I HATE APPLE

I have a MacBook, which has bluetooth. I have AirPort. I would like to be able to have my MacBook in my office and be able to play songs on a set of portable speakers that I could have in my kitchen, bedroom, wherever. Do these exist? I looked online and could only find one or two things labeled as "wi-fi speakers" and they were a little pricey and I was worried because there weren't many options. Then I found Bluetooth speakers but there seem to be some reports that the Bluetooth signals don't go through walls very well. Any thoughts?

n/a i use my airport express to stream music wirelessly... it has a speaker jack, you can use itunes to stream it.

any thoughts

https://www.krcs.co.uk/images/library/products/300/apple_m9470.jpg

right but then i have to move the express around to whatever room i want to have music in or buy another express for each room

+ move the dsl modem around too

it would just be nice if portable wi-fi speakers existed but they don't really seem to

but if you're planning on moving the speakers around then going through walls shouldn't be an issue...

ps airport express doesn't need to be attached to a modem if you're just using it for musics - just set it up as a device on your existing wireless network

oh that makes sense i guess. i just couldn't be online and playing music at the same time

unless i plugged the computer directly into the modem blah blah blah

so wait... do you currently have wifi set up?

you could buy another one! probably for a decent price on ebay.

if you're moving the speakers around, moving the airport express shouldnt be a biggie.

yah your airport express for musics doesn't replace anything youve got currently - but if you're on 802.11g you can pick uo that model used for mad cheeps

it's gonna be awesome

ok cool well i just moved my airport into the living room to use with my stereo so i get that concept now. i'll look into getting a used dealy. thanks.

i need to do this. my airport express and modem are right next to the stereo. or at least where i envision a stereo, because i still don't have one :-/

i'm just griping because we don't have any way for me to listen to music in the kitchen while i'm washing dishes. i need to get a boombox with a line-in jack and then i'll be set.

Do you have an iPod? If so, wouldn't it be easier/cheaper/simpler to get a decent portable iPod dock/speaker system? I like my Logitech mm50 speakers: very portable, decent sound, and they have a rechargable Li-ion battery so you can even take them outside for grilling or picnicking or whatever.

If you have an iPod touch or iPhone, you can use http://www.simplifymedia.com/ to stream anything from your iTunes to your phone. Also good for streaming to work computer

Not really a suggestion, but I use one of these for wireless music:

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2048/imageuploadimagezt3.jpg

There are a bunch of things like it, but the SoundBridge has digital out, so you can use whatever expensive DAC you want to go analog, if that kinda thing suits yr audiophile proclivities.

^^^ This talks to iTunes on a remote computer, so you don't actually have to be near the computer with the tunes to play music. It reads yr playlists, etc., and also does Internet radio.

I also have one of the Soundbridges and it's very nice.

that thing looks perfect, to me. does it work even if the computer isn't logged on and itunes isn't running?

Yeah, it works fine as long as it has network. Obviously you can't listen to yr iTunes music if iTunes isn't running, but there are a zillion Internet radio stations it can tune.

i really love the airport expresses. they're about $20 cheaper refurbed from apple.com, too.

this thread has inspired me!

pulled out my old 802.11g airport express and went to radio shack for a mini-to-RCA cable. Sorted. Awesome.

I have the Squeezebox which is like the above soundbridge but better (hah!).

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html

^ I have a hardon for the squeezebox duet and its insanely hawt remote (though Apple's new remote setup for iPhone/iPod Touch is now a viable alternative), but I think I'm good for at least a generation.

I'm not sure that the squeezebox has > $120 MSRP more features than the SoundBridge. Does it do WPA2? I'd (have paid) $120 more for that, perhaps.

I wish these things had a slightly better display; showing cover art would be great. I feel like I saw something that did that

I still think that, unless you want to be able to play internet radio stations in other rooms, you'll get better value for the dollar with a good portable iPod speaker/dock setup.

at about 3pm today i started installing fucking windows on my lovely iMac. (i can get a one-year licence for SPSS from the university library for £10 ... windows version only, though. "oh, yes, we used to do the mac version. but only seven people wanted it. in two years." says a lot about mac-using social scientists, that. so: needs must.)

anyway. by about 3.45pm it was done: internet access, sound and all. i am astonished by how straightforward this was. many cheers for boot camp.

NO CHEERS AT ALL for windows itself, though, which is an absolute fucking horror. i know this; i'm not sure why i'm surprised. i think it's the fact i now have it sitting being ugly on my desk. ugh.

XP or Vista?

that's nice.

what i would like, though, is that when i awitch to list view, IT REMEMBERS. WITHOUT ME DOING CMD-J FAFF.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 13:23 (1 week ago) Permalink

You have a point, TH.

― LJ OA UG IG SE RR (libcrypt), Tuesday, 14 October 2008 13:34 (1 week ago)

cannot fucking shitting believe that's still not fixed!

ugh macs

ugh windows too but crap like that is enough for me to stay happily unconverted to the way for EVER.

XP or Vista?

XP. oh, man, the woe. now, i'll admit that some of that woe was down to the fact that this was, umm, not the most, er, authentic version that's ever existed. but JESUS CHRIST, WHAT A STUPID FUCKING OS.

i think i've got it pretty much working perfectly now. but i intend to spend as little time using it as possible.

It's a dream compared to Vista. Still painful, though.

http://news.worldofapple.com/archives/2008/10/25/latest-snow-leopard-build-10a190-now-available-seed-notes/

XP is probably the best version of windows that ever existed. I rarely had any problems with it. it's the version I run in vmware fusion on my mac if I need to use windows (which is almost never)

don't get me wrong: the whole experience was substantially less painful than i probably expected it to be. still wank, mind.

why would you pirate windows so that you could run an authentic copy of a program that you could have just as easily pirated in the first place

Windows AND VMWare!

that you could have just as easily pirated in the first place

rong, trust me.

also: i have a manual and support for SPSS, which will be useful. i don't need any of that shit for windows (no, really).

Why don't you keep the manual and support and pirate the mac version and use that?

bit late now ;)

and getting an, umm, free mac version that actually works properly sounds like it's surprisingly difficult. this is a reasonable solution that's cost me £10 and a couple of hours of windows-related misery. which, i guess, is a learning experience.

rong, trust me.

I found a seeded copy of SPSS Mac 16.0.1 in the time it took this page to load. What's the problem?

getting a working licence code, from what i can tell.

http://www.codeweavers.com/about/general/press/20081027/

only works in US ffs

i don't even know what SPSS is, how do you explain that?