Apple Airport Express

[ionicle]

Airport Express

There are a few reasons why someone might choose an airport express, either to create a small network, or to extend a larger one, it has a good few uses, ....and for those of you who are going 'air what express?!' check out here:

http://www.apple.com/uk/airportexpress/

Anyway on with the review, as always, i have a lot of pictures, as pictures say 1000 words, dont they? ...i think they do

Here it is, all nice and shiney and new

It slides out of one side, clever design, took me a minute or two to work out

leaves you with a smaller white box, that folds out into two blocks.

Fold it out, and you get your airport express!

Out the box

A disk for windows users (boo!

) and a big pile of instruction books

One Ethernet port, one usb port, and one aux audio out port

The ethernet can either be in or out ...

The usb is for sharing printers, but not disks

And the aux is for music out, via airplay, more details available on apple's website for that.

One small simple light, with a choise of orange or green.

Once again, how small it is, considering the size of these ports.

I have small hands

, but no seriously, its tiny! ....it really is.

Add the box to my apple collection

On my iPhone....setup couldnt be simpler!

Nice easy options, with clear graphics

How neat and tidy it looks in the wall.

And again.

And again, for perspective

Tadah! done!

Quick update, and then working perfectly

Let me explain why i bought this device, i live in a reasonably small flat, but since having the entire bathroom tiled, my wifi signal in my bedroom has been dismal, compared to what it was, so ...i am using the airport express as a wireless extender, it takes in wifi signal, and then boosts it out, making my signal really quite strong wherever i am in the flat now

However, it isnt cheap at £79, but for what it does, it is quite good, there are a few options

1. You can make a network with it, with a DSL router, plug it in via a ethernet port, and it creates a wifi network, attaching a printer if necessary

2. You can do as i did, and extend a network (aslong as your main router is also apple)

3. You can add it to a network to do as above, but use it more as a airplay device, attach it to a sound system to wirelessly stream audio.

All done, i like it, let me know what you think

​

 

[stevenwright6379]

Thats alot of apple boxes

 

[hmmblah]

Can it directly access your iTunes library (home sharing) and play songs from it or do you have to send music to it using an iPad/iPhone?

 

[ionicle]

Thats alot of apple boxes

isnt it

that doesnt include my imac box, or apple tv box either

Can it directly access your iTunes library (home sharing) and play songs from it or do you have to send music to it using an iPad/iPhone?

you have to send music to it, but there are a few ways to do that

for example, you can be using the 'remote' app on ipod touch, iphone, or ipad, which allows you to access music on a mac computer/laptop's itunes library, assuming that it has been left open.

then you have the option, in the app, to use airplay, to send the music to one, or more airplay speakers

apple tv is another good example, you can send video to apple tv, ...and you can send audio to apple tv and to the airport express

or one, or the other.

EDIT, quick screenshot:

 

[michaelah500]

isnt it

that doesnt include my imac box, or apple tv box either

you have to send music to it, but there are a few ways to do that

for example, you can be using the 'remote' app on ipod touch, iphone, or ipad, which allows you to access music on a mac computer/laptop's itunes library, assuming that it has been left open.

then you have the option, in the app, to use airplay, to send the music to one, or more airplay speakers

apple tv is another good example, you can send video to apple tv, ...and you can send audio to apple tv and to the airport express

or one, or the other.

EDIT, quick screenshot:

I like your wall.

 

[hmmblah]

you have to send music to it, but there are a few ways to do that

for example, you can be using the 'remote' app on ipod touch, iphone, or ipad, which allows you to access music on a mac computer/laptop's itunes library, assuming that it has been left open.

then you have the option, in the app, to use airplay, to send the music to one, or more airplay speakers

But once it is playing from your home library, you could shut off your phone? It doesn't actually need the phone to keep playing, only for the remote function to start playing, correct?

If so, this would be perfect for my living room stereo. I thought about grabbing another Apple TV, but I want to keep that in the den and it has to be hooked up to a TV. With the Airport Express I could just connect it directly to the stereo. Shame it's so expensive though.

 

[dipzy]

i could do with one of these downstairs to make wireless signal better

 

[dipzy]

Add the box to my apple collection

[/left] [/center]

My collection is growing too

 

[Ravious]

Nice and detailed review. Good work!

 

[ionicle]

Nice and detailed review. Good work!

thanks

i could do with one of these downstairs to make wireless signal better

lol, bear in mind, it only works with an apple airport extreme as the main hub

But once it is playing from your home library, you could shut off your phone? It doesn't actually need the phone to keep playing, only for the remote function to start playing, correct?

If so, this would be perfect for my living room stereo. I thought about grabbing another Apple TV, but I want to keep that in the den and it has to be hooked up to a TV. With the Airport Express I could just connect it directly to the stereo. Shame it's so expensive though.

yes, in theory, ...not tested that, but i dont see why not...but you would need your phone back on the app to turn it off again after.

 

[hmmblah]

yes, in theory, ...not tested that, but i dont see why not...but you would need your phone back on the app to turn it off again after.

Too bad it's so expensive for what I need it for. If it was $50 I'd pick it up in a heartbeat.

 

[dipzy]

I reckon i'll pick the express and extreme soon, been reading about these over the past few days and there awesome.

Thanks for the review, it helped me make a decision

 

[ionicle]

both are so simple to set up

both have the detailed options if you need them, or safe security, and simplicity if you dont

both have apple's famed build quality

both are easy to use with both apple computers and windows computers.

and the feature of the airport express is brilliant for the price...