Airfoil: Extending Your Speakers Beyond Your Portable Computer

Filed in archive Software on June 30, 2008

Last Sunday (Saturday in the US), I viewed the Pacquiao-Diaz boxing bout on my Macbook Air, via Sling Player in Texas (I am in Manila, Philippines). Everyone knows that the Macbook Air's speaker is only mono so to get a better user experience, I decided to hook it up to my 5.1 speakers, which is connected to an Airport Express. However, the Sling Player does not support Apple's AirTunes, i.e., I cannot throw the audio remotely to the Airport Express. This is where RogueAmoeba's airfoil comes in. What it does is extend Apple's AirTunes to any Mac (or Windows) application, thereby allowing audio from practically any source to be transmitted to the speakers connected to the Airport Express. What is even more interesting is the fact that RogueAmoeba has free, yes FREE, AirFoil Speaker software that runs on computers (Mac, Windows and Linux) making it visible to Airfoil in the same way as AirTunes.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get the Linux Airfoil Speakers to work. It runs on Mono - maybe that is the reason. :)

Anyway, this is a great way of having full surround sound without tethering any wires to your portable computer. I just wish that there is a Linux version, as in native Linux, of Airfoil.

[Image from RogueAmoeba]