When AirPlay is Better Than Bluetooth

By admin1, on September 24th, 2011

A recent CNet article suggests that bluetooth is better than Apple’s AirPlay when it comes to steaming music to speakers from an iPhone. Really? If you’ve been following AirPlayCompatible.com you know we’re far from AirPlay snobs. In face we often suggest that DLNA in some instances is just as good.

Easy of Use – Bluetooth and AirPlay work very differently. In fact the biggest difference is that with AirPlay every device will work almost identically. This is because Apple is calling the shots. Ease of use? AirPlay wins

Price – AirPlay speakers are expensive right now because manufacturers are mostly producing higher end speakers, not 2″ toys that sound like, well, toys. The Apple licencing costs around $4. Not sure what the WiFi costs are but it is certainly not main difference between a $100 bluetooth speaker and a $300 AirPlay speaker. You’re getting a better sounding spekaer.

Sound – Bluetooh compresses the sound, AirPlay does not. You won’t hear the difference in comparably priced and designed speakers, but since most of the bluetooth only speakers are low end, you’ll hear the difference.

Range – Here is the biggie. CNet says you’ll most likely be within the 33 foot range of the speaker the entire time you’re listening to it. Really? Why would that be. This makes the least sense of all. WiFi is a far superior solution for a speaker setup. If you’re in 33 feet of the speaker  you might as well dock your device and get a direct connection.

Lastly – Bluetooth does not need WiFi. Yep, it does not. So if the speaker is not device to device compatible with AirPlay, (many are) then bluetooth has an advantage. That’s if you don’t have WiFi. The last point they make about bluetooth being universal vs AirPlay being Apple only is a weird argument, but does make sense ifyou have multiple OS devices in your home, Android and iOS

Overall I’d say pick the device that fits your situation, budget, and desired level of sound quality,  but don’t base it on CNet’s article.

 

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Do You Need AirPlay?

By admin1, on September 9th, 2011

AirPlay is basically Apple’s wireless protocol that lets  you share your content across multiple airplay compatible devices. Be it a receiver, speakers, printers or apps, it lets you send your content from one compatible device to another. For example

iPod >> Receiver, Printer, Speakers

iTunes >> Receiver, Speakers, iPod

iTunes/iPod >> Apple TV >> TV

You get the idea.

But do you Need AirPlay to get what you want?

But if you only want to do something like play Internet music on throughout your home and you don’t have a big iTunes library, do you really need this? What if you want to wirelessly print from an app on your iPhone to your printer, is it necessary?

No, not really. Every major receiver manufacturer in 2011 has receivers that are capable of streaming Internet radio stations like Pandora and Rhapsody. Most receivers will also let you stream music that’s on your PC or phone using something called DLNA. Most printer companies have their own apps that let you print from your iPhone to their printers without AirPlay. TV’s still don’t have AirPlay but these days most have Internet Apps built into them anyway.

Why Would You Want AirPlay?

The big advantage of AirPlay is the same advantage most Apple products have. AirPlay is brain dead easy to use! This is not to say that DLNA on a droid is not, but hey, event the name AirPlay is easier to figure out what it does than DLNA.

Bottom Line

If you have any investment in Apple products, then AirPlay is certainly worth consideration when purchasing new receivers, printers and speakers going forward. If you’re a droid household. Maybe not.

 

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AirPlay vs DLNA

By admin1, on April 15th, 2011

History
Long before AirPlay came on the scene there was DLNA or Digital Living . It allows you to stream a wide range of video and audio formats wirelessly to your TV, AV Receivers or Media Device like Roku. In fact over 300M DLNA equipped devices shipped in 2010. I have a DLNA equipped Sony TV which uses DLNA to access movies, musics and other files off my PC as well as stuff from the web with no trouble. Alas it will not talk to my iTunes library.

Only Apple
Then AirPlay came along and everyone went Ga Ga. They did so because Apple made it easy to understand. Basically AirPlay does exactly what DLNA does except it has a much cooler name. Manufacturers fell all over themselves trying to get out AirPlay compatible devices and Apps. At first they charged for this but that has already fallen by the wayside as Denon now includes it in their latest AV Receivers. (they also have DLNA by the way). HP even has 3 printers that use DLNA today.

What we’d like to see Apple do soon
If Apple could bring AirPlay compatibility to more devices through licensing deals like they’ve done with Audio and Speaker companies then life gets more interesting. Until then we’ll have to settle for what Apple thinks is best. In the mean time you may have DLNA compatible devices in your home now. If you want to find some check here

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How to get AirPlay Working

By admin1, on March 22nd, 2011

So you want an AirPlay compatible set of speaker, receiver or printer. What do you need to do?

  • You will need an iOS device capable of running iOS 4.2 (iPhone 3G, 3GS or 4, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd or 4th gen, iPad or iPad 2)
  • You’ll of course also need an AirPlay-capable receiver device. This could be an Apple TV (latest model only), an AirPlay-enabled AV receiver, which will only do audio, a Mac running AirPlayer, or a second iOS device using AirTuner or AirView (these options currently only support video)
  • A local Wi-Fi network that you and all of the above devices will have access to.

Note that not all printers are AirPlay compatible. At the moment only HP has announced Printers that work with AirPlay. Denon and Marantz have AV receivers that are currently AirPlay Compatible and Pioneer has one on the way. Then there are a bunch of speakers that are compatible but don’t forget to see reviews to see if they sound any good. Just being AirPlay compatible does not mean you’ll like what you hear.

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