With very little fanfare, Apple finally upgraded the last of its WiFi products still to be using 802.11g to the faster and wider-coverage standard, 802.11n.

Actually, 802.11g is still technically the current standard, as 802.11n is yet to be formally ratified, but it's sufficiently well developed that we're comfortable recommending it; in any case, the firmware is upgradeable, so when the standard is finally agreed on, full compliance should only be a download away.

Apart from the upgrade to 802.11n, nothing has changed that we can see, but that doesn't mean it isn't a welcome revision. 802.11n is faster - a theoretical maximum of 248Mb/sec compared to 802.11g's 54Mb/sec - and can have a greater range, often using multiple antennae to shape the coverage to suit the local environment.

Upgrade to 802.11n

The move to n is welcome, too, if you're already trying to deploy an n network but want to include an AirPort Express.

Because while many products on the market can do most of what the Express does, it's still unique in offering AirTunes, the ability to stream music wirelessly from iTunes to a pair of speakers or a stereo system.

If you had an 802.11n router and 802.11n Macs, adding the pre-upgrade, 802.11g AirPort Extreme would have slowed your whole network down. Now, n networks can include AirTunes without the bottleneck of a g device.

And it's worth it for AirTunes. You can password-protect your speakers so that nobody starts blasting James Blunt out of them without your say-so, and as well as streaming to specific speakers, if you buy multiple AirPort Expresses and link them all into the same network you can check which ones you want to stream to, potentially sending the same audio to every room in your house.

The jack for speakers is a dual analog and optical output, so it will connect to pretty much everything.

Network across your home

The idea of blanketing your entire house with AirPort Expresses on the same network is entirely feasible, not just because the unit itself is quite cheap, but because multiple devices can be linked together to strengthen and extend the range of your wireless network.

It's important to note that if you have a non-Apple device at the heart of your network - a Netgear modem/router that's connected to the internet, for example - this bridging mode may not work off the bat.