Time Capsule shipping this week?

According to AppleInsider, it sounds like Time Capsule customers' orders are in the crucial "preparing to ship" phase about now, meaning credit cards are being charged and units will be loaded onto trucks for distribution as early as tomorrow for some. Apple still hasn't said anything officially about shipping though; just don't be too surprised units start showing up shortly at your doorstep or in your local Apple store.

Update: Yep, we've got confirmation from Apple that it's shipping this week (although some users apparently already manage to snag theirs offline -- good for you). The only question now is: will it really last 10,000 years if buried in your back yard?

[David @ Feb 27th 2008 9:56PM]

I wasn't aware that they weren't in the Apple stores yet. They were in this weeks ad for Best Buy. Though I'm not sure that they were in Best Buy stores, because the one that I work at doesn't sell Apple products. Apple sure did push that Ships by February date a little to close.

[dubs @ Feb 28th 2008 12:20PM]

I saw that ad on monday and went to both apple store and best buy, but neither store had them available yet. However the best buy clerk hinted that they were hiding somewhere in the back. maybe now they will be on the shelves.

[lbalk @ Feb 27th 2008 10:19PM]

The online status confirms the shipping date is this Friday.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Feb 27th 2008 10:21PM]

my neighbor bought one from best buy yesterday...

[Arjy @ Feb 27th 2008 11:23PM]

Really now...

[ace_spades @ Feb 27th 2008 10:28PM]

Its been like 3 months. I thought these were shipping already (quite surprising)

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Feb 27th 2008 10:41PM]

It was announced during the MacWorld 2008 keynote on January 15th. That is just under a month and a half. How exactly did you get the announcement in late November?

[The Monitor @ Feb 27th 2008 11:50PM]

Time flies when it's too cold to go outside.

[Adam @ Feb 28th 2008 6:05AM]

You obviously used the magical properties of the Time Capsule!! Awesome. Share your secret!

[ace_spades @ Feb 28th 2008 6:24PM]

Blargh. it feels longer. school sucks when trying to guess how long ago somtehing was.

[David @ Feb 27th 2008 10:29PM]

"Finally"

[Nate Klaiber @ Feb 27th 2008 10:37PM]

My current status says:

Ships by: Feb 29
Delivers by: Mar 6

I pre-ordered it the day it was announced, I hope it really does ship in the next 2 days.

[Tyler @ Feb 27th 2008 10:41PM]

I work at a best buy I was told units shipped Feb 24th, so most stores that carry Apple stuff should be getting them in around friday.

[Jonathan @ Feb 27th 2008 11:25PM]

According to apple store online they'll ship the 29:th (I've had that status since I ordered it)

[Shawn @ Feb 27th 2008 11:27PM]

I definitely need to get one of these. Anyone know if you can use it as an external hard drive?

[electronicat @ Feb 27th 2008 11:34PM]

Umm.....

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Feb 28th 2008 12:23AM]

You can plug an external HDD into the USB port, just like with the AirPort Extreme, but it's unknown if that drive can then be used with Time Machine since the Time Capsule drive is the only one so far that is known to work with Time Machine over a network.

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Feb 28th 2008 12:23AM]

You can plug an external HDD into the USB port, just like with the AirPort Extreme, but it's unknown if that drive can then be used with Time Machine since the Time Capsule drive is the only one so far that is known to work with Time Machine over a network.

[Kelmon @ Feb 28th 2008 7:04AM]

It kinda depends on what you want to use the drive for. As best as I understand it you can attach a USB hard drive to the unit but it will suffer the same limitations as the existing Airport Extreme - i.e. you can't back up to it via Time Machine and it probably won't work for transferring large files (basically, anything over a few 100MB) unless they have fixed those issues (if so then please, for the love of god, push out a firmware update to the normal AEBS). You will, at the very least, be able to use the added disk as a network share for all your wireless computers.

[Kailie Quinn @ Feb 28th 2008 2:51AM]

1tb for 500 USD? Pass.

[fuzi @ Feb 28th 2008 5:25AM]

plus gigabit ethernet, and wireless draft n.

[tyler @ Feb 28th 2008 5:32AM]

convenience of having 1tb (easily) networked, with a full .n router, and wireless time machine (if you can use it), in one slick box?

i'll have that

[Diamamet @ Feb 28th 2008 8:43AM]

What a bargain! At the german apple store (http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/germanstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=523F922A&fnode=home&nplm=MB276) they are offering the 1TB time capsule for €499 which at the current exchange rate works out at $749!!!

[Jeff @ Feb 28th 2008 4:27PM]

er... show me anything with the same specs for cheaper.

I'm not aware of a 1TB, network drive with gig ethernet, full 802.11n draft 2.0 (and 802.11a/b/g) router, usb print server, etc etc with all the features in a nice little package for any cheaper.

[Chris @ Feb 29th 2008 12:24PM]

You can buy a Win Home Server comp for less than $600 that beats the hell outa this thing.

[MC @ Feb 28th 2008 5:17AM]

it's so sad how every other post on the web is ending with a question mark = rumor/ speculation = not reliable!

Bloggers gone wild!

[John @ Feb 28th 2008 5:52AM]

Most anticipated router ever?

(ended with a ? for effect)

[Kelmon @ Feb 28th 2008 7:12AM]

I'm still bitter that they still, apparently, can't be arsed to resolve the issues with the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS). It's been over 6-months now since the last firmware update and the damned thing still doesn't do what it was advertised to. While I am thrilled that you can now receive an integrated solution in the form of Time Capsule, the AEBS was advertised to work with Time Machine and there certainly wasn't a note saying something like "file transfers will crap-out after about 1GB". As far as I am concerned the existing model still isn't "fit for purpose" and I want to see this addressed. Unfortunately I don't expect anything to happen since it's been so long.

My original AEBS has been sent back to Apple for replacement after its wireless capabilities died (kudos to the support group for replacing it even after the warranty had expired!) so I will be interested to see if the new one will sort out some of my issues. Unfortunately there was no option to swap or upgrade to a Time Capsule.

[alexvoda @ Feb 28th 2008 9:15AM]

You know what would be nice?

It would be nice if once it is lunched someone would hack a linux on it.
The Airport Extreme and the Time capsule are probably the most powerful consumer routers that exist.
They have something like 600MHz proc and 256 Mb Ram.
I want to have one with linux, BT client, apache, a ed2k client and mirc through wine.
With all these i could download anything and have a low power consumption.
One of my friends has an asus router and already has linux+bt client+apache. but at 300mhz and 32mb ram it is no where near what I nead.

[alexvoda @ Feb 28th 2008 9:16AM]

oops!

Sorry for the spelling errors!

[James @ Feb 28th 2008 9:20AM]

Got my shipping notification from Apple a few minutes ago.

[FreeCajunLove @ Feb 28th 2008 11:55AM]

Didn't Asus make this thing over a year ago?

http://apcmag.com/3875/new_asus_wireless_router_has_bittorrent_and_hard_drive_built_in

[alexvoda @ Feb 28th 2008 1:11PM]

exactly about that one i was talking about
He installed linux on it and now has a BT client on it and apache.
But that is one thing and Time Capsule is another.
Time capsule and AEBS are far more powerful both possessor wise and
memory wise.
http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/Dissection-Extreme-n/index.html
The guys at this link took the AEBS apart and identified all the
components.
"Samsung K4H651638H-3UCB DDR RAM chips (256Mbit, each). The flash
memory chip from ST electronics in the top right of this picture is a
model M29W128FL, which has a capacity of 128Mbit."
"88F5181 CPU running at 500MHz"

A system with this specs is more adequate for what i need than the
asus one.

[Kevin Williams @ Feb 28th 2008 5:17PM]

My tracking says it was shipped from Shanghai China, 11:28 am, Feb 28th. Fed Ex.

[MikeV @ Feb 28th 2008 9:03PM]

Mine shows that it has been prepared for shipping... of course, I only placed my order early this week.

[Scott Shockey @ Mar 11th 2008 10:55PM]

my time capsule finally shipped. It shipped from Shanghai, CN. Can anyone that has received there capsule say how long it took to get from Shanghai to your door step?