Apple unveils 2TB Time Capsule, ships today for $499
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 30th 2009 8:45AM
posted Jul 30th 2009 8:45AM
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overprice much?
Not really, it's Apple.
Holy crap, no kidding. Especially since there's no higher quality or anything, it's still just a hard drive and hard drives just aren't that expensive...
it's more then just a hard drive.
Have they removed it from the site now?
It still says "500Gb and 1TB".
Right. It's a hard drive and an overpriced Draft-N router.
Is it just me or does this not seem like a bad deal? A decent 1TB external hard drive is around $100. A decent dual band draft-N router is around $100.
So is the $100 premium worth it to have everything one slick box? I think so.. Don't judge based on just price. Remember, your budget isn't the same as everyone else.
Tyler...addition fail.
i can find a decent of both for under $100, im pretty sure most people would want two seperate components for less than 200 than one component for 500.
tyler is right, good wireless routers cost a lot more than $100, Apple don't use bad quality pieces in their products either.
10minutehobo is looking for trouble.
And the world laughs...
Honestly, if I'm going to spend money like that on a backup system, I'll build a cheap computer and have it serve as a RAID NAS.
With the components I have laying around, I'm sure I could do it for less than $400.
For $500 I could buy a 1TB RAID enclosure and a wireless router.
Nobody that would be interested in this type of Compact/Desktop NAS unit would be using a second computer as a server in the first place. Look at the newer wireless routers coming out like the Belkin units for example and the external HD enclosures like the Seagates. Most people (Mac or PC users) have one computer desk in their house, often in the living room or dinning room and they want as little clutter and wires as possible showing and they also want it to look good just sitting there. They buy wireless mouse/keyboards, plug the DSL/Cable Modem right into the computer, have the printer tucked on a shelf under the desk, have small stylish speakers and generally want minimal items on the desk. A seperate computer server case does not ever enter their minds as an option no matter how much better/cheaper it might be.
The market for these units are people that purchased an apple computer over the last couple of years and now have purchased an iPhone/iPod touch or a MB to go with it. They didn't have a router before or had a cheap a/b/g router. Now they are looking to add a router and external storage/backup capabilities.
To the people who are arguing that it's not overpriced:
The 1TB time capsule, just yesterday, was $499. Today that piece of equipment is priced at $299. Now the 2TB drive costs $499. You're telling me that to go from a 1TB to a 2TB drive costs 200 dollars? You're telling me that Apple can drop the price on the 1TB drive 200 dollars just like that and that they weren't overcharging before? Where's the logic? Nothing is changed about this at all except a larger hard drive, a charging 200 dollars for that is not overpriced?
I'm sure there are plenty of things you can do for $400-$500. I don't disagree with any of you. Could you build a 1TB RAID enclosure and buy a wireless router? Absolutely. Could you build a cheap computer and have it serve as a RAID NAS? For sure.
All I'm saying is, if $299 gets you 1TB of storage, a good dual-band N router, some extra gigabit ethernet ports and a USB port, all in a fairly small, and decent looking enclosure, then it seems like a good deal to me.
Yeah, but it's a *server grade* hard drive... haha.
wireless N NAS (2-bay) for about 200 bucks
2 TB hd for about 200 bucks OR 2 1 TB HDD for 160 bucks
google it...
its only about 100 bucks more then a DIY job...plus this includes apples user friendly interface/setup, its really not that marked up...
for once in my life...only this once...I'm going to side with apple. This isn't that marked up.
Building a cheap computer negates the fact that it's a small form factor. And don't think that it doesn't factor into the price, as that's why laptops cost so much more than desktops.
Anyone notice that a refurbished 1TB is $100 more then a new one? I really don't know why people want to pay so much for something that really isn't all that.
For $400ish you can still get the Acer Easystore H340 with the bonus 1TB disc (2TB total), then run iTimeMachine to do the same thing, and a WHOLE lot more. Its also got a small footprint and you can jack it up to 7TB of internal storage since it has 4 hot swappable drives (one has the OS on a 20GB partition).
So yeah, the Time Capsule is WAY overpriced.
@ Alan Strangis :: Yes, for $400ish, you can pick up the H340. But that's not exactly an apples to apples (no pun intended) comparison.
Small footprint? You could stack almost 6 time capsules in the same space as the Acer. Nor does the H340 provide any networking functionality. When I say 'networking' I am referring to the included N router. Also, not everyone needs 7TB of storage.
So no, for what it offers, it's not WAY overpriced. Let me ask you this. Find another device that combines a router, 1TB of storage, a few extra gig ethernet ports, and usb for networked printer/another hdd, put it in a nice package and sell it for $199, and THEN I'll tell you the Time Capsule is way overpriced.
Nvm tyler, you were talking about the 1TB version. iFail.
Tyler - you can't have it both ways. You want something that is EXACTLY the same as the Time Machine ... and of course, there is nothing that is exactly the same. That doesn't mean that it is priced right.
It's quite simple. You can pick up 1TB drives for $75 at Newegg virtually any day of the week. Your 2TB's come to $150. A nice NAS device for two drives will be about the same size as the Time Machine. Snag that for another $50. Add in a Draft N router with Gigabit ports and you're looking at another $50. So, for $250 I get the exact same functionality. On the downside it takes 15 minutes to assemble and you have 2 devices instead of one (although the router is pretty darn small). I don't know. It's pretty hard to argue in my mind that the "convenience" of the Time Machine comes anywhere close to the value of something that you put together yourself.
In other words...apple sucks major nuts mkay
All of these consumer "NAS drives" or routers with SATA interface or USB port are *incredibly slow*. Seriously, even $250+ NAS units from Maxtor/Western Digital/Iomega/Lacie can barely push 5-7MB/sec. And you especially have to love the ones with "gigabit ethernet", considering it is nowhere near maxing out 100mbps ethernet. I haven't seen specific reviews of the Time Capsule, but I will assume it is using one of the same cheap controller chips as the rest.
Assuming you are computer literate, Instead of spending $500 on a 2TB Time capsule, save your money and buy something like this:
# Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB harddrve
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344
$210
# MSI Wind PC - Mini Intel Atom system
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856167032
$135.99
Total: $345.
Format the drive, install OS (Ubuntu, FreeNAS, Windows XP), hook-up to your network, then mount the drive as your backup/NAS/media server. This goes for anyone thinking of buying a consumer (
Not really that overpriced.
but it's thursday, Apple doesn't do thursdays. the fuck?
They updated Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio last Thursday.............
lololololool.
Sorry bored at work : (
$499? What a steal!
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1190
Easystore... $100 cheaper, way more storage options and tons of additional features.
Uh oh, Applegasm on Engadget!
And me without a pitchfork. I might have some torches, though, brb.
Don't forget the A-1 sauce....
Time to have a good 'ol fashion Apple fanboy-noob cook out!
round 'em up!
Okay, I have some torches, but my Zippo isn't Vista Certified. Anyone got a first-gen MacBook Pro we could use to light them?
As much as I'm rolling my eyes at Engadget's staff inability to actually find a diversity of news this morning (I mean that whole Yahoo/MS deal would have been nice to read about), dont get the Apple fanatics started by kicking the doghouse.
After I started noticing that most of Engadget's actual tech news (and 90% of all Giz content) comes from CrunchGear or TechCrunch, I just started reading those. Now there's some intelligent commentary. Like Mike Masnick, before he got all preachy.
Great, time for an upgrade
My God, doesn't Apple know what 500gig hard drives sells for in the real world. $199 for the 500 gig system is unbelievably HIGH. If Apple was smart they'd reduce the price to $110 & include a hack so that we could connect it
to the USB port of the ATV. Apple has never been a company that listens to its customers, If they did we'd already have a netbook & a mid-sized tower.
Apple knows..... their idiot customers don't.
Right, because for $299 you get an extremely capable 802.11ns dual band router with an integrated 1TB drive. I suppose you could purchase a cheaper 802.11ns dual band router and get an external 1TB drive in a USB enclosure for probably $220 or so, but there is something to be said for having everything integrated into one box, and the Airport software makes setting up access to the drive very easy, and for those with Macs and Time Machine this is a far better buy than spending a couple of hours getting another solution set up.
I kinda glad Apple didn't outdo themselves because then I would have to scroll past another In-depth review of another Apple product. Shaves off some of that RSI movement
Why is having everything integrated better? I rather have something a little bit more bulky, but with more expandability.
then this isn't for you, and I don't want one either. I'm going for the Synology 4-bay.
But, for a large number of people that just want something to work, without hooking stuff up, dealing with the cables, etc. this makes a lot of sense, especially if you happen to have a couple of laptops in your house.
Wh in the hell is going to pay $500 for a 2TB non-expandable NAS??? 1.5TB drives are like $85.
HHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, pass.
While I wouldn't disagree that it is overpriced, I have to call you out on the "not expandable" claim. You can attach additional USB hard drives, including multiple USB harddrives by using a hub.
No, 1.5TB drives are like $120. 1TB drives are like $85. The price per gb is kind of misleading though - with 1TB drives and up you really can't afford to be caught with your pants down for backups unless the drive itself IS the backup... a la time capsule. Large drives are good for backing up plural smaller drives, but just getting a 1.5TB drive for your main partition is begging to get screwed.
Stupidity seems to be running rampant in here as usual. Ducman, did the fact that it's also a Wireless N router/gigabit switch somehow escape your notice? With the ability to add additional USB HDDs? And act as a print server? Maybe you should pull your head out of your ass every once in a while and look around.
Zak, it's not just a 802.11n, it's a simultaneous dual band router. That's a lot better than just draft n. most other routers of this type sell for over $150, for example: http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/linksys-wrt610n-simultaneous-dual/4505-3319_7-33132573.html
So comparing Apples to apples, to cobble something similar together would cost $170 for the linksys (lowest price I could find quickly), plus a decent quality 1 TB external drive (about $125 for a good quality one), I'm up to about $295. External 2TB drives are about $225 from what I can tell, so for a 2TB solution you're looking at about $395, so Apple is charging a premium for the 2TB version, but it's not "hugely overpriced"
And that solution is not as easy to configure or set up as the TC, and it takes up more space and you have the extra cables to deal with. (none of which is a problem for me, I'm getting a 4 bay Synology box) but for most people the TC is a much better solution for the money.
And te refurbished Time Capsule 1 GB is still $399. What a deal!!!