solved with a bigger antenna.
 
katie ta achoo said:
See? Mad Jew is like magic!
Or google
or magical google?
Click to expand...
mad jewgle?

The wireless USB sounds neat as long as USB 1.0 speed is all you need since that is about as fast as 802.11b goes.

EDIT: Seems like Certified Wireless USB already has the potential to fill this need.

B
 
They better not update the Airport Express anytime soon. I just got one for Christmas! :eek:

The AirFoil thing looks pretty cool... I'll check it out.
 
well that detiled list of perdictions for MWSF said the a new arport express might be comming

lilstewart92 ( not good news for you :( )
i will be very happy if a new on come out, i need one im still using wireless b

:)
 
I think something along the lines of streaming video is much more likely, considering what Apple has been doing recently....

I like the idea of having more functionality through the USB port, as long as it's zero configuration. The way the printers work is based on Bonjour and its ad-hoc networking technology. The printer does not "look" like a printer plugged into the USB port on your computer. I don't know, it seems feasible in principle to me, but then I guess there are issues with persistence? Like if you, in principle, plugged a USB stick in, the USB stick has to be owned by something...it isn't safe to just keep popping it in and out of the computer. If that "something" is the Airport, like the AEBS "owns" the printer, you're talking about a lot more load on the Airport. But if it's a computer on the network, what happens when that computer suddenly drops out of range? I dunno. It seems feasible, but perhaps not easy. I'd like to see it too. It has to be Apple easy and transparent, though.
 
balamw said:
mad jewgle?

The wireless USB sounds neat as long as USB 1.0 speed is all you need since that is about as fast as 802.11b goes.

EDIT: Seems like Certified Wireless USB already has the potential to fill this need.

B
Click to expand...

The express can do 802.11g so it is faster then just USB 1.0. It's probably just as cheap if not cheaper to but a USB 2.0 plug on there anyways.
 
wwooden said:
The express can do 802.11g so it is faster then just USB 1.0. It's probably just as cheap if not cheaper to but a USB 2.0 plug on there anyways.
Click to expand...

Psst, the plug is the same. ;) But 802.11g is a lot slower than USB2 (almost a factor of ten).
 
Airport Front Row

I think Front Row should be accessible through a video enabled Airport device. Except for DVDs, all the other content that Front Row gives the user access to can be streamed over current generation wifi. Of course a remote control would be needed for this and I hope it will be RF radio based instead of IR like the one used in the new iPod dock and iMacs. Something like this would sell better than a new Mac Mini for televisions.
 
Sol said:
I think Front Row should be accessible through a video enabled Airport device. Except for DVDs, all the other content that Front Row gives the user access to can be streamed over current generation wifi. Of course a remote control would be needed for this and I hope it will be RF radio based instead of IR like the one used in the new iPod dock and iMacs. Something like this would sell better than a new Mac Mini for televisions.
Click to expand...

that would be flippin' sweet!!
 
In iTunes is there a way to send audio over Airport AND listen to it on the computer at the same time? - What about playing it on several other Macs in the network, could set up like a house-wide speaker system. :confused:
If not - that's what I want to do. (plus all of the other stuff above) :)
 
i dont know if this is possible but i have ripped some films and some simpsons episodes into itunes. but my powerbook speakers really cant handle and i would love to be able to play the audio over my speakers while watching the video (there mite be problems with timing though like audio a few seconds late)

video streaming would also be good
 
Use line out

iminimac said:
i dont know if this is possible but i have ripped some films and some simpsons episodes into itunes. but my powerbook speakers really cant handle and i would love to be able to play the audio over my speakers while watching the video (there mite be problems with timing though like audio a few seconds late)

video streaming would also be good
Click to expand...

Why don't you connect the PowerBook's line out to your hi-fi? If your powerbook does not have line out you could use a Griffin iMic to output audio to a hi-fi.
 
katie ta achoo said:
an antenna... my AirPort sometimes is teh crap and would be solved with a bigger antenna.
Click to expand...

There is an antenna connector on the circuit board. You just need to mod the case so you can plug in an external antenna.
 
iminimac said:
i dont know if this is possible but i have ripped some films and some simpsons episodes into itunes. but my powerbook speakers really cant handle and i would love to be able to play the audio over my speakers while watching the video (there mite be problems with timing though like audio a few seconds late)
Click to expand...

I didn't understand if you were following the Airport Express theme of this thread... this is what Airfoil does, if you have an Airport Express (see the link waaaay above).
 
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