Apple dominates in most of the markets they play in. Wireless technology does not appear to be one of them. We previously looked at bluetooth vs AirPlay as technologies to share your music to wireless speakers. Depending on your goal, each channel has an advantage.

Bluetooth -
Pros – Cheap speakers, large selection, easy to use, works with more than Apple devices
Cons- Range limited to 30 or so feet from the broadcasting device

AirPlay -
Pros – Easy to use, Only need to be within WiFi range for it to work (much further than bluetooth) Works well with iTunes. works with many device types like receivers that usually charge extra for bluetooth, uses Apples free app.
Cons – Speaker usually expensive

Price is the Main Advantage of Bluetooth Speakers

Bottom line is that if you’re keeping the device playing the music within 30 feet of the speakers, bluetooth has a much broader selection of available speakers at a lower cost.

Recommended bluetooth speakers.

Jawbone Jambox, cool looking and small

Creative D100, Great price, small size, good sound

Supertooth Disco – forget the name, has great features and sound great!

Creative D3X – Create a wireless Home Theater, Add Subwoofer. Cool

Tango TRX – Includes a Dock too

JBL  has finally launched their AirPlay compatible speaker. In what I think is typical JBL fashion it’s weird looking. Looks aside I’d bet it sounds great. Other JBL docks we looked at produced great sound for their size and usually produce acceptable bass. Like all AirPlay compatible speakers the new JBL dock works over your wireless network to deliver your music from iTunes or your iOS4 based devices. One cool think is the speaker lets you see what’s playing via it’s on-board screen. That is actually cool. The device includes an iPod dock which will also charge the device. Not much other use for the dock if music gets there wirelessly via AirPlay.

Launched on the JBL site today for $349, a discount of $50 off the list price of $399.

The rumors of Apple developing a TV show up every so often like clockwork. With rumblings that Apple may be licensing AirPlay to Television companies the internet is all a twitter. (excuse the pun). More likely than not this is just an industry looking to write about something Apple-ish in between announcements. New iMac’s are on the way but no one is really that interested. Even if Apple were to let AirPlay stream video it would hardly be the death nel to other devices as claimed by CrunchGear. Roku, Boxee and Apple TV would still have a happy home for those TV’s without built in connectivity.

Competitors Welcome
And given that Apple does not own any content it would benefit the studios to keep as wide a distribution of content to companies like Blockbuster, Netflix and others so Apple does not control their future.

Apple making a TV? Nope. I’ll give you two reasons.

1. Margins stink in the TV business and Apple is all about margins
2. TV’s are already slim, square and with a black bezel. Not much left to minimize.

What Apple SHOULD build
On the other hand Apple could conquer the remote control or AV Receiver market and it would be a welcome change from the stogy old companies that turn out black boxes with awful interfaces that no one can figure out how to use. Come on Apple. Just build us a nice Easy To Use Home Theater Receiver and leave the TV’s to Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Panasonic.

Photo sharing comes to the iPd courtesy of FlickStackr. You can Brose and Upload photos and post Metadata.  Some are calling it the best Flickr app ever. It’s AirPlay compatible via its ability to support, including iPad2 camera and AirPlay for Flickr Videos.

Looking for the Ultimate AirPlay compatible home theater receiver? Look no further than the Denon AVR-4311CI 9.2 Channel Network Multi-Room Home Theater Receiver with HDMI 1.4a. This Receiver is the cream of the crop when it comes to home theater receivers. In addition to having AirPlay as an option this receiver is loaded to the hilt with state of the Art technologies. Plenty of power from 9 discrete amps, tons of Internet radio options, auto setup and of course the quality you’d expect from Denon. This is the same receiver they built their A100 anniversary edition from so I am guessing that they are pretty proud of its capabilities.

• The fully discrete 9-channel power amplifier delivers 140 watts per channel (1260-watts total).
• Includes Internet Radio and network audio/photo streaming via Ethernet. (Sorry no WiFi)
• HDMI 1.4a Repeater Inputs (7) and Outputs (2) support 1080p/24, 3D (All formats) Audio Return Channel
• Decodes Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital Surround EX
• Audyssey DSX surround processing (supports 11.2 ch.)
• Discrete Mono Amp construction has 4-ohm speaker drive capability
• And of course it is AirPlay compatible with a $49.99 upgrade available from Denon

We wish Denon had included AirPlay in the package but the unit has been out for at least 6 months before AirPlay so it is understandable.

Here are some customer reviews from Amazon.

• This AVR is truly wonderful. It pumps out a lot of sound is network connected. The video processing is done by Anchor Bay Technologies and is superb.
• I just spent the afternoon listening to and comparing AVR receivers for the hell of it. I ended up comparing the Denon 4311 to a Pioneer and a Morantz (forgot the model #’s but they were all in the same price range as the Denon) on a pair of top line B&W speakers. On a stand-alone basis, all three sounded great. But relative to one another, the Denon had the more balanced and warmer sound.