Apple AirPlay vs. the World

Tweet Did you hear about the new iPods? Of course you did, it's hard to miss an event as big as Apple's September Keynote, especially when it's live streamed on Apple.com for the first time in several years. The big stories include the iPods, Apple TV, and the new features rolled out in iTunes 10 (not X as we had speculated), but an equally impressive feature is Apple's AirPlay.

AirPlay is nothing new, its the rebranding of Apple's streaming music service called AirTunes. First rolled out with the AirPort Express, AirTunes allowed users to send audio from a desktop iTunes client to a stereo system connected to the AirPort Express. Apple enhanced these features with the iPhone Remote app, allowing users to control their music from their mobile device. I've used this service many times, and found it extremely useful.

Steve Jobs explaining AirPlay on Wednesday

AirPlay is the same service bundled in to the upcoming iOS 4.2 and Apple TV releases, allowing streaming of content from any iOS 4.2 device and Mac (or a PC running iTunes). Steve Jobs showed off AirPlay by sending the video feed from his iPad directly to his Apple TV in a matter of seconds. Why is this important, and how does it affect the rest of the market? Apple plans on taking Intel's WiDi and the DLNA by offering a service that seemingly is faster and more efficient.

Several months ago I saw a demonstration of Samsung's implementation of DLNA with their ST5500 WiFi enabled camera. The demo tried to solve a simple problem, taking pictures and displaying them on a television 'instantly'. The camera took about 30 seconds to connect to the Samsung TV before it started showing the photos on the camera's memory card. The demonstration at Wednesday's Keynote showed an almost instant connection from the iPad to Apple TV.

Intel WiDi is similar to AirPlay, in the sense that it only displays the video feed from a Windows-based PC, but requires set up on the television and computer. Not all computers with Windows 7 are WiDi enabled, and a box is still required on the TV in order for it to work. Apple TV works with all iPhones, iPads and iPods running iOS 4.2, a Mac running OS X 10.6, and an Apple TV.

The change from AirTunes to AirPlay opens up the service to allow devices to send much more than music, including movies, podcasts, audiobooks and photos. Now your iPhone 4 (with HDR) can take a photo and instantly share it to your television. This is going to be a huge hit at parties, trust me.

Customer's don't want to wait to use their technology, they want it to work instantly. If AirPlay is as fast and simple as Steve Jobs claims, WiDi and the DLNA are in trouble. This could be a huge shift in the way we share content over multiple platforms. We will have a full review of the new Apple TV and AirPlay when they become available.