Personal Tech: Free your Music

So, for the most part, this newsletter is pretty much focused on business technology. But, we know that computers are used for personal use too, and so sometimes we find really cool tech stuff and want to share. This month, we talk about my experience with the Apple Airport Express. It really freed my iTunes library, which was previously trapped on my computer. Let me tell you how this product allows me to push my iTunes library out to my stereo system.

The problem: I have thousands of songs on my iTunes libraray. A couple of years ago, we went through a process of ripping all of our CDs into iTunes. This has been great, since now we can move the music to our iPods and listen to it while working on our computer.

But there are some songs that we'd love to hear pumped through our stereo system. That way, me and the kids can rock out to tunes like "Babie's Princess and the Pauper" and "The Little Mermaid" and, well you get the idea. So, I struggled with trying to find a device that could be connected to the stereo and essentially "pull" the music. Nothing really did it for me. There were some proprietary devices, but they were priced by a mad-man.

So, I bought the Apple Airport Express (apple.com ). This little device is perfect. It is slightly larger than your average PDA. It plugs into a power outlet on the wall, and has a 1/8 jack for the stereo cable. So, all you have to do is plug the device into the stereo and the wall. (Communicates on your network via wireless or wired connection.)

The next time you open up your iTunes and do the configuration, you have a brand new button on the bottom right of iTunes that you never had before, as seen below.

This little button lets you control which speakers you want iTunes to play, your computer speakers or the speakers connected to the Airport Express, or both, or any combination thereof if you have a bunch of Airport Expresses around the home. This is awesome because now, I simply tell iTunes to play the music to my stereo speakers and, yes, it works and yes, it is perfect.

In my personal situation, I had a bit of a more complex issue. You see, my stereo has two sets of speakers connected to it, one inside and one outside in our backyard. We frequently enjoy listening to music while hanging out in the backyard. So, in an ideal situation, I'd be able to sit outside with some type of remote control that allowed me to (without getting up off of my cushy outdoor chair) be able to control which songs were playing and the volume. A quick Google search led me to a handy $10 program called webRemote that I loaded onto my iTunes machine.

After a simple install, it created a small web server that served up my music library to any web-browser through either my wifi or wired network. So, I grabbed my handy-dandy OLPC laptop, booted it up, connected it to my wireless network, and bam, I could be outside controlling my music. Life is good. Since the OLPC laptop has a special outdoor-viewable screen that can be viewed in direct sunlight, it makes a perfect remote control. I have also used my Blackberry's browser to control the music, as well as my Dell laptop. That is the beauty of this technique: no propeitery device needed. Any device with a web browser works.