Erik describes Apple’s wireless lineup as “retarded”, and I don’t particularly disagree.
The solution is simple: Upgrade the AirPort Express to 802.11n and allow AirTunes broadcast from more products. While you’re at it, also allow AirTunes remote control from iPhone and iPod touch. These things were made for it!
[...] Of course, just as I’m about to post this, Jesper has put it more succinctly and quickly. [...]
By soeren says » Blog Archive » AirPort Proper · 2008.02.29 20:21
Erik and I had a discussion shortly following this post about AirTunes on iPhones (by which I mean iPhone + iPod touch). Erik posited that the interesting thing is that you walk away from your iTunes setup to other parts of the house or office but still want music; iPhones should be an AirTunes ‘target’, that you can stream music to!
On the surface, this is a brilliant idea. Hell, it is a brilliant idea, but it’s crippled by some things:
Right now, AirTunes works by sending encrypted Apple Lossless streams encoded on the fly. Apple Lossless uses a variable bitrate but is quite heavy, and then there’s the encryption.
Playing music is thanks to decoding chip something of the least demanding things an iPhone can do, but also burdening the ARM CPU with decrypting that much data and the Wi-Fi chip with a constant stream of it.
This would kill battery life, and while Apple can add many things with a software upgrade, an AirTunes-variety Apple Lossless decoder chip like the AirPort Express uses (has to use; it’s not like the speakers can decode it) is not one of them. For an iPod touch, I guess you take your lumps, but you want to know and plan for when your mobile phone runs out of juice.
Most of this also applies (and worse?) to acting as an AirTunes host, sending data from the iPhone to a set of speakers.
The remote-control part of AirTunes can quite easily be accommodated with iPhone. The heaviest deal you’ll ever stream is a bunch of 320×320-ish cover art jpegs for CoverFlow; everything else is simple commands. Supporting AirTunes remote control, streaming from iPhone to AirTunes and being an AirTunes target isn’t mutually exclusive, of course, but I know which one I’d want them to implement first if I had to choose.
By Jesper · 2008.02.29 20:52