I’ve spent enough time in my new place to realize that I need a way to get at music from any floor, at any time, without dragging a laptop around. So this morning I started out on a fruitless search for the “perfect” WiFi based media adapter. Needless to say, I failed.
All of these devices use 802.11b (there is one g model), support MP3, maybe support WMA or AAC (non-secure). A few support streaming. Most of them required MusicMatch, making them non-starters for me (who needs yet another crappy music player on the PC?) Since I’m a paying Napster subscriber I want my secure WMAs, and possibly secure AACs from iTunes, to play anywhere. These devices just can’t do it.
So I’m left with a decision: cough up +$600 for a laptop to haul around upstairs (since the laptop I have belongs to work, and they hate personal files on it!) or come up with some crummy 900mhz wireless point-to-point system that breaks up every time my neighbors talk on the phone.
Seems like a business opportunity to me, for someone.