For those in mixed-platform environments, I came across a very interesting article about printing wirelessly to an Airport Base Station print server from a Win XP machine. Worth the read...
johnq- Are you saying that a cable came with my power book that plugs into the adapter/plug? I'll have to check my box as I've never see or heard of it.
Kickaha- Brand new receptacles. It's the plug, it's bottom heavy and pulls the unit downward and loses contact causing the sparking. Not sure what you meant by the rotating outlet. These are brand new rocker type receptacles both facing up and down. The plug can go into the bottom receptacle but that leaves a gap between the plug and the wall and the bottom heavy design further causes the plug to separate from the outlet. So I have to put it on the top spot and put something under the plug to counter balance and force a better connection. I've tried to widen the plug's prongs but it feels too flimsy and I don't want to break them off. I guess mine may be defective, not sure if Apple will replace it.
johnq- Are you saying that a cable came with my power book that plugs into the adapter/plug? I'll have to check my box as I've never see or heard of it.
Exactly. That is assuming you mean you have the white brick that comes with iBooks/latter PowerBooks.
The part that is the plug actually slides out (it is rather snug though, do it slowly and make sure you've grokked the right way to slide it off). Should slide in the direction north of the Apple logo leaf. Should unplug it first just to be paranoidically safe.
Then, the longer white cable has a regular 2 prong plug at one end and a rectangular adapter at the other end that is similar to the thing you just removed.
So you have the option to uses the brick in the wall outlet/strip or, if you need an extra reach, you can add the longer extension cable, with the added benefit of a more sane, usable footprint for the plug itself.
I didn't use mine at first 1. overlooked it due to my impatience/excitement after opening my new iBook box up 2. I didn't immediately understand what it was for. In fact my buddy that has a Powerbook also never knew what it was until I showed him
As far as I can see, the Airport Express is identical in that regard. But there should be a shorter cable ideally (if only as a separate purchase).
The extension cord won't come with your Airport Express unless you buy the optional Stereo Connection Kit for $39. I believe the iBook or PowerBook or iPod power adapter extension cord will work with AE though, although I'm not sure since I haven't got mine yet.
The extension cord won't come with your Airport Express unless you buy the optional Stereo Connection Kit for $39. I believe the iBook or PowerBook or iPod power adapter extension cord will work with AE though, although I'm not sure since I haven't got mine yet.
Yeah, I wasn't sure about if the longer cord came with it or not, I hadn't looked too deep into it.
The kit is very hard to find actually, but here it is. (No pic yet).
The link on the Airport Express page just adds it to your Apple Store shopping cart....duh Apple presumptuous!
The power cable that you can use to extend the power brick is a standard 'figure 8' cable.
My iBook is Australian, so the power brisk doesnt have the 'standard' prongs at all, just comes with the extended cable. When I had to get the brick replaced the tech at the Apple store had _never_ seen, and didnt know, that you could remove the prongs and put in an extended cable.
The power cable that you can use to extend the power brick is a standard 'figure 8' cable.
My iBook is Australian, so the power brisk doesnt have the 'standard' prongs at all, just comes with the extended cable. When I had to get the brick replaced the tech at the Apple store had _never_ seen, and didnt know, that you could remove the prongs and put in an extended cable.
It really is an elegant design.
Right, and Apple's World Travel Adapter Kit really hilights the functionality....otherwise they would each need their own brick...
One dumb question, is Airport Express compatible with the old Airport card, (I mean not the Extreme card?) As I both have the original G4 iMac and a brand new iBook, which card should I buy for my iMac to use with Airport Extreme?
Two features Airport Express/AirTunes really should have:
1. Selecting *multiple* destinations for the audio (so all stereos in the house play the same music)
2. Ability to select any Mac's audio out on the network as a destination for the stream, not just Airport Expresses. (Preference setting on the target Mac to 'allow' this)
Now why doesn't Apple supply something for my car ? A LOT of people spend 2 to 3 hours in their cars driving to/from work. a lot of people WORK in their cars. This would be the ultimate solution to them. Bring-Your-Own microdrive with 4GB of music....
.:BoeManE:.
If you have the cash for it, Alphine has some of the best iPod integrations out there for your car stereo.
One dumb question, is Airport Express compatible with the old Airport card, (I mean not the Extreme card?) As I both have the original G4 iMac and a brand new iBook, which card should I buy for my iMac to use with Airport Extreme?
Should be compatible. Apple says it will be anyway. But no one can say yet if it is in reality.
AirPort Express harnesses the superfast 802.11g wireless standard to deliver data rates up to 54 megabits per second. It also works with the 802.11b wireless protocol, so if you have a Mac equipped with the older AirPort Card or a 802.11b Wi-Fi-compliant Windows PC, AirPort Express works with these, as well.
As far as which to buy, are you sure Airport Extreme will fit into your model of iMac? I thought they were originally only Airport ready, not Airport Extreme ready.
Second, depends on what you want to do.
Cable/DSL speed: 1.5 Mbps
Airport (original) speed: 11 Mbps
Airport Extreme speed: 54 Mbps
Basically, for any web stuff you'll do you'll be lucky to get near the 1.5 (theoretical) limit, and it varies between upload speed and download speed too. So either version of Airport will always dumb down to match your cable speed (so people with only one computer basically don't "need" Extreme, at least until Express showed up).
So, Airport (and Airport Extreme) are really meant to help improve Mac to Mac transfer speeds behind your connection to the Internet.
So, if all things are Airport Extreme (in the iBook, iMac and Express or Base Station) then iBook <---> iMac speeds will be near 54Mbps, as will streaming music from either Mac to the Express for playback through the stereo.
However, if either the iMac or iBook has the 11Mbps original Airport card then any transfers to or from that Mac will be at the lower speed, but that's not a problem for Airport Express because it will also work if there is an older Airport card in a Mac.
The 802.11g 54Mbps is still only truly useful if you are sending large (huge) files between Macs. You don't get faster internet speeds nor do you get better music playback (although 54Mbps might increase the buffer faster, but there's no indication 11Mbps will do poorly).
Bottomline is answer the question "what do you want to do over Airport - faster" and then see if Extreme will actually address it. Seems like if only your new iBook is Extreme and presumably you're getting an Express, then from what I can tell the extra 43Mbps 802.11g theoretically gets you might just go to waste anyway.
My vote is just to get a regular card for the iMac (plus I think it will only take the older card).
I just don't know what benefits come from sending music to the stereo at 54Mbps over 11Mbps, since both should sound identical...opinions? Should mean (and only mean) longer buffer times so it should skip less if there is signal loss?
As far as which to buy, are you sure Airport Extreme will fit into your model of iMac? I thought they were originally only Airport ready, not Airport Extreme ready.
Second, depends on what you want to do.
Cable/DSL speed: 1.5 Mbps
Airport (original) speed: 11 Mbps
Airport Extreme speed: 54 Mbps
Basically, for any web stuff you'll do you'll be lucky to get near the 1.5 (theoretical) limit, and it varies between upload speed and download speed too. So either version of Airport will always dumb down to match your cable speed (so people with only one computer basically don't "need" Extreme, at least until Express showed up).
So, Airport (and Airport Extreme) are really meant to help improve Mac to Mac transfer speeds behind your connection to the Internet.
So, if all things are Airport Extreme (in the iBook, iMac and Express or Base Station) then iBook <---> iMac speeds will be near 54Mbps, as will streaming music from either Mac to the Express for playback through the stereo.
However, if either the iMac or iBook has the 11Mbps original Airport card then any transfers to or from that Mac will be at the lower speed, but that's not a problem for Airport Express because it will also work if there is an older Airport card in a Mac.
The 802.11g 54Mbps is still only truly useful if you are sending large (huge) files between Macs. You don't get faster internet speeds nor do you get better music playback (although 54Mbps might increase the buffer faster, but there's no indication 11Mbps will do poorly).
Bottomline is answer the question "what do you want to do over Airport - faster" and then see if Extreme will actually address it. Seems like if only your new iBook is Extreme and presumably you're getting an Express, then from what I can tell the extra 43Mbps 802.11g theoretically gets you might just go to waste anyway.
My vote is just to get a regular card for the iMac (plus I think it will only take the older card).
I just don't know what benefits come from sending music to the stereo at 54Mbps over 11Mbps, since both should sound identical...opinions? Should mean (and only mean) longer buffer times so it should skip less if there is signal loss?
Well, considering that the music is transferred from the mac to APExpress using Aplpes lossless format (750kbps, or there abouts), and since the 11 and 54 Mbps is only theoretical, you wont get those speeds in a real world situation. If you have a b type network you're lucky if you can cram out 5Mbps. So, if you hav two computers using the same base station to access the internet (at say, a 1Mbps connection), and you stream music to the Express base station at 750kbps, there is going to be a lot of crosstalk and resends from the base station(s). My guess is that its the music that might suffer, and skip a bit now and again.
Having said that, since I decided to be a cheapass and not buy my WiFi router from Apple (Belkin), I might not have the best setup... I have a AlBook with 11g, and my Girlfriend has an iBook with 11b. The base station only supports 11b (in addition to standard wired ethernet)... Problem is, I cant even stream music between macs using iTunes... And that streams as low as 192 kbps... I'm sure some of this is due to the poor reception of my AlBook, only about 50%, where the iBook gets about 80%...
I'm pretty sure that Apples solution is a lot better than my Belkin one, and I'm sure Apple has extensively tested this out...
Here's an interesting article and breakdown with photos of the innards. Reports are that consumer orders from re-sellers are hiting the roof (watch it).
Comments
Kickaha- Brand new receptacles. It's the plug, it's bottom heavy and pulls the unit downward and loses contact causing the sparking. Not sure what you meant by the rotating outlet. These are brand new rocker type receptacles both facing up and down. The plug can go into the bottom receptacle but that leaves a gap between the plug and the wall and the bottom heavy design further causes the plug to separate from the outlet. So I have to put it on the top spot and put something under the plug to counter balance and force a better connection. I've tried to widen the plug's prongs but it feels too flimsy and I don't want to break them off. I guess mine may be defective, not sure if Apple will replace it.
Originally posted by KidRed
johnq- Are you saying that a cable came with my power book that plugs into the adapter/plug? I'll have to check my box as I've never see or heard of it.
Exactly. That is assuming you mean you have the white brick that comes with iBooks/latter PowerBooks.
The part that is the plug actually slides out (it is rather snug though, do it slowly and make sure you've grokked the right way to slide it off). Should slide in the direction north of the Apple logo leaf. Should unplug it first just to be paranoidically safe.
Then, the longer white cable has a regular 2 prong plug at one end and a rectangular adapter at the other end that is similar to the thing you just removed.
So you have the option to uses the brick in the wall outlet/strip or, if you need an extra reach, you can add the longer extension cable, with the added benefit of a more sane, usable footprint for the plug itself.
I didn't use mine at first 1. overlooked it due to my impatience/excitement after opening my new iBook box up 2. I didn't immediately understand what it was for. In fact my buddy that has a Powerbook also never knew what it was until I showed him
As far as I can see, the Airport Express is identical in that regard. But there should be a shorter cable ideally (if only as a separate purchase).
Originally posted by iDave
The extension cord won't come with your Airport Express unless you buy the optional Stereo Connection Kit for $39. I believe the iBook or PowerBook or iPod power adapter extension cord will work with AE though, although I'm not sure since I haven't got mine yet.
Yeah, I wasn't sure about if the longer cord came with it or not, I hadn't looked too deep into it.
The kit is very hard to find actually, but here it is. (No pic yet).
The link on the Airport Express page just adds it to your Apple Store shopping cart....duh Apple
My iBook is Australian, so the power brisk doesnt have the 'standard' prongs at all, just comes with the extended cable. When I had to get the brick replaced the tech at the Apple store had _never_ seen, and didnt know, that you could remove the prongs and put in an extended cable.
It really is an elegant design.
Originally posted by mmmpie
The power cable that you can use to extend the power brick is a standard 'figure 8' cable.
My iBook is Australian, so the power brisk doesnt have the 'standard' prongs at all, just comes with the extended cable. When I had to get the brick replaced the tech at the Apple store had _never_ seen, and didnt know, that you could remove the prongs and put in an extended cable.
It really is an elegant design.
Right, and Apple's World Travel Adapter Kit really hilights the functionality....otherwise they would each need their own brick...
1. Selecting *multiple* destinations for the audio (so all stereos in the house play the same music)
2. Ability to select any Mac's audio out on the network as a destination for the stream, not just Airport Expresses. (Preference setting on the target Mac to 'allow' this)
Originally posted by BoeManE
Now why doesn't Apple supply something for my car ? A LOT of people spend 2 to 3 hours in their cars driving to/from work. a lot of people WORK in their cars. This would be the ultimate solution to them. Bring-Your-Own microdrive with 4GB of music....
.:BoeManE:.
If you have the cash for it, Alphine has some of the best iPod integrations out there for your car stereo.
Originally posted by kelib
One dumb question, is Airport Express compatible with the old Airport card, (I mean not the Extreme card?) As I both have the original G4 iMac and a brand new iBook, which card should I buy for my iMac to use with Airport Extreme?
Should be compatible. Apple says it will be anyway. But no one can say yet if it is in reality.
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/specs.html
AirPort Express harnesses the superfast 802.11g wireless standard to deliver data rates up to 54 megabits per second. It also works with the 802.11b wireless protocol, so if you have a Mac equipped with the older AirPort Card or a 802.11b Wi-Fi-compliant Windows PC, AirPort Express works with these, as well.
As far as which to buy, are you sure Airport Extreme will fit into your model of iMac? I thought they were originally only Airport ready, not Airport Extreme ready.
Second, depends on what you want to do.
Cable/DSL speed: 1.5 Mbps
Airport (original) speed: 11 Mbps
Airport Extreme speed: 54 Mbps
Basically, for any web stuff you'll do you'll be lucky to get near the 1.5 (theoretical) limit, and it varies between upload speed and download speed too. So either version of Airport will always dumb down to match your cable speed (so people with only one computer basically don't "need" Extreme, at least until Express showed up).
So, Airport (and Airport Extreme) are really meant to help improve Mac to Mac transfer speeds behind your connection to the Internet.
So, if all things are Airport Extreme (in the iBook, iMac and Express or Base Station) then iBook <---> iMac speeds will be near 54Mbps, as will streaming music from either Mac to the Express for playback through the stereo.
However, if either the iMac or iBook has the 11Mbps original Airport card then any transfers to or from that Mac will be at the lower speed, but that's not a problem for Airport Express because it will also work if there is an older Airport card in a Mac.
The 802.11g 54Mbps is still only truly useful if you are sending large (huge) files between Macs. You don't get faster internet speeds nor do you get better music playback (although 54Mbps might increase the buffer faster, but there's no indication 11Mbps will do poorly).
Bottomline is answer the question "what do you want to do over Airport - faster" and then see if Extreme will actually address it. Seems like if only your new iBook is Extreme and presumably you're getting an Express, then from what I can tell the extra 43Mbps 802.11g theoretically gets you might just go to waste anyway.
My vote is just to get a regular card for the iMac (plus I think it will only take the older card).
I just don't know what benefits come from sending music to the stereo at 54Mbps over 11Mbps, since both should sound identical...opinions? Should mean (and only mean) longer buffer times so it should skip less if there is signal loss?
Originally posted by johnq
Should be compatible. Apple says it will be anyway. But no one can say yet if it is in reality.
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/specs.html
As far as which to buy, are you sure Airport Extreme will fit into your model of iMac? I thought they were originally only Airport ready, not Airport Extreme ready.
Second, depends on what you want to do.
Cable/DSL speed: 1.5 Mbps
Airport (original) speed: 11 Mbps
Airport Extreme speed: 54 Mbps
Basically, for any web stuff you'll do you'll be lucky to get near the 1.5 (theoretical) limit, and it varies between upload speed and download speed too. So either version of Airport will always dumb down to match your cable speed (so people with only one computer basically don't "need" Extreme, at least until Express showed up).
So, Airport (and Airport Extreme) are really meant to help improve Mac to Mac transfer speeds behind your connection to the Internet.
So, if all things are Airport Extreme (in the iBook, iMac and Express or Base Station) then iBook <---> iMac speeds will be near 54Mbps, as will streaming music from either Mac to the Express for playback through the stereo.
However, if either the iMac or iBook has the 11Mbps original Airport card then any transfers to or from that Mac will be at the lower speed, but that's not a problem for Airport Express because it will also work if there is an older Airport card in a Mac.
The 802.11g 54Mbps is still only truly useful if you are sending large (huge) files between Macs. You don't get faster internet speeds nor do you get better music playback (although 54Mbps might increase the buffer faster, but there's no indication 11Mbps will do poorly).
Bottomline is answer the question "what do you want to do over Airport - faster" and then see if Extreme will actually address it. Seems like if only your new iBook is Extreme and presumably you're getting an Express, then from what I can tell the extra 43Mbps 802.11g theoretically gets you might just go to waste anyway.
My vote is just to get a regular card for the iMac (plus I think it will only take the older card).
I just don't know what benefits come from sending music to the stereo at 54Mbps over 11Mbps, since both should sound identical...opinions? Should mean (and only mean) longer buffer times so it should skip less if there is signal loss?
Well, considering that the music is transferred from the mac to APExpress using Aplpes lossless format (750kbps, or there abouts), and since the 11 and 54 Mbps is only theoretical, you wont get those speeds in a real world situation. If you have a b type network you're lucky if you can cram out 5Mbps. So, if you hav two computers using the same base station to access the internet (at say, a 1Mbps connection), and you stream music to the Express base station at 750kbps, there is going to be a lot of crosstalk and resends from the base station(s). My guess is that its the music that might suffer, and skip a bit now and again.
Having said that, since I decided to be a cheapass and not buy my WiFi router from Apple (Belkin), I might not have the best setup... I have a AlBook with 11g, and my Girlfriend has an iBook with 11b. The base station only supports 11b (in addition to standard wired ethernet)... Problem is, I cant even stream music between macs using iTunes... And that streams as low as 192 kbps... I'm sure some of this is due to the poor reception of my AlBook, only about 50%, where the iBook gets about 80%...
I'm pretty sure that Apples solution is a lot better than my Belkin one, and I'm sure Apple has extensively tested this out...
.:BoeManE