Airfoil soars to version 3
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 10, 2008 at 11:55am
Rogue Amoeba has released Airfoil 3, an update of the AirPort Express extender for Mac OS X. It lets users to send any audio to the AirPort Express from media players like RealPlayer and QuickTime to audio web sites like Pandora and Last.fm.
Airfoil 3 lets users transmit any audio to multiple AirPort Express units, providing synchronization between units. Audio can now be played through local computer speakers as well, in sync with remote playback. What’s more, any Macintosh can be turned into a virtual AirPort Express, with the complimentary Airfoil Speakers application.
Run Airfoil Speakers on any local Mac, and it will appear in Airfoil as a standard output. With one click, audio can be transmitted to Macs around the house, all in sync and with no AirPort Express required. This audio can also be synced this with local playback and playback to AirPort Express units.
Airfoil 3 also enhances video playback. Because of inherent latencies in the AirPort Express, using Airfoil 2 with a video source resulted in local video that was out of sync with the remote audio. No longer, however, thanks to the included Airfoil Video Player. Airfoil Video Player handles playing video locally in sync with remote audio. Airfoil Video Player supports the most popular video formats, and even features preliminary DVD support. You can use Airfoil 3 and Airfoil Video Player to watch video with an AirPort Express for audio output!
Airfoil 3 also offers many other smaller improvements. It now features full Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”) support, including Instant Hijack (allowing audio to be pulled from already-running applications). It also brings several interface improvements and simplified preferences.
Airfoil 3 is immediately available for download and purchase for Mac OS X 10.4 and up. New users can purchase Airfoil through the Rogue Amoeba online store for $25, while owners of Airfoil 2 can upgrade for $10. A demo version is available in which Airfoil will overlay noise on all transmissions longer than 10 minutes.
The “Macsimum MWSF 2007 Coupon Book” is available for download. You can find it here and print it as a PDF. It has discounts, special offers and promotions in conjunction with the upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
