Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
Kirk Alexander

The Alexanders

Kirk, Veronica, and Evan


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AirPlay Speakers

Airplay is a relatively new technology from Apple that allows you to stream music, video, and photos from your iTunes library, ipad, or iphone to speakers and stereo components that are AirPlay enabled.  Apple features it here http://www.apple.com/itunes/airplay/

A good friend asked me what AirPlay speakers he should use to carry out to the patio.  While there are no high-scoring permanent outdoor AirPlay speakers, I recommended some that he could take in and out when he uses them.

Best reviews:
B&W Zeppelin
Bang and Olufson Beolit 12

Looked interesting to me:
Russound Outdoor Speaker  (but you need your own airport express)
Klipsch Gallery G-17  (but no handle)

I consider AirPlay to have one critical achilles heel.  It only allows you to play iTunes content.  

I'm a big fan of Pandora, discovering Spotify, and want to occasionally stream internet radio streams (KROQ Alternative Station in Los Angeles).  None of these can be done reliably with an AirPlay network.  For that reason, I sparingly use AirPlay and I am considering replacing my whole house audio with Sonos. Take a look at them. Rave reviews from everyone I've heard.  If I do, I'll put a review here. 

(download)

Movies on the Road

Trying an experiment on the road.

IF our condo has:
1.  An HDMI input on the TV
2.  A wired internet connection

THEN we'll have more movies than we need... I'm going to bring:
- Airport Express
- Laptop
- AppleTV 
- External portable hard drive
- Ethernet Cable
- HDMI Cable

1. Load up the movies on the external drive
2. Get iTunes on the laptop to recognize the movies
3. Hook up the Airport Express to create a wireless network
4. Wirelessly stream the movies from the laptop to the AppleTV

We should be able to stream rental movies from Apple, and all the movies I bring on my external hard drive.
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