iHome iW1 with AirPlay: Beatweek Best of Show 2011

iHome is attempting to make Apple’s AirPlay sound good with its new iW1 wireless stereo system. The $299 standalone speaker unit is designed to receive wireless streaming audio from iOS 4.2-enabled devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The iW1 is also wireless when it comes to power, as it contains a built-in rechargeable battery and a handle so that it can be picked up and carried around the house. Although iHome informed us that the iW1 is still in the testing stages and that the current audio quality of the CES prototype is not indicative of the quality of the finished product, we can confirm that it already sounds better than so many other wireless speaker systems we’ve tested in this price range in the past, many of which have the audio of a $50 stereo system. In contrast, the iW1 sounds like it’ll be worth its price when it ships later this year. And based on our hands-on experiences with the iW1, the AirPlay interaction is indeed drop-dead simple. iHome is also readying less expensive iW2 and iW3 models to go alongside the iW1 when the time comes.

We’re taking a slight leap of faith in that the finalized iW1 will sound like we expect it to, based both on where the product’s audio quality is already, and on iHome’s well earned reputation when it comes to audio quality. As such, the iHome iW1 (and its iW2 and iW3 counterparts) are Beatweek Best of Show winners at CES 2011.

CES 2011: iHome iW1 with iPad-iPhone AirPlay cuts power cord as well

iHome is attempting to make Apple’s AirPlay sound good with its new iW1 wireless stereo system. The $299 standalone speaker unit is designed to receive wireless streaming audio from iOS 4.2-enabled devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The iW1 is also wireless when it comes to power, as it contains a built-in rechargeable battery and a handle so that it can be picked up and carried around the house. Although iHome informed us that the iW1 is still in the testing stages and that the current audio quality of the CES prototype is not indicative of the quality of the finished product, we can confirm that it already sounds better than so many other wireless speaker systems we’ve tested in this price range in the past, many of which have the audio of a $50 stereo system. In contrast, the iW1 sounds like it’ll be worth its price when it ships later this year. And based on our hands-on experiences with the iW1, the AirPlay interaction is indeed drop-dead simple. iHome is also readying less expensive iW2 and iW3 models to go alongside the iW1 when the time comes.

Xserve cancellation can’t be the end of Apple server storage story

Apple has unceremoniously whacked its Xserve server hardware, bringing to a close Apple’s attempts at making a dent in the server market – or so one might be tempted to think. The most obvious reason for a cancellation is that a product isn’t selling well, and that may well have been the case with the Xserve. But it served a niche, particularly among those businesses which preferred to be one hundred percent Macintosh based as opposed to having to use a Windows or Linux file server in an otherwise all-Mac house. And if nothing else, Xserve sales had to have been enough to at least cover the cost of the minimal continued development costs for a product which had mostly been designed out of spare Mac hardware parts anyway. The only way Apple flat-out kills the Xserve is if it’s because it was standing in the way of something bigger, whether it be a product or a strategy. And that’s where the fun begins.

There’s that massive data farm Apple has been building, which hasn’t gotten a whole lot of press, mainly because no one this side of Steve Jobs even knows what it’s really for. And then there’s Apple’s sudden interest in hardware sharing with its new consumer features such as AirPlay. None of these pieces quite fit when one attempts to explain why Apple would kill off its lone rack server product at a time when plenty of Apple business customers have already grown to rely on the product – but there has to be an explanation coming which, one way or another, will reveal the Xserve to have been either irrelevant to, or flat-out in the way of, Apple’s grander plans in this arena.