[Parky]

I don't have a name for this setup, but suggestions are welcome.

I would like to see Apple develop the following :-

A small footprint hardware device with Airport and possible Bluetooth built-in (rendezvous as well).
It would have the same decoding functionality as iTunes (updateble) and have line out connections for output to an Amplifier, etc.
There are no controls on the unit except for a power switch / light.
Maybe something like the Airport BaseStation design. These should be priced at about $299 max, as they are nothing more than a Basestation + plus the decoder bits of an iPod.

Next to contol these units you have an iPod lookalike.
It has Airport and Bluetooth for connectivity (plus rendezvous).
It does not have a hard disc.
This device is used to select one of the above base units in your home that you want to play music on, then using the thumbwheel you access your Mac's iTunes library, get the Mac to send the music digitally to the baseunit for decoding and playback.
The hand control could be sold for $199 max.

Here you have cableless digital music piped around your home (300 ft) from your digital hub.

The nice thing is off course, that you can have more than one baseunit, say one in each room, but only one control would be needed (you could have more). All you need do is select the destination baseunit and the music you want to play.

The software on the Mac (might be iTunes) can be designed to work like the iPod does by loading 32MB of music into memory in one go and them feeding that via the Airport network, this would reduce disc contention if more than one baseunit was being fed at the same time !!!

Does this sound good ?

Your iTunes library, available around the home for a starting price of say $499. Could probably be done for $399 or $299 if they wanted to.

Of course the same technology is being planned already for Mac to Mac iTunes, this is a sort of extention.

[Tristrami]

um...how about ..iDontknow?

It would be a cool-looking mystery device. But bluetoothe enabled, naturally.

[Tristrami]

um...how about ..iDontknow?

It would be a cool-looking mystery device. But bluetoothe enabled, naturally.

[tonton]

Far simpler would be my HomePod, which is simply a hard driveless, airport enabled iPod. Why would you need an extra base station?

[Parky]

I think you would need the base stations because I don't want to keep getting up to change tracks and I don't wnat wires.

If it was one unit, ie. an iPod with no hard drive but Airport instead then it would need to be used with headphones to be portable, or connected to the HiFi by cables which would make it a pain when you wanted to change tracks.

Spliting it gives you the best of both worlds. Maybe the hand controller could have a headphone socket as well, but then it;s cost goes up as it now needs the decoder hardware as well.

I thought it would be best for home where you connect to HiFi rather than use headphones, to have a 2 unit system. Baseunit and Remote.