I was wondering when Apple was going to get around to doing it, and this week they did it.  Apple announced a new version of their Airport Express wireless base station with speedy 802.11n wireless networking.  If you’re not familiar with Airport Express, let me describe this wireless wonder.  It’s a small (4” x 3” by 1”) white plastic box.  It has two built-in power prongs that rotate out to plug into a wall electrical outlet.  It has an Ethernet port (for connecting a DSL or cable modem or Ethernet network), a USB port (for connecting a USB printer) and a 3.5mm audio minijack for analog or optical digital sound.

While small in stature, Airport Express is capable of performing many feats of wireless daring.  For small spaces, it can serve as a primary wireless base station.  It doesn’t have the range and power of Apple’s Airport Extreme (it can only serve 10 users), but it is quite sufficient for, say, an apartment.  If you already have a wireless network in place, Airport Express can become a wireless bridge to extend the range of your primary base station.  Because it’s imminently portable, you can even move it around with you to your different work areas.

That same portability makes it a great way to share internet access on the road.  Say your hotel or meeting room only offers a wired network connection.  You just plug the wire into the Airport Express to set up a wireless network for multiple users.

Back in the home, you can use Airport Express to stream music from any computers (Mac or PC) on your network to your home stereo system.  Simply plug in the Airport Express next to your stereo (or powered speakers) and connect with an audio cable.  You then use iTunes to send music to the speakers.

Besides sharing music, you can also share printers.  Just connect a printer to Airport Express’s USB port, and every computer on the network can print from it.

Airport Express has always been able to do this stuff, it just does it faster now – 5 times the performance and 2 times the range of its 802.11g predecessor (which it’s still compatible with as well as the older a and b standards).

As with just about every Apple hardware upgrade, the Airport Express got more capable for the same price - $99.  Roughly the price of a tank of gas these days.