Ian, would you kindly guide on when you expect to develop a Google Cast Google Cast (pls click) interface for the AA?

I am one of the original kickstarters, and my idea behind the purchase was that I would use this unit with Pandora. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do any of that. I love the power, and flexibility it offers, but for me, so far, this is still a promise of things to come vs. what I have been able to enjoy over the last year.

I do not wish to root the phone and use BubbleUPNP, given additional security risks to which my phone is exposed.

Please guide and help.

We will have Bluetooth available before Chromecast but Bluetooth will work for your Android device. We will be aptX ready if your device is capable of it.

Thanks Ian. Rough ETA? I'm happy to be a beta tester, pls let me know. I have an APTX HD enabled mobile phone (LG v20), so should be able to test it out.

Ian, quick followup. Is the intent to support AptX HD on the AxiomAir, or just AptX?

I will check and let you know after the holidays.

Did i read this right?
The Axiom Air is going to incorporate Bluetooth?

And on a related note, I recently bought a used Axiom Air!

Now that i'm up on Imgur, i might post some pics.
Tested out a little bit but it is going to be a family present at Christmas so i've got to keep it hidden.
Hooked up my Google Nexus (running Android 4.x, don't recall which version offhand) with the Air app and it seems buggy. Although i didn't get as far as connecting it to any music on my home system, it was setup on my wifi and i plugged a usb stick into it for testing.
The app kept going into a 'cannot find device' mode, but music kept playing and when i closed the app and opened it again, i could see the usb and queue, etc.

I'm going to test out the same conditions with the iPhone and iPad to see if it does the same.

This sounds like you are losing the connection to your router. If the WiFi antenna plugged into one of the USB ports on the front of the AxiomAir is black you could try getting one of the long range ones. The long range ones are white http://www.axiomaudio.com/edimax-wireless-mini-usb-adapter .

Once the music has started playing from an AxiomAir using a USB stick it will continue to play no matter the WiFi connection. If you e-mail us your serial number we can tell you what version you have. You should also Check Updates in the AxiomAir interface.

I will grab one of your long distance USB devices today .
I have the small black USB in my Axiom Air .Unit # 47
The connection has been dropping out whenever I use it even with my phone sitting on top of the AA .

Your order # is: 100059121.

I'll have to test this out once the kids aren't around. The music did indeed keep playing but i found it odd that if i just closed out the app and restarted the app i could see the queue again. If i kept losing the wifi, i would have thought it would not have come back (the queue that is).

I'll check on the serial number later as well. To keep the unit hidden, it's in its box under my desk so i'll dig it out later. I did however check for version updates and the app said everything was up to date; unless there is some other way to update the Air and not just the app.

The queue being there makes sense. The User Interface is being broadcast from your AxiomAir and the songs you are playing are resident in your AxiomAir.

Sounds like you have the latest code.

Ian, can you please update us with a rough ETA on AptX? Also, please confirm if AptX HD will be available on the AA. Thanks in advance!

We are working on a final problem of getting all the volume controls to play nicely together. Hopefully it will be ready soon. It will be AptX ready.

Ian - Is there any news on Bluetooth connectivity? Thanks in advance.

This turned into a much bigger project then we originally anticipated but it is moving forward.

What is the need for Bluetooth connectivity given the Air sets up its own wireless network?

The answer is "not much"; but there are times with certain devices where it may be the only way to cast what you want to play to the AxiomAir. We would not recommend it as the normal way to use your AxiomAir as Bluetooth has audio compression. At first we thought it would be a reasonably simple add-on as it is built into the Pi but the Bluetooth on the Pi has problems. We have been investigating other options that could also give us aptX, and hope to have one that works well soon. First though we want to finish Spotify Connect and the memorizing of past networks for auto connection when in range.

Anyone unit that wants to stream sound from the internet, does not have files loaded up locally for streaming, or does not have wifi onboard but does have bluetooth (e.g. straight up mp3 players, older ipods).
This comes up more often than you would think.

Interesting article on the bluetooth compression.
https://www.lifewire.com/what-to-know-about-bluetooth-3134591

Does anyone know if aptX HD is supported?

I'm asking because I am planning to give Amazon Music HD a try. The only way I know of playing Amazon Music on the Air is via Bluetooth. Since the Air has 24bit/96KHz guts, I want to take as much advantage of those guts as I can. This isn't too important on the Force and the Freedom but it is on the Transformer with my actives.

I'm avoiding Tidal because I don't like their UI. It's also more expensive.

This stuff is insane. Nothing is fully compatible with anything...even from the same company. Amazon Music HD Ultra isn't even compatible with their Firestick 4K. The music stream comes in at 24-bit/96Khz but the Firestick down-converts it to 16-bit/48KHz. Not because the Firestick doesn't have the requisite hardware for FLAC decoding but because the firmware team didn't make full use of the hardware. What's absolutely laughable is customers are paying for HD Ultra but have no clue they aren't getting Ultra at least on their Firestick 4K. According to customer support, I am the first who has complained of this.

BTW, I can stream Amazon Music to the Air via Bluetooth but I have no idea if it's aptX HD. The HD Ultra definitely sounds better than standard quality but how much better in terms of bit depth and sampling frequency, I have no idea.

On my Firestick, I can't hear a difference between a song in Amazon Music Ultra HD and Spotify premium. Amazon is CD quality or better and Spotify Premium is at the top end of mp3. But I can't hear a difference on the Actives.

I just cancelled my Amazon Music HDUltra less than 3 hours into the trial. Even if the above problem was fixed, get a load of this: there is no way to find a song or playlist on your phone and cast it to your Firestick. But you can cast it to a chromecast.

This BTW is completely contrary to how Amazon Prime Video works.

Completely unusable for me.