Stream Wireless Audio Outdoors with Apple iTunes
With Summer on the horizon, and no big holidays planned for the summer break, I thought that it was time that I started planning some ideas to ramp up the pool / deck area for the festive season. Our deck is a great spot for entertaining, and an inviting space to have a drink and BBQ with friends a hot summers day. What is missing though for these idyllic occasions?, but some Music. Traditionally I have gone to great lengths to drag out the good old stereo and piles of CD’s, connect up speakers, not to mention the piles of wires lying around, just to set the scene. How-To: How do I utilise the technology that I have invested in, inside the house, outside. Thanks to Apple iTunes and Airplay, I already have wireless access to an extensive media library, however how do you bring all these good things that reside inside the house, outdoors on a budget?
Equipment Required:
Speakers – Flush Mountable Speakers
Speaker wire – In Wall Speaker Cable
Amplifier – Amphony Mini Amp 200
Wireless Access – Apple Airport Express
Speakers: Speakers are a very personal thing, however for this project, I purchased some Flush Mounted Indoor/Outdoor ceiling speakers. I have an eve that I wanted to mount the speakers under, as well as some new lighting that we want to put in down the track. By mounting the speakers under the eve, this gave me a direct access to the wall cavity to run the wires down into a cupboard where I am able to locate the Amp and Airport Express, connected via internal power.
Amplifier:
To keep the budget down, and keeping in mind storage space, I selected the Amphony Micro Fidelity Mini Amp. This amplifier has had great reviews as this is the size of a deck of cards, but pumps out a whopping 40 watts RMS per channel. Another reason for selecting this amplifier was the simple interface which allows you to set and forget. The Amplifier has an external power pack, volume dial, stereo / mono speaker inputs and an RCA (L & R) audio input.
Wireless:
Once I have the speakers connected to the Amplifier, I simply ran a ‘Mini Jack’ to ‘RCA’ cable into the Apple Airport Express, and configured the Airport so that it would talk with my existing network. The Apple Airport Express would have to be by far one of the most adaptable wireless products made to date. The Airport Express is a Wi-Fi access point / repeater that has an ethernet port, mini jack audio input and USB, so options are endless what you can achieve around your home. Once configured the Apple Airport Express will simply bridge the wireless network with your home network, and select the AirPlay option within iTunes to select the outdoor speaker configuration.
AirPlay:
AirPlay takes the music from the iTunes library on your computer and sends it wirelessly to any stereo or speakers in your home. All you have to do is plug an AirPort Express into an electrical outlet near those speakers, then connect them with an audio cable. In iTunes, you can choose which speakers you want your music to play on — in your den, living room, or bedroom. If you have more than one AirPort Express connected to speakers, you can play the same music on all your speakers at the same time to create a whole-house musical experience. Apple.
Now that all speakers and amplifier are connected to the Airport Express, all I have to do now, is to select the external speaker option within iTunes or if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can use it to control your iTunes library from any room in your home. Thanks to the Apple Remote Application, you can browse music, control volume, and configure your playlists right from within the App.
Outdoor Photos Courtesy of Livingstone Audio
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How-To Enable Multitasking Gestures:
To Enable this Option on your iPad;
1. Access the ‘Settings’ menu,
2. Tap on ‘General’,
3. Locate the ”Multitasking Gestures” option, and select On..
Note: Blogger “Cocoa Box Notes” has advised that there are known issues with Multitasking if you are using the Penultimate or other Handwriting Apps.
If required, once enabled, you can disable Multitasking Gestures at any time, by accessing the ‘Settings’ on your iPad. In the ‘General’ settings area, look for ‘Multitasking Gestures’, and disable the feature.
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For the first time, Apple users can update their IOS straight from their devices. Simply plug in your device into a power source, access the settings menu, tap on General, and then select Software Update.
Release from Apple Includes:
Fixes bugs affecting battery life
Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation
Products compatible with this software update:
iPhone 4S
iPhone 4
iPhone 3GS
iPad 2
iPad
iPod touch (4th generation)
iPod touch (3rd generation)
For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
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New Features include;
· Enhanced sign up experience
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· Updated Direct Messages design on iPad
· Tap a location on iPad to show Tweets nearby
Users will be asked to confirm their new Photo Sharing Service options, otherwise, the default will be set to Twitter.
Read More“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website. Twitter was founded in March 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp. In April 2007, Obvious, LLC spun off the service as a separate entity under the name Twitter, Inc. with Jack Dorsey as CEO”. Twitter
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