AirPort Express for the summer

Amy just got back from a trip to Syracuse. While she was down there, I asked her to pick me up an AirPort Express at the Apple store. I could have ordered it online, but even with the Nortel EPP discount it was still more expensive than buying it in the states. Argh! Anyways, Amy was kind enough to buy it for me and smuggle it back into Canada. :)

Funny side story about Amy's experience in buying this thing for me: She went into the store with a printout of the webpage I had sent her to show her what to pick up. She said, "I have no idea what this is, but do you have these?" and showed the guy the printout. His eyes lit up and he responded with, "Yes, and it does everything you could want it do!" To which Amy replied, "You mean it'll vacuum and clean my house for me?!" The guy sadly didn't get the joke.

Anyways, I've unboxed it, plugged it in and tried it out. It's frickin' awesome! The only reason I bought it was for the 'air tunes' or iTunes music streaming - the plan being to have an easy way to pipe music to the back yard for when the deck is built (or being built I guess). True, I could have just used my old squeezebox but this thing integrates so seemlessly with iTunes that I just couldn't resist. Instead of having to use a web interface to control the squeezebox, I can use iTunes on any of my computers (including the new MacBook that is on the way) and I get all the great features like Party Shuffle! The other great thing is that iTunes allows you to output to both the airport express AND the local computer simultaneously which means I wont have to miss any tunes if I go from inside to out or vice versa. Awesome! I've only played with it very briefly so far, by using the speakers I've got plugged into the iMac, but I'll be heading to future shop sometime in the next few days to pick up a set of speakers (and subwoofer) to be used exclusively with this thing. I did a quick check and it looks like I can get a decent set for like $40 so... I'm psyched!