Airfoil 3

One of my favorite Apple products ever has got to be the Aiport Express. I know it isn't sexy, but AirTunes (that's what Apple calls the technology that lets you stream your music from iTunes to a stereo connected to an Airport Express) is one of the best tech inventions ever. AirTunes, despite my unholy love for it, has some drawbacks: it only works in iTunes, and it only works for audio files.

Enter Airfoil, which just hit version 3. Airfoil allows you to stream audio from any program on your Mac to an Airport Express (or multiple Airport Expresses) and keep all those streams in sync. That's not all, version 3 lets you stream audio from one Mac to another Mac that is running Airfoil Speakers (a mini app that comes with Airfoil), one upping Apple's solution. Airfoil also includes a new video player that allows you to stream audio from most video formats to Airport Expresses (or other Macs) which will make watching some of those HD trailers a much better experience.

Airfoil 3 costs $25, but is a $10 upgrade for all Airfoil 2 users (and if you bought Airfoil after July 16th, 2007 you get a free upgrade).

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Source: http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

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One of my favorite Apple products ever has got to be the Aiport Express. I know it isn't sexy, but AirTunes (that's what Apple calls the...

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VAStateOfMind

I've used Airfoil 2.0 for about 6 months and that was a solid product -- have used Airfoil 3.0 for the past several days and am REALLY enjoying the upgraded, 100% sync of audio between host Mac and Airport Express. This is an extremely reasonably priced application -- highly recommended!

January 14 2008 at 8:34 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pixelthing

Sorry, that sounded awfully demanding - Airfoil 3 looks great, I've been an airfoil user since year dot, this looks like a solid upgrade!

January 14 2008 at 4:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pixelthing

Now when the iPhone SDK goes live, I could really do with a version of Airfoil on iPhone. It would be like using a hi-fi remote that *was* the hi-fi. And we're still waiting to be able to stream from other iTunes libraries to the iPhone...

January 14 2008 at 4:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pixelthing

January 14 2008 at 4:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MartinB

1. FrontRow in 10.5 does not work with Airtunes (thru iTunes) any longer, but using Airfoil to stream "system audio" is a workaround.

2. It's always been possible to stream audio from video via Airfoil but in order to overcome the "audio-lag" you had to use a program which could shift the sync of audio and picture. With VLC you could do exactly that. However now Airfoil 3.0 comes with its own video player which does the same under the hood. It's easier than adjusting VLC and it works great.

3. The virtual Airport Express program works great too. How ever iTunes does not recognize it as such. (But you can just hijack iTunes with Airfoil to make it work.)

January 13 2008 at 4:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

R2B2

I tried installing the Airfoil Speakers app that comes with this on my hacked Apple TV, but it doesn't seem to work for me... anyone else try this or have better luck than me?

I also agree that a version of Airfoil running on the iPhone would be awesome - it would be like having one of those Sonos things only better (and cheaper). Hopefully when the real SDK appears stuff like this will be possible!

January 11 2008 at 5:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to R2B2's comment

Faxthat

I am an Airfoil 2 user. I installed Airfoil 3 to test it and then tried to go back to Airfoil 2. I've been unable to get Airfoil 2 to work since trying Airfoil 3, so if you're an Airfoil 2 user and you've tried 3 and then succeeded with 2 after the fact, please let me know.

I'm using a MacBook Pro that has been trouble-free and leopard.

January 13 2008 at 8:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

"Airfoil also includes a new video player that allows you to stream audio from most video formats to Airport Expresses (or other Macs) which will make watching some of those HD trailers a much better experience."

I don't understand this sentence. Ok, so it streams audio. How does that make "watching" any better? Or are you saying I can watch HD on my relatively teeny screen and get audio through my stereo in another room, delayed a couple seconds? I don't see the benefit of that either.

January 11 2008 at 12:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to LD's comment

nate

If you just fire up a video in QuickTime Player/etc., the audio streamed over airtunes will always be a second or two out of sync with the video. Airfoil video player ensures that the streamed audio and local video are synced.

January 12 2008 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

Think it will work with Frontrow? I just wish Airport Express would work with Frontrow on my Macbook Pro. Then that would be awesome.

January 11 2008 at 11:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Mike's comment

BKD

That's strange. My MacBook's Frontrow iTunes works with the Airport Express.

Is this thing really worth the $25? I don't quite see the full benefit of it yet. Especially since audio/video still won't sync properly.

January 11 2008 at 2:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gonzalo

It would be really great if we could use Airtunes with the iPhone or iPod Touch.

I mean stream mi iPhone's music directly to the Airport Express.

January 11 2008 at 7:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bob Thinker

Is it me or is airfoil always delayed 3 seconds when using it to watch a movie. Any way to sync the output with the video?

January 11 2008 at 4:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Bob Thinker's comment