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iHome iW1 AirPlay wireless speaker hands-on
We've been dying to play with a third-party AirPlay speaker system ever since Apple opened the tech up, and iHome was happy to oblige here at CES with the new iW1. The wireless speaker system features two three-inch woofers and two one-inch tweeters with Bongiovi audio processing, a built-in lithium-ion battery with a grab-and-go charging base, and capacitive touch controls -- and, just as we suspected, AirPlay compatibility courtesy of BridgeCo. iHome's also developed a new iOS configuration app called iHome Connect that'll help you get the iW1 on your WiFi network quickly, although regular WPS setup is also supported. You can also charge your iPhone or iPod by plugging into the USB port in the back -- iHome is packing a cable in the box. Streaming from iOS was just as simple as with the Apple TV or Airport Express, and we only saw minimal lag between control inputs like volume and track changes, just as with an all-Apple setup. Interestingly, iOS only supports point-to-point AirPlay streaming right now, so you can only use a single speaker at a time, but if you're streaming from iTunes you can hit multiple speakers at once, regardless of vendor. iHome is still tuning the audio performance, so we'll reserve judgment on that until we get a review unit -- which should happen when this guy ships for $300 in Summer 2011. Video after the break. %Gallery-113098%
Denon and Marantz AirPlay update finally released for $49
We knew that Denon and Marantz receivers components would be the first to get upgraded to support AirPlay, but we didn't think it would take quite this long. The patch to add AirPlay support to nine network-enabled receivers and other devices. It was also supposed to be free until November 7th. Well, it didn't get out by then, and sure doesn't look free now, but it is at least available, a $49.99 patch downloadable for the following devices: Denon AVR-4311CI Denon AVR-3311CI Denon AVR-991 Denon AVR-A100 Denon N7 Networked CD Receiver and 2.0 Channel Speaker System Marantz SR7005 A/V Receiver Marantz AV7005 A/V Preamplifier Marantz NA7004 Network Audio Player Marantz M-CR603 Networked CD Receiver Full PR after the break.
B&W Zeppelin Air looks cool, connects via AirPlay
At CES, Bowers & Wilkins announced the Zeppelin Air, its next generation iPhone/iPod speaker dock with AirPlay support. This lovely piece of audio hardware features class D amplifiers, improved bass thanks to Flowport technology and digital signal processing and exceptional performance courtesy of new 25bit-96KHz capacity DACs. In addition to its standard USB connectivity which lets you sync to iTunes on your computer, this latest Zeppelin model now supports AirPlay so you can wireless stream your music directly from any iOS 4.2 device or iTunes 10.1 Mac or PC. If you prefer to dock your device, the Zeppelin Air has a spring-loaded docking port that accommodates all models of the iPhone, all models of the iPod touch, the iPod classic and the iPod nano (6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd generations). Pricing is not yet available, but if previous models are any indication, this fusion of style and function will not be cheap. Click through for the press release after the break or head to B&W's website for all the details on this gorgeous AirPlay speaker system. [Via Engadget]
Klipsch shows off AirPlay-enabled speaker docks at CES
One day before CES begins here in Las Vegas, Klipsch invited journalists to visit a gallery of their products, and that's where we got to see the company's new line of "soundbars," specially made speaker docks that will come equipped to support Apple's own AirPlay system. The docks we saw were prototypes only, so they weren't actually running any music from an iOS device, but eventually, they will stream music directly from any iOS 4.2 or higher equipped device through the AirPlay protocol. The docks come in three different models -- the Studio model is the smallest, and it can fill a small room with sound for US$399, the Forum model is a little bigger for $599 and the Arena model, above, checks in at a whopping $799. That's pretty pricey (even considering the sound quality), but these are basically meant to be all-in-one solutions for audio, with the added bonus of streaming iOS music from anywhere. The Arena model has both a USB port on it (for older iPod models), and an auxiliary input for a television or another sound source. Klipsch told us that it was excited to use Apple's AirPlay standard for these devices, and it eventually expects that Apple will allow for a "one-to-many" streaming service, where you can send different audio feeds out to different speakers throughout the house. There's no release date yet for these docks, but those in search of a quality all-in-one, Apple device friendly solution can look for them in Q2 or Q3 of 2011.
Klipsch unveils AirPlay-enabled Gallery Studio, Forum and Arena soundbars (hands-on)
Klipsch managed to unveil a black-and-white version of its high-end Image X10i earbuds as well as something referred to as a LightSpeaker at last CES, and this year they're doing the inevitable: unveiling a trio of iDevice-friendly sound systems. All a part of the new Gallery series, the Studio, Forum and Arena are all making their debut tonight in Vegas. Each of these units are AirPlay certified, meaning that each one will wirelessly ingest smooth jams and fusion metal from a nearby iTunes library. The Studio and Forum each have slots along the front edge where you can rest your iPhone / iPod / iPad, while the high-end Arena actually has a 30-pin Dock Connector port as well as a video output. The unit's the company had on display this evening were far from being production quality, but the overall design was nice, if not a touch understated. To remedy that on the Studio, the outfit plans to offer well over a dozen faceplates with various graphics -- if sales are strong, we're told that it could create similar plates for the higher-end siblings. To go along with those, Klipsch also unveiled a trifecta of slim, passive speakers: the G-12, G16, G-28 and G-42. These range from $299 to $599 per speaker, and are obviously aimed at the more affluent crowd. One thing of note -- the backs of these speakers have clever cutouts along the bottom and rear, enabling you to better manage your wires. Yeah, wires. These units definitely aren't wireless, but here's hoping for 2012, right? As for the iPod sound systems? Those are slated to ship in Q2 or Q3 with prices set for $399 (Studio), $599 (Forum) and $799 (Arena). %Gallery-112859%
Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin Air speaker hands-on
Fine purveyor of high end audio products Bowers & Wilkins is on hand here at Digital Experience showing off its latest product, the Zeppelin Air. An addition to its existing Zeppelin line, the Air adds in AirPlay functionality for effortless streaming from iTunes or an iOS device. Stainless steel accents complement the oblong shaped boombox, and it can connect to your home network using either WiFi or Ethernet. We couldn't objectively judge sound quality in the acoustics of this massive Caesar's Palace conference room, but we'd expect nothing less than the best considering the price tag -- a steep $600. Feel free to feast your eyes on some speaker porn in the gallery below, that doesn't cost a thing. %Gallery-112854%
Remote HD brings AirPlay to your first-gen AppleTV
It seems that Apple's AirPlay streaming is ripe for moddery and hacksterism, and if the recently (very recently) released AirMediaPlayer wasn't proof enough, the kids at Remote HD have released a plugin that adds the AirPlay to your first gen AppleTV. That's right! Just install the plug-in and the Remote HD iOS app, and you'll soon be streaming movies, podcasts, photos and more. What are you waiting for? Hit the source link for instructions, and make sure you let us know how it all works out for you.
B&W announces Zeppelin Air with AirPlay
It's no secret that Bowers & Wilkins has a tight relationship with Apple -- so it was only a matter of time until AirPlay made its way onto the company's design-a-licious Zeppelin line. Now after being teased in Apple's own promos, the Zeppelin Air is official. On the outside, it looks virtually identical to its older blimp brethren, but internally the speaker has been completely redesigned and features new 24bit / 96KHz capacity DACs. B&W is so proud of the result that they're touting it as their best sounding iPod speaker ever. Another bit of good news is the Zeppelin Air is compatible with every current iPod and iPhone out there granted it runs iOS 4.2. A handy USB input also provides flexibility for streaming music directly from a computer and even syncing an iPod / iPhone without removing it from the dock. Price is still an unknown but based on the other Zeppelins we're guessing it won't be cheap. For the full details be sure to read through the PR after the break and drool over the included gallery. [Thanks, Steph] %Gallery-112734%
iHome gives further details on AirPlay-ready speakers
iHome's first AirPlay compatible wireless speaker system didn't make it out for the holiday season as expected, but they have just released further information on the system, now known as the iW1. We first got wind of the iW1 last September. Back then we simply knew that it would be a wireless speaker that incorporates Apple's AirPlay technology, and that it runs off of a rechargeable battery. It streams digital lossless audio from your iTunes library and compatible device (using Apple's Remote app or iHome's own custom app). Today, iHome has shared some additional tidbits, including: Multiple iW1 speaker support -- enjoy music streamed all around your house simultaneously with AirPlay and multiple iW1 speakers Built-in rechargeable li-ion bettery with included charging base Studio Series speakers -- high performance audio featuring Bongiovi Acoustics DPS with specially tuned woofers and tweeters with a clean, efficient Class-D amplifier iPhone / iPod / iPad docking, charging and local audio playback via USB cable A capacitive, backlit, touch-sensitive control panel Electricpic reports that the iW1 will retail for £299 (roughly US$465 as of this writing) and should be available around February or March of this year. That's quite a steep price, but just slightly undercutting Sonos ZonePlayer 120 at US$499 (we recently reviewed the $399 Sonos S5). [Via MacRumors]
Remote HD brings AirPlay to older Apple TVs
Well, we did not see that coming. Although there's been a flurry of development around the AirPlay service for iOS 4.2 devices, iTunes and the current iOS-based Apple TV model, expectations for ever seeing the instant-play capability on the older Mac OS X-based Apple TV models were quite low. Of course, where official support is not forthcoming, enter the legions of eager hackers. The team at FireCore (producers of the aTV Flash unlock & enhancement suite for both original and new Apple TVs) have relayed the news today that the Remote HD iPhone app (US$3.99), when paired with an unlocked first-gen Apple TV, enables AirPlay video playback from iOS 4.2 devices to the older ATV models. Audio-only streaming isn't in this build, but is coming soon. You can unlock your Apple TV 1st-gen using the open-source atvusb creator, or with the $40 full-featured aTV Flash product. It's not clear exactly how the Remote HD device-side plug-in is performing this fancy trick, but we'll try to get word from them and expand upon it soon. Meanwhile, if you've got an unlocked original ATV, check it out! Thanks to Pratik & Tomek for the tip.
Give presentations on Apple TV with AirPDF and AirFlick
As I've been exploring the newest Apple TV, people keep asking to see if I can push boundaries in new directions. Apple TV's concept of a wireless video endpoint that connects to a large screen TV has excited a lot of people. Although I haven't yet been able to produce a way to show live game screens from iPhones (games are likely going to have to rely on local Apple TV resource processing for that, probably involving a unit jailbreak, at least at first), Apple's AirPlay does provide a ready way to give presentations using a Mac and Apple TV. In the video that follows after the jump, you'll see a new tool that I put together in response to TUAW reader requests. It transmits PDF files a page at a time to Apple TV. Read on to learn more about how this works and how Mac developers can easily hook into Apple TV transmission.
Confirmed: A million Apple TVs sold
All Things Digital has confirmed that rumor last week that Apple expected to sell a million of the new Apple TV units. One million of those little black boxes have wandered out the doors of Apple Stores everywhere, and have presumably been plugged into televisions to stream content from iTunes, Netflix, and any other videos wandering around out there. Looks like the lower price point of under US$100 combined with that new functionality and the AirPlay tricks have turned this "hobby" into an actual business. The question now will be exactly what that means. When the iPhone took off, Apple transformed itself somewhat into a mobile device company, and many people (including Apple leadership, probably) believe that's where the future, especially the financial one, still lies. Not to say that a million Apple TVs compares to iOS device sales yet, but Apple has a growing hit on its hands here, and it'll be interesting to see how and if the company steps out to support it, or if the TV just remains a relatively cheap and easy way to bring iTunes content to the living room.
AirMediaPlayer gives Windows users a whiff of Apple AirPlay (video)
We heard it was in development just two days ago and now we've got a first glimpse at Apple's AirPlay media streamer working a Windows PC. The hack comes courtesy of the free AirMediaPlayer client for Windows client (currently at version 1.0.5) that leverages the Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 SP1, Quicktime, and Bonjour for Windows to enable AirPlay media streaming from any iOS device back a XP, Vista, or Windows 7 PC. Possibly good to news for those of you with PC-based media centers. Catch all the hot Apple on Microsoft video action after the break.
AirFlick allows streaming of arbitrary media, DVDs, even screencasting to the Apple TV (video)
If you've run out of things to do with your Apple TV and have been using it as a hockey puck now that the lakes are getting solid, you'd better go dig it out of the snowbank. Following up on her iOS AirPlay hacks, Erica Sadun has released an alpha version of a tool called AirFlick which enables the playback of any 'ol media files on an Apple TV. That's demonstrated in a video below. Things aren't perfect yet but already others are having a field day with the tool, the folks at TUAW figuring out how to not only stream whole DVDs to an Apple TV but their entire desktop image too by simply providing a VLC screen:// URL into the player. The quality looks a little iffy and, as you can see in the video below, it's not entirely error-free. But, if you have the smallest little bit of patience, it's sure worth a shot, eh?
Screencast your Mac to Apple TV over AirPlay
That screen you're looking at there? It's not my Mac. It's my Apple TV. TUAW reader James Low wondered if you could stream your OS X screen using the screen:// feature of VLC along the lines of the instructions found on this blog post. I decided to test it out using the same method I described in my earlier DVD-to-Apple TV post. Instead of streaming from my DVD (namely via dvdread:///dev/rdisk5@1:3-), I substituted screen://, as follows. /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -vv screen:// --intf=rc '--sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=2048,acodec=mp4a,ab=192}:standard{mux=ts,dst=-,access=file}' | mediastreamsegmenter -f /Library/WebServer/Documents/stream -D It worked. All other instructions remain the same as from the DVD post. So what are the downsides? First, the image was a bit blurry due to the H.264 transcoding and the limited bit rate, but it wasn't too bad. It remained reasonably readable at all times. Second, there was a distinct lag between what was going on at the Mac and what was being shown on the Apple TV. Pausing the stream, like I did to take this screen shot, slightly increased that lag. On the bright side? Screencasting. From your Mac. To your Apple TV. I think that's pretty cool.
AirPlay, Apple TV authentication and protected iTunes content
Erica continues her hacking explorations into the Apple TV and AirPlay. Here's the thing. As far as I can tell, you can play back any content that plays back in your iPhone's iPod and video applications on any Apple TV. That includes DRM content, all that encrypted stuff that normally requires you to register your computer with your iTunes account. Somehow the AirPlay protocol sends over enough information to the Apple TV to allow that device to gain at least temporary authorization to play the media you stream to it. From what I've been able to find out, that authentication step seems to be transmitted via a simple key using a message that looks something like this...
DVDs are playing back on my Apple TV using AirFlick and AirPlay!
The Unicorn has landed! Rainbows! Starshine! Skittle poo! It's like Christmas in...um...December! So why this exuberance and excitement? My Apple TV is right now, this very second, even as we speak, playing back a DVD of Finding Nemo. It's seriously awesome. Why watch a DVD on a laptop when you can easily stream it to your Apple TV? And it's not even all that hard to do if you're a bit of a do-it-yourself-hacker. Although, seriously, if the command line frightens and intimidates you, it's time to move on to the next TUAW post. Mac aficionado Erick van Rijk figured out how to use VLC to transcode a DVD in real time so that my AirFlick application could play it across to an Apple TV. The instructions, which you are heartily encouraged to follow only at your own risk, follow after the jump. Okay? Deep breaths. Here we go.
JBL's AirPlay-enabled On Air Wireless speaker dock hits the FCC
JBL was one of the first companies besides iHome and Denon / Marantz to announce support for Apple's AirPlay technology, so it's no surprise that the company's On Air Wireless speaker dock just hit the FCC, complete with its manual -- we've been hearing that AirPlay will be all over the place at CES 2011. The On Air Wireless seems like a fancier riff on JBL's On Air line of speaker docks and alarm clocks -- it features that familiar swoopy-loop design but adds in a large color LCD display that displays album artwork while streaming music. Looking at the manual, the display also makes WiFi setup and configuration a little easier, which is nice. All in all, it looks promising, but we'll see what price and availability looks like when we get to CES.
New Apple TV, Roku media streamers race to break one million in sales
Curious timing, no? This morning, Cupertino's PR department has blasted out a blurb stating that the newfangled Apple TV -- which only started shipping three months ago -- is expected to cross the one million mark in sales prior to Christmas Day. The obvious remark is hard to ignore: "That's a lot for a hobby." And yeah, it is. But it probably has more to do with trends in consumer purchasing and a delightfully low $99 price point than anything else, and if you doubt that logic, you should probably have a sit-down with Roku CEO Anthony Wood. The folks at Business Insider did, and Wood confessed that Roku media streamer sales have actually doubled since the introduction of the second-gen Apple TV. As the story goes, Jobs did the whole sector a solid by refocusing consumer attention on the set-top box realm, and with the most basic Roku retailing for just $59, it's pretty clear that the outfit drives a tough bargain. Roku's also expecting to sell its one millionth box by the close of this year, but of course it's had a lot longer than three months to do so. Still, for an up and comer, selling one million of anything (let alone looking at $50 million or more in annual sales) is quite the achievement.
AirPlay hacked onto XBMC Ubuntu PC, Windows next (video)
You won't find this hack available for download just yet, but Erica Sadun over at TUAW has posted a video showing AirPlay streaming from an iPad to an XBMC media server running on Ubuntu. As we understand it, the Linux box runs the AirPlay client service with XBMC advertising its availability using the Bonjour-compatible Avahi. Erica, who helped initiate all this AirPlay trickery with her early code spelunking efforts, says that Windows hacks are also in development. Click on through to see AirPlay take another bold step down the path of device agnosticism.
