This site is the online companion to my book/DVD, "The Macintosh iLife '05", published by Peachpit Press and Avondale Media. If you like this site, you'll love the book and its nearly three-hour DVD-Video disc. Learn more. Have news, tips, comments, or links? Send them along! How to contact me. Get an iLife. Get your own copy of "The Macintosh iLife '05". Patronize your local bookstore or buy from Amazon for just $23.09 (34 percent off). Learn more about the book and DVD. Find out what all the buzz is about: view samples of this beautiful book and watch QuickTime excerpts from the DVD. Upcoming Appearances June 21. Apple Store, San Francisco, 6 pm June 25. Northeast Ohio Apple Corps, 9 am July 23. iLife seminar, Santa Rosa, CA Photo gallery. I love the Flickr photo sharing service; here are some recent shots. (Newsreader users: To subscribe to my photostream, drag this link into your newsreader.)

Tonight on the Radio: Digital Photography with Jeff Keller

On tonight's edition of Point & Click Radio, the weekly radio show that I co-host here in Mendocino County, CA, I'll be interviewing Jeff Keller, founder and editor of Digital Camera Resource Page, one of the most popular digital photography sites on the Web. We'll be talking about the latest cameras and trends in digital photography.

The show begins at 7 pm Pacific time, and we webcast via RealAudio. Tap into our stream at our site. (I'll probably post an archive of the interview, but I'm swamped and it may not be for a few days.)

Exclusive First Look: AirFoil Makes AirPort Express Sing (and Talk)

When Apple announced its AirPort Express base station last year, this site was the first to point out a limitation: the base station's AirTunes feature worked only with iTunes -- you couldn't wirelessly stream audio from other programs, such as QuickTime Player or RealPlayer, to the base station.

Leave it to Rogue Amoeba Software to fix that.

Today, the company shipped Airfoil, a $25 utility ($20 through March) that hijacks audio from any program and transmits it to an AirPort Express base station.

My use of the term hijack was deliberate. Rogue Amoeba (a hard pair of words to type early in the morning, I might add) is the company behind the Audio Hijack family of programs, which let you record the audio from any Mac program on your hard drive. The company has taken its audio-hijacking prowess and applied it to AirPort Express.

I couldn't be happier with the results.

I've been using Airfoil (which was called Slipstream while in development) for a while now, and I've found it a painless and reliable way to pipe audio from other programs to my stereo system. My wife listens to NPR archives on the stereo. I blast radio stations that insist on using Windows Media streaming. Airfoil doesn't care; it just works.

And it's easy. Launch Airfoil, and select your AirPort Express base station in its Remote Speakers list. Then, select the program whose audio you want to hijack. If the program is running, Airfoil quits and relaunches it. (You can avoid this step by installing the accompanying Instant Hijack utility, but it's one of those utilities that jacks into Mac OS X. I'd rather not rock that reliability boat.)

Finally, click Airfoil's Transmit button and start your audio playing. Airfoil's window even indicates whether your AirPort Express base station is connected to your stereo through an analog or optical-digital connection.



Becaus AirPort Express must buffer the audio stream, there's a delay of a second or two until you hear the audio. That makes hijacking movie or DVD audio problematic: the sound and picture will be out of sync. The Airfoil on-line help has workarounds that involve using alternative movie players that let you adjust sound/picture sync. Who cares? For me, Airfoil is all about transmitting streaming Internet audio.

And that's all there is to it. Rogue Amoeba has again filled an important niche, and filled it elegantly.

Airfoil: highly recommended.

Of course it's in the book. You'll find coverage of Airfoil, AirPort Express, and so much more in the next edition of the original Mac digital hub book. Amazon is still offering an insane 34 percent discount on The Macintosh iLife '05, which goes to press in just a couple of weeks. Almost 400 full-color pages and a 2.5+ hour instructional DVD -- for a little over twenty bucks. Pre-order your copy now.

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Really old stuff (before February 2003)

©2002-2005 by Jim Heid.