#1 feature that absolutely could and should be added to the unit:
The ability to act as an AC adapter for powerbooks on the road...
this would be a great feature and would be a no-brainer accessory for laptop purchases...
They could do something with power-over-ethernet, so that, if you used it as an AC adaptor, you also got to enjoy full network bandwidth. (Would require a separate ethernet port, as one is most probably going to the existing network connection.)
Or they could use Firewire, and use IP over firewire to do the networking.
All in all I was not sure what you were argumenting for or against. Please elaborate with us.
It sound like your confusing the talk of what you can do "on the go", with the talk of "should Apple make a media-reciever for the couch-room"
what i was saying is confusing, for sure, but *i* am not confused.
what i mean is, in a sentence or ten:
video is a *lazy* thing, while audio is not.
a video jukebox will not be popular enough, until the combination of harddrives being big AND cheap enough and codecs being good enough so the wal*mart crowd thinks of them as "almost free", for apple to bother.
untill it is possible to sell at least 2 million of them, apple won't bother with "consumer electronics" devices such as this.
that's my opinion, of course. as many have said on this board, over the years, i could be proven wrong.
i sure hope so, as i would LOVE iWatch -- some iTunes for DVDs
If limited to standard definition, only a couple Mbits/sec would be required. The tradeoff is that AE would need to have enough processing power to decode the stream in real time. This is definately feasible for a reasonable price. However, consumers would then demand support for audio formats found on DVDs. Multichannel audio would require over three times the bandwidth currently used by airtunes.
Not true. AAC Lossless eats about 700-900kbps, and standard DVD AC3 is a 448kbps stream which wouldn't require recompressing at all to be delivered to a device with a digital output (like the Airport Express). The video bandwidth and processing required at the Airport end is definitely the problem in making such a gizmo.
I found this information about the future of Airport Express and iPod.
Begin Snipit
Mossberg: Can I send output to two different rooms?
Jobs: Not right now. We think we've solved this problem, at least got started. With AirPort Express?it's Mac and PC?we're going to ship them next month in July for $129. [Jobs demonstrates product.] It doesn't connect to your television and send video. But it begins to solve a very simple problem for $129, or if you need a base station anyway, for zero dollars.
Mossberg: Why aren't you in the business of sending video? You have iMovie on the Mac; you have QuickTime.
Jobs: I think part of the hardest things about coming up with new products is to figure out a really cool set of technology that you can implement it with and make it easy, but also figuring out something that people want to do. We've all seen products that have come out that have been interesting but just falling on their face because not enough people want to do it. We know that a lot of people want to take music from their computers to their stereo, so we're going to take that step. We're not hearing that a lot of people want to take movies that they've bought or somehow gotten off the Internet and put them on their television.
Mossberg: Does that mean you risk being late? Microsoft and some partners are doing portable devices that do video before the end of this year. Is it a good idea for you to be late?
Jobs: As I said, you've got to think these things through, and we don't see a market for people that want to watch video on these portable devices. In building video, they're making them twice as heavy as an iPod and twice the size of an iPod so they don't fit in your pocket and twice as expensive as an iPod. [They] think people want to watch movies on these things, but we don't think so.
End>
This would indicated there is no video coming to the iPod or AExpress.
There are a couple of products out there that when combined with Apple Design and specific enhancements, would work great as a component to the digital hub.
1) Apple Airport Express - self Explainatory
2) Sony Room Link Network Media Receiver - Audio/Video transmitter between computer and A/V equipment.
This would be the hub, 802.11g network router, streaming Audio/video and a network HD with wireless capabilities.
Apple could partner with Linkstation or EMC for the storage and they already have the wireless and router components.
In my opinion, Apple should make a new Airport uber-extreme with this feature set. It would be perfect to go with the new wireless flat panel portable being talked about in the other threads.
There are a couple of products out there that when combined with Apple Design and specific enhancements, would work great as a component to the digital hub.
Many people around here seem to forget that the Mac is the Digital Hub. It is supposed to be the centerpiece of your digital lifestyle. Everything else connects to it, like the spokes on a wheel.
Adding video out, a hard drive and a remote to something like the AirPort Express would make for either a really lopsided wheel, or completely displace the Mac as the centerpiece. It's really just the old Apple Set Top Box dream machine, which will probably never become a reality.
AirPort Express, like the iPod, is a simple, functional device that depends upon the Mac (or PC) as a control center. Look for Apple to create other things as simple and elegant along these lines. But don't look for them to encompass all the features you want into one device, because they already sell that product: it's called a Mac.
Comments
The ability to act as an AC adapter for powerbooks on the road...
this would be a great feature and would be a no-brainer accessory for laptop purchases...
Originally posted by Paul
#1 feature that absolutely could and should be added to the unit:
The ability to act as an AC adapter for powerbooks on the road...
this would be a great feature and would be a no-brainer accessory for laptop purchases...
They could do something with power-over-ethernet, so that, if you used it as an AC adaptor, you also got to enjoy full network bandwidth. (Would require a separate ethernet port, as one is most probably going to the existing network connection.)
Or they could use Firewire, and use IP over firewire to do the networking.
Amorya
Originally posted by Indecisive PC user
"AirPOT" lmao
That brings us to a bunch of new ideas...
Originally posted by Zab The Fab
The issues can become confusing, very quickly.
All in all I was not sure what you were argumenting for or against. Please elaborate with us.
It sound like your confusing the talk of what you can do "on the go", with the talk of "should Apple make a media-reciever for the couch-room"
what i was saying is confusing, for sure, but *i* am not confused.
what i mean is, in a sentence or ten:
video is a *lazy* thing, while audio is not.
a video jukebox will not be popular enough, until the combination of harddrives being big AND cheap enough and codecs being good enough so the wal*mart crowd thinks of them as "almost free", for apple to bother.
untill it is possible to sell at least 2 million of them, apple won't bother with "consumer electronics" devices such as this.
that's my opinion, of course. as many have said on this board, over the years, i could be proven wrong.
i sure hope so, as i would LOVE iWatch -- some iTunes for DVDs
Originally posted by dfiler
If limited to standard definition, only a couple Mbits/sec would be required. The tradeoff is that AE would need to have enough processing power to decode the stream in real time. This is definately feasible for a reasonable price. However, consumers would then demand support for audio formats found on DVDs. Multichannel audio would require over three times the bandwidth currently used by airtunes.
Not true. AAC Lossless eats about 700-900kbps, and standard DVD AC3 is a 448kbps stream which wouldn't require recompressing at all to be delivered to a device with a digital output (like the Airport Express). The video bandwidth and processing required at the Airport end is definitely the problem in making such a gizmo.
Begin Snipit
Mossberg: Can I send output to two different rooms?
Jobs: Not right now. We think we've solved this problem, at least got started. With AirPort Express?it's Mac and PC?we're going to ship them next month in July for $129. [Jobs demonstrates product.] It doesn't connect to your television and send video. But it begins to solve a very simple problem for $129, or if you need a base station anyway, for zero dollars.
Mossberg: Why aren't you in the business of sending video? You have iMovie on the Mac; you have QuickTime.
Jobs: I think part of the hardest things about coming up with new products is to figure out a really cool set of technology that you can implement it with and make it easy, but also figuring out something that people want to do. We've all seen products that have come out that have been interesting but just falling on their face because not enough people want to do it. We know that a lot of people want to take music from their computers to their stereo, so we're going to take that step. We're not hearing that a lot of people want to take movies that they've bought or somehow gotten off the Internet and put them on their television.
Mossberg: Does that mean you risk being late? Microsoft and some partners are doing portable devices that do video before the end of this year. Is it a good idea for you to be late?
Jobs: As I said, you've got to think these things through, and we don't see a market for people that want to watch video on these portable devices. In building video, they're making them twice as heavy as an iPod and twice the size of an iPod so they don't fit in your pocket and twice as expensive as an iPod. [They] think people want to watch movies on these things, but we don't think so.
End>
This would indicated there is no video coming to the iPod or AExpress.
For full transcript, click here.
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comm...=P5089_0_1_0_C
A real Media Switch.
Enjoy !
[B]This is how I see it.
A real Media Switch.
Enjoy !
What is the Audio/Video In for?
[B]
Originally posted by nsousansousa
This is how I see it.
A real Media Switch.
Enjoy !
What is the Audio/Video In for?
It's for encoding audio and streaming it directly from the Base station.
If you have another Base in the room it can decode or play the audio back out.
It uses Homeplug ® AV.
Originally posted by nsousansousa
It's for encoding audio and streaming it directly from the Base station.
If you have another Base in the room it can decode or play the audio back out.
It uses Homeplug ® AV.
Got a name for it !
AudioSwitch !
See the video. 1 MB movie
1) Apple Airport Express - self Explainatory
2) Sony Room Link Network Media Receiver - Audio/Video transmitter between computer and A/V equipment.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE..._MediaReceiver
3) Buffalo Linkstation - Network HD with Print Server, USB 2.0, and is capable of plugging into wireless router via ethernet.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Buffalo_Link...-30639593.html
This would be the hub, 802.11g network router, streaming Audio/video and a network HD with wireless capabilities.
Apple could partner with Linkstation or EMC for the storage and they already have the wireless and router components.
In my opinion, Apple should make a new Airport uber-extreme with this feature set. It would be perfect to go with the new wireless flat panel portable being talked about in the other threads.
Originally posted by geobe
There are a couple of products out there that when combined with Apple Design and specific enhancements, would work great as a component to the digital hub.
Many people around here seem to forget that the Mac is the Digital Hub. It is supposed to be the centerpiece of your digital lifestyle. Everything else connects to it, like the spokes on a wheel.
Adding video out, a hard drive and a remote to something like the AirPort Express would make for either a really lopsided wheel, or completely displace the Mac as the centerpiece. It's really just the old Apple Set Top Box dream machine, which will probably never become a reality.
AirPort Express, like the iPod, is a simple, functional device that depends upon the Mac (or PC) as a control center. Look for Apple to create other things as simple and elegant along these lines. But don't look for them to encompass all the features you want into one device, because they already sell that product: it's called a Mac.