Apple are great - just a few years ago if you had a device that played music on the go it was a Walkman. Sony created and owned the market. From a slow and slightly shaky start Apple have turned the tables and now the same concept is called an iPod. Maybe they’ve done even better in getting people to buy an Apple ipod rather than any of the pale imitations that come and go.
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iTunes
This is the software you’ll be familiar with from managing your iPod. it manages your digital music library, it schedules and synchronises your podcasts, it will find and download movies and TV shows for you too. Create playlists, edit CDs, burn mix CDs and so on.
Within iTunes you can also share music. So if there are two computers in the home, linked via a network, each can access a central music library. You can turn on music sharing from the main iTunes Preferences tabs. This is a powerful and useful facility which quickly enables you to spread the reach of music within your home.
AirPort Extreme
If you don’t have a wireless network you’re going to want one soon. Who wants all those cables cascading around the home? Who wants to drill holes or festoon wire around doors. Today’s preference is for laptop computers and really that means wireless. Apple’s hardware for delivering a wireless network is a cool white box called AirPort Extreme.
AirPort Extreme delivers wider and stronger than most other wireless base stations thanks to the use of the 802.11N protocol, but also handles older standards such as B and G. Other useful features include connectors for older PCs which use ethernet cables, the ability to connect a shareable hard drive for centralised backups or connect a USB printer.
Windows?
One of the questions that gets asked when talking about Apple computer hardware is what about PCs using Windows? Well today Apple supports Windows computers just as well as Apples. Indeed as I write this on my Apple MacBook I’m listening to music streamed across our home network from my wife’s Windows laptop.
AirPort Express
You have a centralised music library, you have a wireless network which has the reach and the power to send your music around your home, how can you listen in another room? This is the function of the AirPort Express. It shares Apple’s ice white house style, it’s a bit bigger than an electricity plug and it houses a mini jack plug to support powered speakers. If you’re not familiar with the term powered speakers normally lack extensive bass, treble and balance controls but they have their own on/off switch, volume control. If you’ve bought a PC that came with a set of speakers they were most probably powered speakers.
Yes, they can be low cost, modest units but equally they can be expensive hi-fi quality. The key point is that this simple unit picks up the network broadcast and pumps it into a set of speakers, or even a high end audio system with an external audio input, such as Bang & Olufsen. If you’d like music in a kid’s bedroom maybe a modes set of powered speakers will handle the next Take That perfectly well, for the living room or dining room you might want units with better quality sounds. Working with iTunes and your network AirPort Express will handle your music, playing the right sounds in each room.
Apple TV
Wouldn’t you want to be able to listen to music through your home theatre system? Of course you would. Remember that home entertainment is about images (still and moving) and not just sound. The role of Apple TV is to manage sound and vision, serving data to your TV. Apple TV will store your home movies, movies you rent or buy from iTunes, TV shows y
Thanks to the clever way Apple have integrated Apple TV into the whole iTunes / iPod experience most of the synchronisation necessary goes on in the background. Your photos are sent from your Mac or your PC to Apple TV, movies start instantly with what you’re about to see being downloaded as you view.
Together with the Apple TV unit, in recognisable cool white again, you get a small remote control. The software inside Apple TV relies heavily on the screenflow elements so you can quickly find the movie, TV show or photo you want to see - and in HD the images are stunning.
The Kitchen?
You can use AirPort Express to drive built in powered speakers, but many people want to listen to the radio in the kitchen. A very popular way to do this is via one of the Logitech Squeezebox devices. Unlike conventional radio these units pick up radio signals via the internet, streamed through the household wireless network; and they can also play music from your iTunes library.
Remote Control
Until recently this has been a key area of weakness. Picture the scene, after a hard days work you sit down and relax on the sofa. You want to listen to some music. What you don’t want to have to do is fire up a laptop just so you can get into iTunes. This is where manufacturers such as Sonos have scored heavily, their handheld controller sold their system.
Now there’s a free application for the iPod Touch and the iPhone that turn these units into fantastic handheld controllers for iTunes and Apple TV. Because both units have tremendous internet connectivity this is a handheld that really packs a punch. Better still, its price competitive with other manufacturers controllers. iTunes Remote can be downloaded from here.
Today Apple offer a comprehensive, wireless, home entertainment strategy that goes further than most of their competitors in embracing other manufacturers and existing equipment. You can start really small (what’s smaller than iTunes, a free download) and build up to a complex system playing sound and vision in every room. If you’re thinking of more than an iPod rest assured Apple have a growth path with a lot of attractive features.