Wires? Who needs wires? When you can take advantage of the Apple Airplay standard with a set of wireless speakers like the AQ SmartSpeaker, you can keep the music playing without fumbling with any cables. And now you can do it for almost half price.

The AQ SmartSpeaker is currently on sale on Amazon for $179.95, which is $150.04 off the list price of $329.99. This “totally portable wireless speaker” supports Apple Airplay, so you can easily stream your music from your iPhone, iPod, iPad and iTunes over your existing wireless network. The internal battery lasts about 10 hours in Airplay mode and 20 hours in “Holiday Mode” (line-in), but you can extend that by plugging it into the wall.

This wireless speaker is compatible with the Apple Remote App and it has two channel separated drivers, combining for 24W of tunes. If you choose to buy two, you can separate them into the left and right channels for true stereo sound too. If you have multiple speakers, you can stream your music to all of them at once, filling your home with everything from Nirvana to Nelly Furtado. Or even Gangnam Style, if that’s what you like.

Considering that you’re saving about 45% off the regular price, this is a pretty great deal on the AQ SmartSpeaker with Apple Airplay. You can pick them up individually for $179.95 or, if you buy 2 or more, they’re offering an extra $50.03 off. Click on the “special offers” link on the Amazon page for more info.

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When you do your streaming over AirPlay, you’re usually doing it over your home Wi-Fi network. This is an open standard and you can end up with lo-fi sound cards or poor Wi-Fi connectivity. With AirPlay Direct, Apple would then have a new wireless standard that it would then license to hardware partners. Then, you can go ahead and stream content from your iPhone or MacBook, but you’d be doing it over a dedicated wireless network and not your home Wi-Fi.

Of course, what this means is that you’d end up buying all new equipment as far as transmitters and receivers go, but it does mean that Apple is able to better control the hi-fi wireless streaming experience, whether that involves music, movies, or whatever else. The name “AirPlay Direct” is already a registered trademark to some company in Georgia, but I’m sure with that Apple can spend some of that new $1 billion to buy them out of that.

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