While the Apple-watchers were busy speculating what product the company would release next, Apple confounded them all with a product type that no one has seen before: Apple AirPort Express Base Station with AirTunes. Think of it as a wireless multifunction device. In addition to being an extremely compact 802.11g wireless access point, it also lets you stream iTunes-resident music from your PC to your stereo, extend the range of an existing wireless network, and even share printers wirelessly. Maybe you don't need all of those functions, but if you need even just two of them, the $129 (direct) cost of the AirPort Express is money well-spent.

The first thing you'll notice about the AirPort Express is its excellent design, an Apple hallmark. The unit isn't much larger than an iPod (3.7 by 3.0 by 1.1 inches) and plugs into a wall socket directly with no power cord. It's a breeze to carry when traveling (it weighs 6.7 ounces), offers both WPA and WEP security, and can handle 10 users at once.

Use the Ethernet port to connect the AirPort Express to your cable or DSL modem, and you have an 802.11g access point with a range of 150 feet. Because of its small size, the AirPort Express has only one Ethernet port, so you can't connect a second Ethernet cable (such as to a PC on your wired network). But by using the included software, you can easily set it up as a second base station on an existing wireless network to boost the range. Apple will only certify that this works with its own AirPort base stations; indeed, it didn't work with a Linksys router in our testing.

If this were just another (albeit more compact and more user-friendly) wireless access point, we'd be ending this review here. But Apple has gone a step further with AirTunes: the AirPort Express used in conjunction with Apple iTunes (both the Windows and Macintosh versions) to let users stream their music wirelessly from their PC to any audio receiver or powered speakers. To set it up, simply plug the AirPort Express into a wall outlet near your stereo (or another audio device), connect an audio cable between the AirPort Express' line-out jack and the input of your sound source (Apple sells a $39 Stereo Cable Kit, though any standard audio cable will work), and run the simple setup wizard.

When you next open iTunes, you'll see a pop-up selection menu in the lower right corner of the screen that lets you choose where your music will play, either at the PC or at the connected stereo. (iTunes will only play it in one location at a time, so you can't get sound from your computer and your stereo simultaneously.) The streamed tracks are uncompressed and sound rich and full.

If that weren't enough, the AirPort Express also has a USB port for printer sharing. Any computers on your wireless network will automatically have access to the connected printer.

The AirPort Express worked flawlessly in our testing, proving itself easy to set up and use no matter what the purpose. It was smart enough to prevent you from sending audio streams to it from two sources; it notified us that the device was already in use when we tried to send a data stream from a second system running iTunes. It was also smart enough to know (and alert us) when speakers weren't plugged in.

Some may lament that the AirPort Express isn't a full-fledged media hub—letting you play and manage your PC-resident media files remotely—such as the products we've tested from Creative Labs, D-Link, Prismiq, and a couple dozen others. The biggest drawback of the AirPort Express is that you can't control the music playback (or see playlist and track info) from the room where you're listening to the music; you have to go to the PC on which iTunes is running to do any of that. But if you view the AirPort Express as a no-hassle portable access point that also lets you play your iTunes music collection elsewhere in the house, you won't be disappointed.