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Average Joe's Tips

How to use Apple’s AirPlay Feature

What is AirPlay?

AirPlay is a great way to stream your music through a set of speakers or through a home stereo, and in some cases, stream a video from your iOS device, Mac or PC. Apple currently sells two products that support this feature, the Apple TV & Airport Express. Apple does license the feature so that third-party developers may support products with it and I will briefly mention it, but today we are going to cover the apple products.

AirPort Express

The AirPort Express is known as a wireless router. It is nice and compact, perfect for apartments, dorms, or just extending part of a room in your home. It works seamlessly with the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule as an extension, but you should have no problems with other routers. Depending on your setup, you would probably not want to use this as your main router in your home. Reason being it has one Ethernet port. You will only be able to put a line in from you ISP and broadcast wirelessly, but if you are running a home network and have devices that you would want to plug in with Ethernet, tough luck. However, the express is equipped with 5.0 GHz wireless N that is capable up to 300 Mbps, although this will not work with your iPhone or iPad, if you only have wireless N devices in your home, it is an ideal solution. The last limitation to this is it only allows up to 10 devices to be connected to it. The AirPort express features a USB port that is not capable of sharing a USB drive rather a USB printer. If you have a Mac, adding the printer is a breeze. For Windows users, you will have to install the Bonjour software off the Apple website, or with the included CD (download the Latest off apple’s website). But, once Bonjour is installed, it’s a piece of cake.

How does this fit with AirPlay? The AirPort express uses a 3.5 mm aux jack to output audio into a receiver, or just a simple speaker. Once your device is plugged in, connected to your network, and setup properly, you are ready to begin streaming your music to your device. With the Apple AirPort Express, you can even turn your home into a wireless audio system. See our article on how AirPlay an AirPort Express to beat Sonos.

Apple TV

The Apple TV is a set top that must be set up with a TV. It features and aux port through the red and white analog ports, although if you are planning on using this system, you will probably want to use the HDMI out port. Another feature is the ability to beam a streaming video in some applications on your iOS device, directly to the Apple TV, and watch them on the big screen. For more details on the Apple TV, check out our full article about it covering it’s high’s and low’s.

Apple Remote

Apple does a great job with integrating their products together. From the App Store, download the Apple Remote app and you will be able to control your iTunes Library to blast the music to your speakers.

Third Party Products

Briefly, Apple currently only allows AirPlay audio streaming to companies to use for their products, such as DENON. Certain network receivers from Denon can be upgraded for $50 over the Ethernet port, to allow AirPlay to be enabled. This will allow you to stream directly to your receiver, without the need for any other products.

After the integration of the AirPlay API in the iOS SDK, developers from Pandora and Rdio are able to let users use their app and play music directly to Airport devices around the house.

Bowers & Wilkins and JBL are also creating products that are built for AirPlay. Soon for a pretty penny, you can purchase devices that will already have the built in functionality of receiving music.

If you are interested to stream with AirPlay, the AirPort Express is your best deal. For it’s price and functionality, it works more than a simple AirPlay streaming device, and is a worthy companion to any home network.

 

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News

How To: Find an iPad 2 Nearest You!

How do you find an iPad 2? There are many different ways. You can stand in line in front of an Apple Store and hope that they have some in stock, you can order one online at the Apple Online Store, or you can look for resellers and hope they have some available. iPad 2 delays have made it very difficult to get your hands on an iPad 2. There is also some good news. The shipping times for the Apple Online Store have dropped to “Ships: 1-2 weeks”. That is a big improvement from the “Ships: 4-5 weeks”. You can also use the iPad2 Scanner. The iPad2 Scanner can help you find an iPad 2 at a Target store. It is fairly straight forward. Just put your zip code, pick your desired model, and click Scan. It should come up with a list of Target stores nearby and will tell you if the iPad 2 you selected is available. I would still recommend ordering your iPad 2 online because it only takes 1-2 weeks to ship and the shipping is free. You also get to engrave your iPad 2 for free, so I think it is a better bargain. Good luck on your search for an iPad 2!

Feel free to leave a comment.

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News

Its Live: Portal 2 for Mac via Steam

If your a game fanatic and you own a Mac, today is one of the best days. After seeing the Portal 2 Press teasers, it’s finally live via Steam. Portal 2 is a unique puzzle-shooter blend that is unlike any other games on the market. Portal 2 boasts single and multiplayer modes that enable two players to work together in different challenges.

Portal 2 is currently $49.99 and can be downloaded through the Steam client.

Before you purchase Portal 2, make sure your Mac meets the system requirements. The minimum requirements are as follows:

  • Mac OS X 10.6.7 or higher
  • Intel Core Duo 2GHz or better
  • 2GB of RAM or greater
  • 7.6GB of available disk space
  • ATI Radeon 2400/ NVIDIA 8600M/ Intel HD 3000 or higher

Remember, the better computer will yield a more pleasing game experience.

Categories
News

The white iPhone 4 will arrive this spring

The white iPhone 4, which was supposed to be released in June 2010, has been confirmed to be released this spring. The delay was caused by the leakage of light through the glass plate and onto the camera sensor. Apple declined to comment about the companies that would be the carriers for the white iPhone 4, but Bloomberg reported that both AT&T and Verizon Wireless would get it. It is also highly probable that the iPhone 5 will be delayed.

This wasn’t the first time that there was a problem with the iPhone. There were also issues with the antenna causing reception problems. Apple needs to get on the ball. Nobody is happy when there are delays. Punctuality is very important. If people are waiting for the iPhone and it doesn’t come out in time, then they will end up buying a different phone. Are you going to buy the white iPhone 4 or wait until the iPhone 5 comes out?

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Reviews

Time to Change That Wallpaper

“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” -Oscar Wilde

Customization goes hand-in-hand with the iPad. One of the easiest changes to make is your wallpaper. The iPad ships with 30 wallpaper images. Your photo library can also act as a wallpaper library, but unless your library is full of abstract art or fancy nature photos, your pictures wouldn’t come close to the packaged wallpapers.

Lucky for you that there are a host of websites available for downloading iPad wallpaper. For free. Even luckier for you, I took a gander at five of them to help you find that perfect wallpaper.

1. iPad Wallpapers HD By far this site has the largest selection. They have a huge bank of Apple logo images, illustrations, and photography. They also have a large selection of “women wallpapers.” You can register with the site if you want to give your own hand at making wallpapers.

2. iPad Wallpapers This site has a good selection of pictures to choose from, though the  page looks cluttered with its wallpaper selection jumbled in with ads. They even have a link to some apps, though none of them have anything to do with wallpaper, nor do they look interesting. Make sure to click the link on the left menu for the wallpapers, and not on the top (more ads).

2. iPad Wallpaper.org The categories here range from 3D to Sports. The site has some Apple logo wallpapers, as well as some cool nature pictures.

4. noupe This site had a blog entry that included the “55 Beautiful Apple iPad Wallpapers.” Certainly a tall claim, but they seem to live up to it. They have awesome pics of Iron Man and Thor.

5. Designrfix You thought the best 55 wallpapers was great? How about the top 70+? Kind of makes you wonder why they can’t just do the top 100, but meh. Anyways, the majority of the graphics will blow your eyes away.

Once you’ve downloaded that perfect picture to your iPad, setting it as your wallpaper is simple:

  1. Click on the Settings app, and select Brightness and Wallpaper.
  2. Select Wallpaper and then choose Saved Photos.
  3. Once you choose your picture, it will show as a full screen preview.
  4. Finally, select whether you would like the wallpaper to be for the Lock Screen, the Home Screen, or both.

Whether you want to pay homage to Apple with a cool logo design, admire a picturesque nature scene, or stare at a bikini model, there are many options out there for you.

Of course, if you’re as much a fanboy as I am, you’ll most likely drift back to the packaged wallpapers once the novelty wears off.

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