Practical Mac / Glenn Fleishman
AirPort Express, iPod show Apple can pare, not just add

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Apple Computer tends to avoid this trap by adding features while paring away at friction. Its two latest hardware revisions, the AirPort Express Base Station and fourth-generation iPod, reveal this approach by layering more on while reducing operation stress.

AirPort Express: A few weeks ago, I wrote about AirPort Express, Apple's latest Wi-Fi wireless networking addition that complements the existing AirPort Extreme lineup. The product is now shipping, and I've been testing one of these new models for a week.

AirPort Express is a lower-end version of the AirPort Extreme Base Station with a few unique twists. AirPort Express has three ports: a USB jack for printer sharing, an Ethernet port to hook it into a broadband modem, and a stereo outlet for streaming audio from iTunes. It's about the size of a power adapter, weighs under 7 ounces and plugs into a socket. An extension cord is available in a separately purchased accessories kit.

Express' unique feature is its ability to stream music controlled by any copy of iTunes (on a Mac or under Windows) running on the local network. Because there's no remote control, you'll have to use "sneakernet" to pause or change a playlist if your computer is in another room from the stereo or speakers. For laptop users, this isn't an issue.

A new piece of software, the AirPort Express Assistant, takes away the pain of configuring the unit to attach to either an existing wireless network or as an entirely new network you're setting.

The assistant presents configuration as a process, not a pile of undifferentiated settings. Each step has discrete questions that must be answered before proceeding. More advanced users can employ AirPort Admin Utility.

In testing the unit in several scenarios, I never managed to stymie the assistant. I connected an AirPort Express to my complicated office network as a stand-alone base station, as a wireless client and as a network extender for an AirPort Extreme network.

In wireless-client mode, an Express can connect to any non-AirPort Wi-Fi network wirelessly. Because of limitations in this mode, it can't route wireless traffic for computers. It can only stream music and share printers.

But if you have an AirPort Express or Extreme base station on your network already, you can opt to use the network extender to connect AirPort Express without an Ethernet cable and serve as an additional hub for wireless computers.

AirPort Express costs $129, with an extra $39 buying a set of high-quality digital fiber optic and analog audio cables, plus a swap-in electrical extension cord.
 
Shipments are backlogged a few weeks from the 80,000 pre-orders Apple reported. Online stores seem in short supply, but the local retail Apple Stores are receiving stock, which is quickly sold out.

AirPort Extreme had its price dropped a few weeks ago. The AirPort Extreme Card, the internal Wi-Fi adapter for Macs, is now $79. The full-featured base station with built-in modem is $199.

New iPods: The iPod's latest incarnation has just a few new features, but it's remarkable how elegant it looks and feels compared with what was a revolutionary first-generation design.

The original iPod seems large, slow, loud, heavy and clunky compared with the latest model.

Apple had such a positive response from the click-wheel built into the iPod Mini for reasons of space that it erased the four counter-intuitive buttons on the full-sized iPod in favor of a click-wheel.

Each of the cardinal directions has a function when you click down: menu, rewind/back, fast forward/advance, and pause/play. These new iPods can be operated in one hand using just your thumb, and you don't have to look at the dial to know what you're pressing.

Apple cleaned up the iPod's interface a bit, too, adding a simpler way to access music directly, and putting audiobooks in their own second-tier category alongside albums, artists and genres.

A popular feature added in recent iPod software was the On-the-Go playlist. You add songs via the iPod to this playlist by holding down the center selection button with an album or song selected. However, the On-the-Go list was deleted when you synchronized your iPod with a Mac.

The revised On-the-Go lets you save the playlists you create. You can also delete songs from the list in progress.

Apple kept the low end of the price the same. A $299 iPod now includes a 20 gigabyte hard drive. The $399 model includes the freestanding Dock and a 40 GB drive.

Glenn Fleishman writes the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications.

Send questions to gfleishman@seattletimes.com

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