Forget Apple's AirPlay - it's Windows 8 you want, says speaker maker
First Windows 8 Play To streaming speaker ships
Rather a lot of speakers are touting their support for Apple’s AirPlay Wi-Fi hosted audio streaming technology, but here’s one designed for Windows fans.
The Audio Aris is, says creator Aperion, the first Windows 8 certified speaker. It too operates over Wi-Fi, being fed from a Windows PC, tablet or smartphone using the source’s Play To... command.
As a speaker, the Aris packs in six drivers, four of which are powered, the remaining two are passive, rear-facing bass units. The Aris pumps out 100W of total power, and includes three audio adjustments: bass boost, stereo enhancement and the sound as is.
Round the back of the 369 x 163mm unit is a slot for the Aris’ wireless card, which also delivers compatibility with a given streaming technology. So if you don’t want to use Windows streaming, you can slot in an AirPlay-compatible card instead.
Not yet though: the AirPlay card isn’t out yet. It’ll ship in the autumn of 2012 or the spring of 2013, depending on which part of Aperion’s Aris FAQ you look at.
But since either card also uses DNLA and UPnP, you can always stream that way if you have a Mac, iPad or iPhone to stream from.
The Aris costs $499 (£310). While Aperion doesn’t deliver direct to the UK, it suggests folk outside the States set up an account with MyUS.com, which will accept a delivery from the company and forward it on to an international address at the cost of a $10 set-up fee, an extra 5-10 per cent of the transaction cost and the delivery price. ®
COMMENTS
You do know that Windows 7/8 actually just use DLNA right? Unlike Apple, Microsoft aren't creating a new standard here they have just added a 'Windows' certification on top of DLNA to verify that the device is DLNA compliant and supports a minimum set of codecs.
Is that stand made out of recycled coat hangers?
"pumps out 100W of total power"
RMS or some fake PMP crap?
Hello!? Standards!?
Or alternatively you could use the bluetooth standard and hook any phone into any speakers using a small bluetooth audio adapter.
I don't really get this "let's all make our own proprietary wireless audio systems" thing.
There just needs to be a standard for this sort of thing. Imagine if you couldn't plug your bluray player into the TV unless they were the same brand?
If fanboy geeks refused to buy any of this tech until it was an official standard then the world would be a better place.
There is.
There is a standard, and Microsoft are following it. "Play To" is simply a subset of DLNA, A Windows system's Play To functionality is simply it acting as a DLNA DMC, and a "compatible" speaker/amp/tv/whatever for Play To is simply one which can function as a DLNA DMR. There's nothing unstandardized about either of these.
This is really no different to the various "technologies" used by TV/blu-ray device makers for unified remote control, Samsung's Anynet+/Sony Bravia Sync/Sharp Aquos Link/LG Simplink etc etc are all just CEC under different names.
