Real Kato Blog: Apple Watch: Airport Express

Oh, clever Apple: they've introduced the iPod for your house.

Leave it to Apple to outwit us all again.

There have been lots of people clamoring for a home media device, perhaps something like Elgato's EyeHome box; something that would link the computer to the television and stereo. Most folks figured it would be some kind of stripped-down, headless Macintosh. But we were all wrong, and we should have known.

Apple's newest creation is a $129 wireless link from the computer to the stereo. It's a tiny box that plugs into an outlet, connects to your stereo, and lets you stream music from your computer. Oh, and it also can be a printer server, or a wireless access point. (Just about the only thing it doesn't do is make toast.)

Why does this make sense? Because Apple would not want to release a home entertainment device that makes the computer unnecessary. Remember, Apple's whole "digital hub" strategy for the last several years has been to make the Macintosh the center of the entertainment universe. Apple doesn't want to supplant the computer; Apple wants the computer to be the center of it all.

So here it is: a tiny, ridiculously simple device that lets you play music from your computer to your stereo. Just like everything else, it seems so obvious, but it takes Steve Jobs to show it to us. I'll be the first to wear egg on my face and say I didn't see this coming, though I should have. Why would Apple try to sell a $500 box that only enthusiasts would buy, rather than selling a $2000 computer with a bunch of $100 peripherals? (If I had seen this coming, I might not have spent all that time putting together my Home Theater Macintosh. But then again, I have lots of spare Macs and lots of spare time, so I might have done it anyway.)

Perhaps this is a peek into the future of video, too... when bandwidth is high enough, perhaps we'll use our Macs to download TV shows and movies from the Internet, and we'll stream them wirelessly to our televisions.

One thing that we do need: a remote control for this stuff that works from anywhere in the house. Steve should know as well as anyone that we do not want to be tied to our computer when we want to turn our brains off with entertainment. If there's anything itching for a better mousetrap, it's the universal remote control. We want common tasks simplified to one button, we want buttons organized around the way we think, we want something that looks good and feels good. If my remote control worked like my iPod, I'd be a very happy guy.

Oh, and one other thing: Apple needs to convince everyone that they need a home server. My Home Theater Macintosh project has shown me that I want an always-on machine that hosts all my media files. Apple is the one company that could make a server my mom could manage. Someday, we'll all have a media server, print server, file server, web server, blog host, answering machine, fax machine, and home automation system. It'll be soon.

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