Using the Airport Express with iPhone
They say you never really know someone until you’ve gone to battle with them — or on a road trip. I can say this was really the case over the past few days as it was my first time traveling with iPhone. It performed like a champ… the battery life was outstanding, and I had no real problems with staying connected with AT&T. It’s still amazing to me how it continually (and aggressively) presents me with wi-fi networks to jump onto.
One jewel that came out of the trip was another use of my Airport Express. I stayed at the excellent Moorpark Hotel in San Jose. When I checked in, the very “proper” clerk bragged about just having installed free high-speed wi-fi for all the guests. Once I got into my room however, it was a different story. My connection was fluctuating between one and zero bars. I guess I was in a room with spotty coverage. Luckily I had brought along my trusty Airport Express.Following my own advice (from my Global Mobile book) I created my own little network by ignoring the weak (and free) hotel wi-fi and instead plugging their “wired” (also free) network into my Airport Express. This of course gave me full-strength wireless to both my MacBook Pro and my iPhone. I was able to roam around the hotel (+/- 300ft) with my iPhone surfing Digg and my favorite blogs.
I really recommend bringing along an Airport Express whenever you travel. If you are traveling with other people, make sure you get adjacent rooms that way everyone can share the same connection. And if you’re in one of those places that still charges for net access, you can save a few bucks and stick it to them for charging you for something that should be free… but I wouldn’t bring this up to the hotel management.
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July 26th, 2007 at 7:46 pm (#)
Right on…great to see you passing on this info.
Just found your blog…your bloglined!
August 1st, 2007 at 9:13 am (#)
can you play music from the iphone through the airport express?
August 1st, 2007 at 10:58 am (#)
@Colin… nope. At least not yet.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 am (#)
Can i do this with only an airport express and an iphone? in other words i don’t need a macbook to set up the airport express so the iphone can use it. i am going to vegas and only want to take my airport express and my iphone
thanks,
larry a. denier
August 10th, 2007 at 10:56 am (#)
i have the same question as Larry, i do not have a laptop and want to set up wireless for my iPhone while traveling
August 10th, 2007 at 11:02 am (#)
SteveK, Larry,
Seems like an obvious feature, but currently there’s no way to stream music directly from your iPhone to an Airport Express. Hopefully it’s on Apple’s “to-do” list as that feature alone, if implemented in both the iPhone and iPod lines, would effectively marry them to sales of the Airport Express base stations – and I’m sure they’d sell a quazillion units… especially if they created a “bundle” offer.
August 11th, 2007 at 8:10 am (#)
Good news, just got my Ax and it works out of the box with the iphone. go to your favorite hotel, plug in the ethernet string, stick it in the wall, connect the iphone and surf.
August 11th, 2007 at 2:58 pm (#)
Yep, that’s what this post was about alright.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:52 pm (#)
Hi,
what skillfully and beatifully engineered blog entry. Like it, do it the same way also when working at other labs. But didn’t you always wonder why the could not build power recharge features into the express USB port? Would be one last item to carry with oneself(considering you left the laptop at home). And by the way, the iPhones at least until 3g where not powerful enough to support music streams in addition to phone features and stuff I read on another blog. Have a great continued blog,
Harm
August 20th, 2009 at 8:49 pm (#)
I’ve come across the same issues regarding poor internet wifi at hotel rooms.
I don’t have the Airport Express though.
If you’re bringing the MBP, you don’t need the Airport Express to open a netwok for your phone or Ipod Touch.
Just plug in the computer and make an wifi network from your MB.
Works great!
February 5th, 2010 at 3:22 am (#)
If I buy the Airport Express, will it be able to update my iPhone with new songs, notes, pictures and so on that I have on my Mac, wirelessly?
That is the reason for me to buy one so I don’t have to plug my iPhone to my Mac every time I have notes etc. i want to transfer.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:27 am (#)
Use evernote. That will do it. Airport is not a mac alternative…
February 5th, 2010 at 6:23 am (#)
So I can’t update my iPhone wirelessly if I buy an Airport Express? (:
Does Apple have a product that can do that? Maybe the Time Capsule?
February 11th, 2010 at 9:31 am (#)
Hi fred.
Are you looking at doing an updated version of your book?
Dane
February 14th, 2010 at 4:38 pm (#)
Hey @Dane, I’m thinking about it. It’d be a very different book today. With all of the new options we have.
Frederick
June 11th, 2010 at 11:59 pm (#)
My AExpress is on my home network. If I go on holiday will I have to reset it before I can use it at the hotel?