I attend the Consumer Electronics Show every year, and every year I talk with vendors who have a love/hate relationship with AirPlay technology. They like the idea of wirelessly beaming music to a speaker system from any device that runs iTunes (including iPhones, iPads and both Mac and PC computers) but hate the expensive license fees that Apple charges for the technology license. Indeed, it's not uncommon to see a desk speaker that's $100 more than its non-AirPlay cousin with exactly the same specs.

Some companies release their own technological solution, which I always think is rather doomed for failure, while others bite the proverbial bullet and pay the license fees so that they can include AirPlay on their own device. Well-known Apple peripheral maker iHome is in the latter category, and with the iW2, their second attempt at a portable AirPlay speaker, they've finally got it all right and have created the perfect wireless speaker.