Airfoil Adds Apple TV Support, Updated for Windows

Rogue Amoeba has updated Airfoil, their networked audio streaming software, to add support for pushing music to the updated release of Apple TV, and to add remote speaker support under Windows. The company released both Airfoil 3.1 for Mac OS X and Airfoil 2.5 for Windows (2000, XP, and Vista). (The Windows release is numbered lower because it lacks Airfoil Video Player and doesn’t support the Griffin RadioShark.)

Airfoil 3’s notable addition was Airfoil Speakers, software that you can install on any computer on the network, and that lets you take control of that computer’s audio output remotely from a computer running Airfoil. Airfoil 3.1 for Mac OS X and 2.5 for Windows extends Airfoil Speakers to computers running Windows, and allows Windows machines with Airfoil to control remote speakers either on Mac OS X or Windows systems.

Airfoil also supports streaming to AirPort Express base stations using Apple’s AirTunes protocol; the AirPort Express has a dual analog/digital optical audio output port. For more on Airfoil 3, see “Airfoil 3 Spreads Music Streaming Beyond AirPort Express,” 2008-01-10.

Rogue Amoeba software engineer Guy English explains in a blog entry that they managed to put a little fit and finish on the Apple TV streaming by pushing an image of your particular computer to the device, complete with your desktop background and a screen capture of the application from which you’re streaming audio.

Airfoil 3.1 for Mac OS X also fixes a problem with DVD Player synchronized audio introduced with the release of Mac OS X 10.5.2, and improves performance on less-speedy computers.

All these changes to Airfoil have us wondering – will Rogue Amoeba create a version of Airfoil that could send music from an iPhone (or iPod touch) in your pocket to your AirPort Express? The iPhone could then be both the source of your music and the remote control, and incoming calls could cause the music to pause automatically. All we know is that Rogue Amoeba is pondering the possibility.