AirPort question?

[BigBadger]

I'm not sure I get the whole Mac thing. It's always touted as something completely new, different, exciting, etc.... ad nauseum.

 

It appears that it's all just semi-compatible versions of whatever pretty much everyone else sells, and often cheaper.

 

After looking up the Airport Extreme because some new components are now "Airport Ready".... all I see is that it's just another router/switch/gateway. Am I missing something?

 

I'm not against Mac stuff. I just don't get the hype.

 

BB

[Audio_ELF]

I think you are misinterpreting the hype and mixing things up...

 

First up, yes the AirPort Extreme is a router / switch / gateway and while not bullet proof compared with the big boys, tends to be superior in performance and build and reliability to the average domestic router and easier to configure than (for example) a Cisco.

 

I would guess what you are saying as "AirPort ready" is actually AirPlay which is a method for transmitting audio via a network in a similar way to UPnP or Sonos devices.

 

As for Macs themselves - well there is a lot of debate over if they are relatively well built hardware running a superior operating system or just PC clones which are over priced and run a big brother controlled OS... That discussion started in the days of Windows 1 and will continue till Google take over the world... :-)

 

Eloise

I'm not sure I get the whole Mac thing. It's always touted as something completely new, different, exciting, etc.... ad nauseum.

 

It appears that it's all just semi-compatible versions of whatever pretty much everyone else sells, and often cheaper.

 

After looking up the Airport Extreme because some new components are now "Airport Ready".... all I see is that it's just another router/switch/gateway. Am I missing something?

 

I'm not against Mac stuff. I just don't get the hype.

 

BB

[Paul R]

An Airport Extreme is just firewall/router/wireless router/shared usb disk/printer device. It's a well built one that works reliably.

 

Have you used a Mac w/MacOS for as short a time as say, one month? If not, try it. And listen to what Eloise said, it makes a lot of sense.

 

-Paul

 

 

I'm not sure I get the whole Mac thing. It's always touted as something completely new, different, exciting, etc.... ad nauseum.

 

It appears that it's all just semi-compatible versions of whatever pretty much everyone else sells, and often cheaper.

 

After looking up the Airport Extreme because some new components are now "Airport Ready".... all I see is that it's just another router/switch/gateway. Am I missing something?

 

I'm not against Mac stuff. I just don't get the hype.

 

BB

[BigBadger]

I think you are misinterpreting the hype and mixing things up...

 

I would guess what you are saying as "AirPort ready" is actually AirPlay which is a method for transmitting audio via a network in a similar way to UPnP or Sonos devices.

 

Ah, yes, I mistakenly used AirPort over AirPlay. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

.........till Google take over the world... :-)

 

Eloise

 

Seems like that may have mostly happened...

 

But thanks for the reply/answers. I have several friends and family who use i-Stuff and while they are typically more devout and holier-than-thou, which I find mostly just entertaining, they do seem to do a few thing very well.... and spend so much more $$.

[BigBadger]

An Airport Extreme is just firewall/router/wireless router/shared usb disk/printer device. It's a well built one that works reliably.

 

Have you used a Mac w/MacOS for as short a time as say, one month? If not, try it. And listen to what Eloise said, it makes a lot of sense.

 

-Paul

 

I've only dabbled with the Macs and iStuff. I found them to be somewhat unintuitive, even the phones. Maybe I'm too long in the tooth w/PC but at least I understand them for the most part. With the Apple stuff, I was lost. No big deal... I'm just trying to learn and understand the hype and terminology.

 

As far a music reproduction and stereo equipment, I'm already somewhat committed to the PC side of things and unless something incredible surfaces on the Mac side, I'll stick with what I understand and already own.

[Paul R]

Well, I doubt you are as "long in the tooth" as I am, both with Macs and PCs as well as older personal computers. (Anyone remember C/PM? Xenix? )

 

The thing is, if you like PCs that's cool. I do like Windows more than I usually admit, and I use Windowers on a daily basis. But the Mac interface is better. Not as much better as it was say 10 years ago, but still a bit better. Witness the howls about the missing Start menu on Windows 8, and its comeback in Windows 8.1!

 

Now as for phones, with the latest 7.0 upgrade, iOS looks like Android to me. (*sigh*)

 

Point is, you won't understand Macs until you use them. It *usually* takes a Windows person about two solid weeks to get used to Mac way, and then after about another week, they love it. Some things *are* better with Windows, but the vast majority of things -well. A friend has a saying, "If you can do it at all on a Mac, it is trivially easy to do, and usually intuitive. But some things are just impossible to do on a Mac!"

 

He isn't completely right about that last part, but some things do require UNIX knowledge. Underneath that pretty Face, MacOS *is* real Unix. You can do pretty much anything.

 

-Paul

 

 

I've only dabbled with the Macs and iStuff. I found them to be somewhat unintuitive, even the phones. Maybe I'm too long in the tooth w/PC but at least I understand them for the most part. With the Apple stuff, I was lost. No big deal... I'm just trying to learn and understand the hype and terminology.

 

As far a music reproduction and stereo equipment, I'm already somewhat committed to the PC side of things and unless something incredible surfaces on the Mac side, I'll stick with what I understand and already own.

[realhifi]

Ah, yes, I mistakenly used AirPort over AirPlay. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

AirPlay is Mac's over wifi way of iDevices (or your Mac, or actually a PC running iTunes) can stream music. The AirPlay built into an AirPort Express can actually do both, it can be a wireless router and it can also hook right up to an analog or digital input on a receiver or amplifier and stream whatever you want from phone, iPad, computer, etc.