Forgive me for this post. I'm not an avid Apple fanboy or supporter, but in this instance I believe you might have missed the point of the new Apple Airport Express.
I saw it come out and I knew immediately that I was going to get one. I have never purchased one before, but now that it's been redesigned and is less intrusive, I believe it fits in exactly where I want it to - as a wireless roaming AP that will also serve up my music to my home theater system.
To use this as a router - yes, I agree with you, it's really not for that and lacks lots of features. I am surprised they didn't have gigabit ports for one. That would have been a really nice feature.
But to use this as a supplemental wireless AP to also to do what it was intended to do - extend airplay to any 3.5" minijack device - is where this product really shines.
Another thing I have noticed with Apple wireless APs - they are stable and fast. Maybe not the fastest in the most ideal conditions, but they get the job done very painlessly. No fumbling with open source firmwares, no relying on the companies' firmware updates. They work out of the box (one of the few things Apple makes that truly does). For wireless, they should be what every manufacturer strives to provide. For features, well, like I said, they lack.
To reiterate, Apple is not my favorite company. I deplore most of what they do with their products - making it extremely simple for the user instead of letting the user decide how to use a product.
But in this case, simple is definitely better. You plug it in, you plug in an audio cable, and it's sending music to your device in minutes.
I can't even configure a USB drive in another vendor's router in that amount of time.
Thank you.
I saw it come out and I knew immediately that I was going to get one. I have never purchased one before, but now that it's been redesigned and is less intrusive, I believe it fits in exactly where I want it to - as a wireless roaming AP that will also serve up my music to my home theater system.
To use this as a router - yes, I agree with you, it's really not for that and lacks lots of features. I am surprised they didn't have gigabit ports for one. That would have been a really nice feature.
But to use this as a supplemental wireless AP to also to do what it was intended to do - extend airplay to any 3.5" minijack device - is where this product really shines.
Another thing I have noticed with Apple wireless APs - they are stable and fast. Maybe not the fastest in the most ideal conditions, but they get the job done very painlessly. No fumbling with open source firmwares, no relying on the companies' firmware updates. They work out of the box (one of the few things Apple makes that truly does). For wireless, they should be what every manufacturer strives to provide. For features, well, like I said, they lack.
To reiterate, Apple is not my favorite company. I deplore most of what they do with their products - making it extremely simple for the user instead of letting the user decide how to use a product.
But in this case, simple is definitely better. You plug it in, you plug in an audio cable, and it's sending music to your device in minutes.
I can't even configure a USB drive in another vendor's router in that amount of time.
Thank you.