This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Scott Hanselman. Original Post: Brilliance - How do you JUST KNOW a product is going to work? The AirPort Express Feed Title: Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com Feed URL: http://radio-weblogs.com/0106747/rss.xml Feed Description: Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com is a .NET/WebServices/XML Weblog. I offer details of obscurities (internals of ASP.NET, WebServices, XML, etc) and best practices from real world scenarios. Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Scott Hanselman Latest Posts From Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

Wow, brilliance in engineering, and in marketing.  Allow me to gush if you haven't heard.

The AirPort Express - reasons it's freakin' brilliant:

• Noone saw it coming.  Surprise is everything.  Don't show me a product.  Lie and say it doesn't exist.  Tease me, baby, tease me.
• It's a wireless/wired network bridge. Holy crap, I can take it to a hotel and make their crap wired network a wireless one.  Or I can make an instant wireless network in a conference room with one wired connection.  That's hot.
• THE BIG ONE: It makes MY MUSIC "just an audio source."  I can plug it into the wall and to my receiver, and think of all my music (upstairs on the 250gig drive) as just being there.  I'll move my iPod dock BACK upstairs where it belongs and
• It supports features lesser companies would have punted on.  Optical?  Flippin' optical output.
• It supports making your USB printer available wirelessly.  Just a nice little bonus, if you had any doubts.
• It's all ONE PIECE.  This is where the brilliance in engineering comes in.  It's not a box with a dongle and a transformer.  It's all one unit, and the whole thing is smaller than your average wall wart. 

This is a Leatherman Tool for the geek, and it fits it your hand. 

P.S. Microsoft seriously needs to rethink their Media strategy.  I literally GUFFAWED out loud as I was starting to install Windows Media 10, and I noticed that it supported a dozen MP3 players, and NOT my iPod!  Sorry, didn't install it. 

P.P.S. You notice how you can't find ANYTHING in the Windows Media Player menus?  Like, you literally need to click EVERY TAB to find (or not find) the option you need?  But, I've never open the iTunes preferences.  Never needed to.  Hm.  Good design, anyone?