Why I'm skipping AirPlay

I use Plex for streaming from my Mac to my iOS Devices. I have the Plex Server running anyways, and using the Music iTunes Plugin which is coming with Plex, there is no better way to do it. And even if you set up Plex to work through the Internet, you can stream your Music to your iPhone/iPad wherever you are....

So to summarize:

Useful stuff you could do already, unrelated to Airplay:
1. stream video from iTunes on your Mac to your Apple TV: useful to watch iTunes video content on your TV

Useful stuff you could do already, now called Airplay:
2. stream audio from iTunes on your Mac to Airport Express speakers (formerly Airtunes): useful to listen to music around the house

Useful stuff Airplay adds:
3. stream video from your iOS device to your Apple TV: useful when you start to watch on iPad and then continue on TV, or when a friend comes over with movie on his iPad
4. stream audio from your iOS device to Apple TV or Airport express w/ speakers connected: useful when you start to listen to audio on your iOS device and then continue when you get home, or when a friend comes over and you want to listen to her audio.

Useful stuff you can't do with Airplay, but can with other apps:
5. Stream video from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad: useful to watch odd-format video at home or on the go - get Airvideo
6. Stream audio from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad - useful to listen to your music on the go - get Audiogalaxy

So any streaming option is available.
Airplay covers 3 out of 6, and 2 of them are new.

This is quite a silly article indeed.

Ignoring the good stuff from Airplay, because it doesn't contain a feature to circumvent your hardware problems.

What you really need is a working Airport Express to connect to your home stereo, stream from your iTunes Library, and use your iPhone as a remote.

Get a working Airport Express.
Don't blame Airplay.

You can use plex media server. Stream on your phone a lot more than just your music!!!

AirVideo, Stream To Me, ZumoCast, Orb. The last three handle video and audio, the former, only video. You could check out reviews of them, or just buy all three and still barely have spent the equivalent of two drinks at Starbucks.

The author is wrong, in that he's being absurd in being upset that he might have to buy a $2 app for something (the rest of us are THRILLED that we can do wonderful things like this, for $2). He's also wrong for the disturbing cock fighting picture, which he refuses to acknowledge in the comments... just own up dude, it was in bad taste... seriously!

Some people asked why you wouldn't just use a stereo, or sync to the iOS device in the first place. I use Stream To Me (seems the fastest with large libraries, although I own all four). Sometimes late at night I want to hear something that's:

1) A podcast that's newer than when I last synched. I could download it via iTunes on the iPad or iPod Touch, but why, I already have it locally.

2) A song that isn't synched. I have over 100gb of music/podcasts. I have the 64gb iPad, but sometimes what I want wasn't there.

3) A video that isn't synched, or perhaps isn't even in the proper format.

All of the above products will transcode non-MPEG-4 video into MPEG-4 streams, resampling the size on the fly to fit your available bandwidth. I haven't used Orb, in awhile since the version I had was discontinued, and never made universal), but the others all know when you are on the same LAN via WiFi, and will send data locally (not over the Internet), and at a higher bitrate, it's actually quite good video in this scenario. All are passable over 3G from remote locations.

It's very handy to have, especially late at night with headphones plugged in so as not to disturb my wife.

The author is right, in that, there's a use case. He's wrong in that there's no solution. Apple doesn't need to cater to every use case, there's an app for that is a motto for a reason. Half the people who want this feature probably stream MKVs off the Internet, anyway, and wouldn't be served by an Apple-branded solution, since no doubt it would continue not to support the container of choice by piraters everywhere.

I thoroughly agree with Victor. What's the problem with being able to pick up your iTunes library on your mobile iOS device and be able to watch video or listen to the full music. In fact, this makes as much sense as being able to stream from your device to the Apple TV - if not more sense. How often will you have movies and music that is exclusive to your mobile device and not present in your main iTunes library? Also, a lot of users will have expanding libraries going into 100GB and above, beyond the capacity of the devices. These devices are synced quite regularly after all. Maybe if you had video you shot with your iPhone you could stream and view it straight away - but, this is another feature strangely absent from the initial release of Airplay.

I was hoping Airplay would enable me to use my iPhone as an optional screen (all be it small) if I wanted to just kick back and watch or listen to my iTunes content if my iMac and TV were already in use (happens a lot at our house) or if I just fancied lounging around in bed (no TV or music player in the bedroom) or maybe even outside during the summer.

AirPlay is pretty cool... but since I, like many, have decided to plump for a Mac mini in preference to an tv, its use is limited... I don't care too much about streaming /to/ my iOS devices, but I would really like to be able to stream music and video /from/ my iOS devices /to/ my Mac mini, and hence my sound system, without having to stump up an additional £99 for the privilege.

AirPlay is pretty cool... but since I, like many, have decided to plump for a Mac mini in preference to an tv, its use is limited... I don't care too much about streaming /to/ my iOS devices, but I would really like to be able to stream music and video /from/ my iOS devices /to/ my Mac mini, and hence my sound system, without having to stump up an additional £99 for the privilege.

try zumocast... the app does everything you'd wish Airplay would

Um, it's called ZumoCast, and it'll let you stream from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad anywhere, any time as long as you have 3G or Wifi. And it'll stream videos. This is kind of a non-issue.