Just as it
did in March, Apple has subtly updated both the
AirPort Extreme and
Time Capsule, this time improving performance on both. According to new testing between today's model and yesterday's edition, the AE Base Station (which ships within three days for $179) can hum along at up to 25 percent faster thanks to
undisclosed tweaks to the antenna design, while the Time Capsule's improved antenna promises the same. Just as before, both of these devices support
dual-band 2.4GHz / 5GHz transmissions, though we can't seem to find an "802.11n draft" phrase anywhere on either page. Apple hasn't gone out of its way to say that both of these are
certified with the final specification, but it's certainly a possibility. Finally, the new Time Capsule promises Time Machine backups in Snow Leopard that are some 60 percent faster than before; we're not sure whether to celebrate with new buyers or
weep with existing ones, but it should ship within three days for $299 (1TB) / $499 (2TB).
Read - Updated AirPort Extreme
Read - Updated Time Capsule
posted Oct 20th 2009 12:43PM
I just bought an Airport Extreme three weeks ago. Damn.
You typically have 30 days to return a product to Apple, so go make an exchange!
Are you sure it isn't 14 days? That's what I thought that I saw on the website...
Pretty sure it's 2 weeks.
2 weeks is 14 days...
They still won't get my interest until they can get them to be reliable. Note this article. http://gizmodo.com/5379865/
Does it have N!?!
yes it has N. The article wonders if it has FINAL N and not draft.
AEBS also has no external power supply according to the tech specs. Same as Time Capsule and Airport Express.
AEBS doesn't have an internal hard drive either, so the heat and power loads are just a bit less.
Is being able to actually restore your data considered 'Improved Performance'?
No, that's innovation.
The only difference between "Draft" and "Final" 802.11n is the name for the last year or so.
Can you attach a usb hardrive to the AEBS and use it like a time capsule?
I believe so, yes.
yes
Now the question is whether the current Macbooks and iMacs have the 3x3 antenna array and 450mbps chips to support the new speeds as well. Anyone know the make and model of the Airport cards inside macbooks/MBPs?
If the new Macs had 3x3 I bet Apple would have made a big deal of it but they didn't so my guess is "No". It begs the question though of why rush out these new base stations when we just got new ones in March. Why not wait until there's 3x3 in everything? Do the new base stations really provide significantly improved coverage? I'll wait until a friend gets one and see but I really doubt it.
Bought my 500G Time Capsule on 10/2/09. 14-day exchange policy.
Works great.
Not a problem that I missed the new Time Capsule hardware update. The speed is much faster than what I had before. (A Netgear router.) Also, I understand the previous version of the Time Capsule (before March), was much slower. So, I am quite satisfied.
Thanks,
Alan
Since I don't see where else to post it this seems like the obvious place... Is it interesting that there was no Apple TV announcement here? Seems like its dying a slow death at this point...
Can they focus on the performance of the drives in the damn thing?
I use it to store iTunes and iPhoto media for my wife's iMac and my PC and the lag is ridiculous. Update the NIC ports to 1Gbps, get some faster HDDs in it.
Apple tech support told me today (Dec 1, 2009) that using TM with a HDD attached to the USB port of an AEBS is NOT SUPPORTED.
It corrupted my HDD and I lost all my TM backups.
Details...
I bought my AEBS this week and set up. WiFi works great. Attached a WD MyBook 500GB via USB. I have been using this drive with TM for a year or so with FireWire. Has been fine.
Once attached to the AEBS I could mount the drive from anywhere on my network. It worked great.
I ran TM and pointed it at the ext HDD.
It started the backup and after a few minutes it failed with an insufficient space error.
Connected the HDD directly to the Laptop again via FireWire.
the MyMacName_001b63ada64e.sparsebundle file was corrupted. The file size was zero. This is the file that TM uses to store all the backups!
Apple was on the phone with me and said you have to start from scratch.
He repeated that using TM with a HDD attached to the USB port of an AEBS is NOT SUPPORTED and is not guaranteed to work. He knows that some people have gotten it to work but it is not reliable and it might work for a while and then they might have a problem.
I said that TM should be smarter about it. Rather than attempt to do the back up and then corrupt the database it should display a message "TM does not support backups to AEBS HDD." and then prevent.
He said that I should re-partition the HDD (he suggested GIUD partition table scheme - under the OPTIONS button in Disk Utility)