Turn the iPad into a bit-perfect music streamer... for $30!
More than a million people have already learned to love the Apple iPad, but there's just one small problem for the audio enthusiast - its built-in iTunes can only be played through the built-in speaker or the headphone socket.
Or so Apple would like you to believe.
The $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit includes two connectors. One for an SD card, one for a USB cable. The idea being, the USB cable connects to a camera to download images to store on the iPad. However, if you instead connect this with a USB connector into a DAC, the iPad's iTunes account will work. Also, if you turn the iTunes volume to the max, you have bit-perfect output. It's not perfect, as the iPad will only work in 16bit. It seems if you use a 24bit DAC, authentication fails at the iPad. Not being an iPad owner personally, I'm going on second-hand information here, hastily scribbled after a product launch (and no, I'm not telling who's product launch). But I've seen it and heard it and for $30, you get a camera adaptor, AND potentially the chance to turn your iPad into a music streamer. That can't be bad!
I don't know how long this will work, because this is the sort of loophole that Apple is usually quick to fix. But, for now, the iPad just became a digital streamer. And it doesn't cost a fortune.
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Comments
I have an iPad, and I have to say I'd have no interest in using it as a music streamer. For one thing, you can only get a maximum of 64GB of internal storage, which isn't going to hold more than a small percentage of my music collection in lossless format - and there's no way to add additional storage. For another, the built-in audio application (called the iPod application) is quite limited in its searching and navigation capabilities, which is problematic with Pop music and crippling with Classical. There's no "browser" a la the desktop iTunes app; the only way to narrow a long list of "songs", composers, or albums is by text search, which is brutally slow on the iPad when your collection gets into 1000s of tracks. Unfortunately, Apple apparently doesn't allow competing music player applications in the app store, so you're stuck with these limitations.
If you really want a very portable, extensible music streaming solution, go with a Dell Mini 10 netbook, which is fanless and dead quiet. Add on a Seagate Freeagent 500 MB external USB hard drive - very slim, light, and silent, and enough to hold about 1500 albums worth of lossless music. Control it all with one of the numerous bit-perfect software solutions - J River Media Center, WinAmp, Media Monkey, etc - and you have a complete, powerful, portable music streaming solution for significantly less money than a 64GB iPad. Not as cool, to be sure, but much more functional.
Save the iPad for what it's good at: casual web browsing, streaming video, ebook reading, to name 3 applications I use often.
I agree, but I like the idea of streaming off the iPad for the same reason people climb mountains – "because it's there". It's not intended as a full solution (although 64GB can hold the edited highlights of a collection in lossless), but to do that cool thing of doing something completely untweaky to your iPad and get something Apple seems reluctant for you to get. By subverting Apple's own products. All of which makes me want to get an iPad (when they finally ship to the UK) get a Camera converted and fill up that storage with old punk (and even older Grateful Dead) tracks.
OK, this way of sticking it to the man involves paying the man an extra thirty bucks, but it's the ability to make a cool thing even cooler, without having to hack it or turn it into a Frankenpad. That's, er, cool!
Alan Sircom
Editor, Hi-Fi Plus Magazine
London, England
editor [at] hifiplus [dot] com
The iPad would make a perfect streamer! It's very easy to connect wirelessly to my iMac and stream content. Off course you'll have to jailbreak the iPad. The 64GB is enough to store my "personal favourite" collection on the go and with an external dac the quality should be a lot better than even my iMod.
Is there a remote control solution that will work with a netbook solution?
Is there a remote control solution that will work with a netbook solution?
This is an awesome little tip. My ipad is on backorder (ugh!) but I love the idea of using this at the office for music listening. I have a desktop USB DAC that is quite nice sounding, and with earlier ipod devices, I have to use the analog output from the ipod (live level from the dock, not the subpar headphone output) and the line level in on the DAC (which luckily has both digital and analog inputs).
However, the DAC on my desktop is definitely nicer than what Apple offers, and since I have my ipad and ipod with me anyway, this is a great way to get the music out of it in the best format. Here's hoping that this loophole isn't closed! It's way cheaper than the Wadia solution.
Or upgrade your current Wi-Fi router to an Apple Airport Express with AirTunes router that comes with standard audio (and USB for printer sharing) outputs and connect it to your audio setup. You can then route your entire digital music collection in any format from your computer to the audio system. A free app turns an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad into a wireless remote control for audio streaming that allows you to choose songs, albums, playlists, etc. without having to be at the computer.
Sure that's an idea but how do I get my music server at my house to see my AirportExpress at my desk on a different network that is 15 miles away and won't assign an ip address to anything other than a windows pc issued from the corporation?
I wish someone would make a Windows-based slate. The iPad seems to be too restrictive. The fact that Apple might "fix" the device to prevent it from streaming music (as some folks would like to do) is a limitation I would not want to pay $500 for.
A Windows slate could work in tandem with a Windows 7 PC. Anyone could use the slate to create music playlists with music located on a home server and have the music play on a specific PC.