Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, iTunes
Hidden new iTunes feature: multiple speaker streaming
A commenter known only as "David" on my post about the new MiniStore in iTunes noticed a great new
feature that I'm surprised wasn't somehow worked into yesterday's keynote: multiple speaker streaming. iTunes can now
stream music to multiple AirPort Expresses, and even keep playing the music on the originating computer. Users have been clamoring for this ability since the day the AirPort Express hit store shelves, it finally shows up in a .0.2 iTunes update - and not a single peep about it? I guess not every new feature, option and button can claim a coveted keynote mention, but it's good to see you TUAW readers are on your toes when we're neck-deep in news ourselves.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Greg said 8:18AM on 1-11-2006
So what's that typo there? "Speekers" ?! wtf?
Reply
SuperDan said 8:29AM on 1-11-2006
I find this ez, yet hard to miss... Apple did not hide it, they just let it speak for its' self.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/share/
Look Near the bottom....
Reply
David said 8:36AM on 1-11-2006
You can also tag your own movies as TV Shows finally!
Reply
Andrew said 8:56AM on 1-11-2006
You need to have the latest firmware update (6.3) installed on each Airport Express for multiple speakers to work.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportexpressfirmwareupdate63formacosx.html
a
Reply
James said 9:00AM on 1-11-2006
And a commenter known only as "James" mentioned it a whole 15 hours earlier in the original iTunes 6.0.2 post...
Reply
DrWho said 9:15AM on 1-11-2006
Speekers? You can name the airport expresses whatever you want, no spell checking required!
Reply
Zeno said 9:19AM on 1-11-2006
Nice!
(I believe AirFoil 2.0 could already do that...)
Reply
Ted said 9:21AM on 1-11-2006
Whaaaaaa! That is fantastic, long overdue Steve.
Reply
K said 9:24AM on 1-11-2006
Did anyone try this out yet? Was wondering if there was a delay as in experienced with AirFoil...
Reply
Jacob Varghese said 9:26AM on 1-11-2006
Any clue on why Pixar shorts are no longer available for sale on iTunes? They have been unavailable since yesterday morning.
Reply
Kevin R said 9:38AM on 1-11-2006
I'm suprised that no-one has picked up on another major feature: convert your movies to an ipod-compatible format *within itunes*. Add any quicktime compatible format to itunes, right click and select "covert for ipod". iTunes will now convert to it an .m4v file, and add it to the library. It looks like it keeps both files in the libary. Thus you can now have a playlist with your higher-res video content for viewing on-screen, and another for synching to the ipod. Combine with the new tagging options to keep organized by content type. Not bad...
Reply
Mark said 9:44AM on 1-11-2006
THANK YOU #4 for finally explaining WHY this didn't show up in iTunes for me.
Reply
B said 10:30AM on 1-11-2006
Pretty sure this is new-automatic bookmarking of podcasts.
I noticed that I could listen to a pod cast, hit stop, go listen to some songs, and next time I double-clicked the pod-cast, it started where I left off...nifty.
Reply
Ted said 10:32AM on 1-11-2006
I have tried it, it works great with no delay. The only problem is that the volume control in iTunes controls only the volume on your PC and not on your Airport. Am I missing something or are others having this same issue?
Reply
olivier said 10:39AM on 1-11-2006
well, i experienced yesterday the MULTIPLE SPEAKER feature. but i couldn't figure how to adjust the volume level on the Airport-connected speakers.
anyone?
oh and by the way, the airport patch downloaded last week didn't solve the dropping problems at all... thanks apple for making my internet connection and speakers useless.
olivier
Reply
David Chartier said 10:50AM on 1-11-2006
Hey. Speekers was an intentional name. No making fun of my choice in AirPort Express names!
:)
Reply
Rick said 11:36AM on 1-11-2006
This is Keynote material!! The only thing I don't like is that I can adjust the volume while its set to multiple spkrs.
Reply
n8dawg87 said 11:43AM on 1-11-2006
I've had nothing but problems with 6.0.2...it hangs my powermac dual 2.3 everytime i try to transfer content to my ipod :(
Reply
Stephen Jonke said 12:01PM on 1-11-2006
I don't have an Airport Express, but can see in the preferences that there is an option to ignore the iPod volume for Airport Express "speakers". Presumably you just need to uncheck that setting in order to have the iTunes volume affect the remote speakers
Reply
Sal said 1:20PM on 1-11-2006
Can anyone explain exactly how i can now stream music to my stereo while contemporaneously listening to music on my laptop? I only have one base station, so the multiple stream function is useless to me unless I can also listen on my laptop.
--sib
Reply