Airplay is not coming

Where do you buy decaf toast though? Is it the same shop where Philp goes for his coffee?

You guys, you've made my night. Laugh?  I was close to needing the sellotape.... sorry, I meant sticky back plastic.....  no, I meant other brands are available.....I think.....but only in my humble opinion...... obviously. PRAT coffee, it'll knock the spots off a civet.

AndyPat, if your household appliances dealer told you the dualit is going to get airplay I'm very disappointed. Technically it would require a major redesign as the toaster was designed for operating temperatures in excess of what airplay can provide (airplay goes as high as 44 degrees C, whereas the dualit requires at least 196 degrees C to function near capacity. Your dealer should know this.

Goon, I will give it a try but all my coffee is on the NAS and it looks like it's crashed. Coffee's on the ground all over the place. Days like these I'm longing for old manual coffee makers, sure you had to get up and replace filters every 30 minutes but the taste was good (more analogue tasting). I still have all my old filters in the garage somewhere!

+1

I'd like Airplay. but I'd like even more to be able to upgrade my Naim player without the need to buy a Windows PC - it just not something I would ever use for anything else and I'd be buying software from a company that do not deserve my custom - so please lets have computerless upgrades. 

Not much to ask ... surely. 

Guy

If we are honest streamer/DACs are mini computers are they not?... and require some bespoke software to function. Taking Naim as an example...AHEM we have a less than encouraging history of software/firmware evolution.

Linn was clever in offering their software kernel as 'open source' and concentrating significantly more engineering resource ( from what I hear ) to developing the replay kernel as they learnt more about digital filter design etc. They also found the time to write 'Songcast' which is their free version of Airplay which meets the criteria you mention above as realistically as can be expected.

Of course that is not an easy solution for a Naim owner, but as far as this discussion is concerned makes the point that it is a quite doable option if Naim wanted to make an effort.

regards

Geoff

What I really meant to say before this dreadful forum software confused my iPad was that Airplay integration is a bit of a red herring. It doesn't add any real functionality but it does provide the marketing guys with another logo to add to the spec list.

Naim don't need it to sell their products so I suppose they will think twice about using it.

It does have one advantage over UPnP - it wasn't designed by a committee and so has clearly defined and enforced standards. UPnP by contrast is a mess of versions, standard and protocols often adapted or ignored by companies that implement it.

There is nothing wrong with UPnP but it is about time someone got a grip and redefined it.

Tog 

Not forgetting that Linn dropped its cd players; support for a number of products; has less enjoyable sound, costs more, looks worse (all only in my humble opinion of course); and crucially only has songcast working on Windows 7, not XP nor Vista, nor 32 bit Macs.  So it's certainly doable, just not very easy when you've committed yourself to supporting old customers and new and you don't want any of them having to go through the interminale updates/bug-fixes routine of either Apple or Microsoft. Sorry did I say bugs, I meant system features. Not to mention the cost of OS upgrades, redundant hardware and now completely unaffiliated mobile OS developments.

Set of work-shy, partisan, I'm all right jack, stack 'em high-flog 'em cheap, profit mongers really. If you think about it....... in a drug-induced.......... or self-delusional............ or want everything yesterday state of mind. Obvious really!

Andy

Who was it said "You can please all of the people some of the time, or some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time"? 

At a recent 'Future of HiFi' event I was told by Naim that Airplay support will be introduced. I will paraphrase as best as I can:

Naim are working with Apple to make sure that the Airplay licensing process (and any other Apple licensing) is followed correctly, for that reason the timescale is under the control of Apple and not Naim. As soon as this process is complete it will be released. Without following the correct procedure there is a risk to the future of Naim as a result of any legal case that Apple may wish to bring. It is thought that some other HiFi manufactures have left themselves exposed to this risk. Apple have not brought any legal cases against those companies as yet but sooner or later they will.

Gav

If you want Airplay then buy an Airport Express for £80.

I honestly find Airplay very useful myself with an Apple TV2, iPad, iPhone, etc....it's not cutting edge sound but very convenient.

Jay 

Are you sure about that? The number of people with iPods/iPhones, and so music in iTunes, but no clue about NAPs or UPnP is going to be quite high I would've thought. Isn't that the market Naim are aiming for with the lifestyle-y Uniti products?

Simon

@gav111n: Now THAT are some great news. And it correspondents with an email from Naim: "We have to negotiate with Apple". Then lets wait and see.

@all other wannabe advisers: Of course I already own an Airport Express and know about this possibility. But what it it that makes Apple so successful? An oeko-system of its own where everything works with everything. And that is exactly what I want for hi-fi as well. I don't want any devices in between just to add Airplay functionality. So let's wait for Apple and Naim coming to an agreement and then I will immediately buy a Unitiqute because I also don't have a F..... windows-PC but a fantastic MacBook Air instead and therefore am not able to do updates via windows (in german we say "windoof" what means stupid windows!

Quite the charmer aren't you.....

@jay: How would you feel hearing the same clever idea all over again: Buy an Airport Express...Really? Oh! Is it a future development? No, it already exists since 7 years and other members have already posted that 1000 times in other threads. C'mon...that's just annoying.

My point is/was that you are/were plainly rude. You might be annoyed but that's no excuse to be an idiot when you're asking advice...

Why do you post on a forum then, if you can't handle well meant advice?

Someone's just hacked Airplay onto the $25 Raspberry Pi - google "Airplay Raspberry" to see - almost before it's launched. Maybe Naim should find out who did it and offer him a job! It just cannot be difficult to do this stuff, though perhaps, to be fair, it is all the legalities that take the time.

I know I, for one, will never again return to that disaster area called Windows.  I did try dual booting with my iMac using Win 7.  Returning to Lion was such a relief.  I am no computer guru, but even I can find things on my Apple devices.  I estimate it is around fifteen years ahead of Windows. 

Windows?  You must be joking. What a mess. Compared to the polished and so easy to use and find my way around Apple Lion software, win7 is awful. That any intelligent person chooses it is beyond my comprehension.  Just trying to find my way around Control Panel was a lesson in patience and irritation. A geek's paradise maybe, but a normal user?  Never!  I never did find a way to vary the screen brightness. (on my MB it is on the keyboard). Likewise, if I connect an external drive it appears on the Desktop, no need to open My Computer to see if it has connected. There are a zillion other little niggles, but you get the picture. 

But why would I choose to go backwards?  I have my MB which runs iTunes faultlessly and connects without incident via USB to my Northstar DAC (I would choose the nDAC except it is not able to handle LPCM).  

Why would I leave Apple which just works, for that disaster area that you constantly parade as if it were the last word in reliability and sophistication.  

I love the Naim sound, but not sufficient to return to Hell on Earth using uPNP and a PC. Remember, I have trodden that route once, never again.

Peace.

Richard

Richard,

I understand your disappointment with Windows, because I had the same disappointment when I tried to switch to MacOS. I purchased the Macbook Air for its quality hardware, but never managed to find my way around for even basic functions. I installed and running Windows on this MBAir now and I am so happy! We should just accept that these are two OS for two different kind of people with different habits and mind-patterns, and just try to respect each other.

Aysil, that is interesting, I too struggle with Lion, looks flash but awkward from usability other than for trivial tasks - for me anyway. I love Win7, it really has come of age, no bling and it just works, been a painful journey with MS but they are getting there...

So

How did you load win7 on your MacBook Air, I might be tempted to do the mod here..

Simon

Choosing Windows over MacOS - like preferring "One Direction" to "Neil Young" 

and before I upset anyone with a nervous disposition - its a lovely sunny Sunday morning and I'm making my way through "Everyone knows this is nowhere"

UPnP is doing its job...

Tog

I find Mac OS X very easy to use - it just works 

What are the things you'd like to do with OS X that are causing problems?

You can use AppleScript and a bit of Unix shell to do most things automatically if they are not already there. 

You can run most open source programs through the Darwin Ports programme.

There are lots of great software packages around for it. 

Yes technically, I prefer the Amiga, but in the end it is about applications and Apple provides all the apps I need. 

If it runs on Windows only then I simply can't run it and so I look for something else. 

I don't like being forced to use Win7 for work and now they have even stopped me using my iPad in preference - probably you know who threatened to send the boys round  - oh no not again. 

I have also been a Windows-PC user for 11 years. In September last year I bought a MacBook Air in order to switch to MAC OS X. I can say that I am more than thankful for being freed from Windows. I could write Apple a letter of admiration every day. They made me having fun working with computers again. MAC OS X is lightyears ahed of windows. And if windows wasn't the leading OS then MAC OS X would be the clear no. 1 from a blank start anyway. IMHO...

Simon, I am using Bootcamp. I've found a number of interesting articles on this on ZDnet:

windows-7-on-the-macbook-air-dont-go-there

windows-7-on-a-mac-my-boot-camp-survival-guide

revisiting-windows-7-on-macbooks

...