TimeCapsule -- Engadget

TimeCapsule posts

Apple quietly updates AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule, promises improved performance

by Darren Murph posted Oct 20th 2009 at 12:43PM

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

Are some Apple Time Capsules locking themselves up for good?

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 6th 2009 at 8:02PM

A backup device that's not reliable is what some may consider a "very bad thing," but that's just the charge that a sizable number of users have been leveling at Apple's Time Capsule as of late, and the complaints aren't showing any signs of letting up. What's worse is that the problem being reported doesn't appear to be related to a firmware or software update, or some other configuration issues, but rather that the Time Capsules "just die" randomly -- most after a year or more. Judging from the reports on the official Apple forums, it also seems that folks are having hit and miss results getting Apple to fix or replace their Time Capsule, with some apparently able to get an out-of-warranty replacement and others faced with a $500 bill. So, has your Time Capsule bitten the dust? Let us know in comments.

[Thanks, Michael]

Apple unveils 2TB Time Capsule, ships today for $499

by Darren Murph posted Jul 30th 2009 at 8:45AM

Nearly four months after we first saw evidence that a 2TB Time Capsule was in the works, Apple has finally come clean and listed said device for sale in its webstore. So far as we can tell, the 802.11n router + NAS drive isn't any different than existing models save for the internal capacity, and it looks to be shipping today for $499. If you'll recall, that's exactly what Apple was charging for the 1TB model yesterday, which has today stooped to just $299. As for that 500GB model? Looks like the clearance / refurbished section is your only option there, where it's currently listed for $199.

2TB Time Capsule in the works?

by Nilay Patel posted Apr 6th 2009 at 3:36PM

Apple just updated the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule last month, so we don't know if the timing is right for a storage bump, but tipster Brandon just noticed that the ClubMac's promo pic of the TC box features an unmistakable 2TB badge. Makes sense to us -- 500GB is laughably small for a device designed to back up multiple machines, and standard-height 2TB drives are now available from Western Digital and soon from Seagate. We'll keep an eye out -- anyone else hear anything?

[Thanks, Brandon]

Screen Grabs: Time Capsule holds all sorts of Life's secrets

by Darren Murph posted Mar 10th 2009 at 6:08AM

Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.

While Reese got grilled and Crews got one step closer to figuring out who stabbed him in the back decades ago, Robert Stark happened upon what Captain Tidwell thought was a small computer. Clearly, someone failed to tip him off on the fact that a Time Capsule isn't in any way a Mac mini. Ah well, at least some gal finally convinced him to get a haircut.

Gallery: Screen Grabs: Time Capsule holds all sorts of Life's secrets

Apple rumor Monday, late edition: leaked specs, model numbers, announcement tomorrow?

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 6:52PM

The flood of Apple hardware rumors just won't let up -- not only did commenters dig through those Airport Extreme and Time Capsule FCC filings and find evidence that the new models will indeed support simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation, we've got iMac model numbers and leaked specs for Mac mini and Mac Pro, all of which are said to be arriving as soon as tomorrow. Of course, given the conservative / obvious nature of these updates, all of this information could be coming from some fanboy lair deep in a parents' basement somewhere and still sound plausible, but hey -- we'll find out soon enough, right? Here's what we know so far:

The iMac will apparently come in an entry level MB147 20-inch model, as well as three 24-inch SKUs: MB148 "mass-market," MB149 "high-end," and MB420 "ultimate." All models will go to mini DisplayPort and feature Core 2 Duos up to 3.06GHz.
The Mac mini will indeed feature five USB ports and that funky dual mini-DVI / mini DisplayPort configuration, but it's also apparently going to an NVIDIA chipset like the MacBooks and iMac. The base MB463 model will start with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, and there's also a "high-end" MB464 configuration.
The Mac Pro will come in eight-core configurations from 3.0GHz to 3.6GHz and 16-core configurations in 3.6GHz and 4.0GHz flavors, and it sounds like it's going to be even funkier on the video tip -- our tipster says it has two regular DVI ports and a mini DisplayPort. Sure, okay. It's also apparently a bit lighter than the current model, at 35 pounds instead of 42.
Tipster Tom noted that the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule FCC filings contain direct references to simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation, so that's looking even more probable.

Obviously we'll let you know if all this stuff slips out with no fanfare tomorrow, but with PMA and CeBIT both going on right now, we think that March 24 date is more likely -- Apple does like to hog the attention, after all. Anyone else have any secrets to share? We're all ears.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Apple rumor Monday: Nehalem Mac Pro, new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule in FCC, Mac mini box

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 2:17PM

Lots of Apple rumors today following the weekend whispers of a March 24 desktop hardware event, and they fall neatly along the plausibility spectrum:

First up, we'd say a bump of the Mac Pro to Intel's upcoming Nehalem-EP Xeon processors is looking quite likely -- famed OS X hacker netkas was poking around in a test build of OS X 10.5.7 and found support files for i7 chips lurking about, as well as drivers for ATI's Radeon 4000-series GPUs. If you're making a chart, this one's right up there with an NVIDIA-powered iMac refresh -- it's a pretty obvious move.
Second, new entries for the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule have popped up in the FCC, and while the listed dimensions are exactly the same as the current editions, there are no model numbers and something internal has to have changed enough to raise ol' Sammy's brows. That could be as simple as a new radio hardware supplier or bigger drives, but if we were placing bets, we'd say both units are getting updated for simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation -- Apple's really high on 5GHz for laptops and Apple TV, but the iPhone and iPod touch are 2.4GHz-only. Let's call this one even odds, shall we?
Lastly, a new picture of that improbable five USB port Mac mini has surfaced, this time purporting to show the outside of the box. Considering the Photoshop wars the last image of this thing set off, we'd say this is the least likely candidate for a Philly Schills reveal, but then again, Apple's been pretty leaky lately.

That's everything we know -- anyone else have something to share with the group?

Read - Ars Technica on the Mac Pro
Read - New Airport Extreme FCC listing
Read - New Time Capsule FCC listing
Read - One More Thing Mac mini image [Via TUAW]

How would you change Apple's Time Capsule?

by Darren Murph posted Mar 28th 2008 at 7:21PM

Now that Time Machine's all buddy-buddy with AirPort Extreme's AirDisk feature, we can see the demand for Time Capsule sinking considerably. Still, Apple's own NAS drive / WLAN router combo has likely found its way into quite a few households, and now that you've had a chance to back up your life a couple times over, we're interested to see how you'd tweak things. Are you really pleased with the interface? Are transfers snappy enough? Want a little more freedom with how you're able to configure things? Would you rather it not function as a substitute for a portable stove? Let's be honest -- Time Capsule's a pricey piece of kit for what you get, so feel free to let Cupertino know exactly what's keeping you from being absolutely satisfied in every respect.

Quickertek antenna promises to boost Time Capsule's range

by Donald Melanson posted Mar 17th 2008 at 1:05PM

It won't do much to complement the Time Capsule's minimalist looks, but if you've been itching to get a bit more range of out thing, you now have a new option to consider from Quickertek, which recently introduced its new TriBand Antenna for the device. Available either as a self-install kit or pre-installed on the Time Capsule of your choice, the slightly janky-looking rig promises a 50% increase in range over a standard Time Capsule, with ample coaxial cabling provided to let you position it just right. As if that wasn't enough, Quickertek is also promising that the antenna will let you reach speeds "much closer to the theoretical yield of 300 megabits per second," although it apparently isn't making any firm claims on that matter. If that sounds like the boost you've been looking for, you can grab the self-install kit now for $130, get Quickertek to install the antenna on your existing Time Capsule for $200, or get a 500GB or 1TB Time Capsule with it pre-installed for $500 or $700, respectively.

Time Capsule: everything you wanted to know

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 3rd 2008 at 11:00AM

So we spent the weekend playing with Time Capsule and we've discovered some interesting answers to all your questions, as well as a few accompanying annoyances. Our main takeaway? It's a solid product, but you shouldn't expect it to do anything more than back up your files -- and Apple really needs to step up and enable general NAS support for Time Machine. Read on!

Continue reading Time Capsule: everything you wanted to know

Time Machine plays nice with USB HDDs on Time Capsule

by Darren Murph posted Mar 3rd 2008 at 2:41AM

Well, would you look at that. It seems as if Time Machine is all buddy-buddy with externally connected HDDs on Time Capsule after all. If you'll recall, many Apple users were miffed (to put it gently) by the disappearance of said feature from vanilla AirPort Extreme Base Stations just before Leopard hit the streets, but according to a hands-on report over at Macworld, "you can perform Time Machine backups to drives attached to the Time Capsule via USB." Granted, it wasn't exactly speedy or anything, but at least the functionality is tucked away in there -- hit up the read link if you're still spinning in disbelief.

[Via TUAW]

Time Capsule opened despite it not yet being the future

by Ryan Block posted Mar 1st 2008 at 8:10AM

You kind of miss the point if you open your Time Capsule after just a day or two, but at least we now know that future generations can, in fact, expect an active drive cooling system (by way of a blower fan).

Time Capsule first impressions

by Nilay Patel posted Feb 29th 2008 at 1:28PM

Okay, so we've got our Time Capsule up and running here -- we'll be back with a full review once our full 516GB backup is completed, but here are some quick first impressions:

You can definitely hear the disks spin up and access. It also sounds like there's a fan in there, but there are no obvious vents for one and we can't feel any air coming out, so the drives might just be that loud.
The top is getting quite warm during the backup -- we'll see if it cools down once we stop hitting the drive this hard, but if there really isn't a fan we're a little concerned. Hope those server-grade hard drives like being cooked.
You can't transfer an existing Time Machine backup to Time Capsule. Sure, it's easy enough to switch back and get at your old data, but it's still a pain -- and now we have a 1TB drive sitting here with months of backups on it that we can't erase and reuse.
Time Machine doesn't prioritize network activity on your machine, so it's slamming our network connection right now as it backs up. That's not a huge problem since we're backing up over Ethernet, but we'll see what happens when we try this over WiFi later.
We tried to back up a second machine while the first was in progress, and not much happened -- it created the disk image and got to "Preparing..." and then did nothing. We're assuming these can only happen one at a time.
The wireless side of things is basically the same as the Airport Extreme, nothing shocking there, although the setup assistant has been substantially revised to make things easier.
The setup assistant now asks if you already have a 2.4GHz network and offers to create a 5GHz secondary network, which is interesting.

That's about it for now -- there's not much we can try out while this backup is in progress. Anything else you guys want to know?

Opening the Time Capsule

by Nilay Patel posted Feb 29th 2008 at 11:15AM

Right at the buzzer, Apple shipped us a Time Capsule -- and just like we remember, it's a bit bigger than you'd expect. We're about to set it up in our WiFi torture chamber of an apartment building, we'll let you know how it goes -- unboxing in the gallery below.

Gallery: Time Capsule unboxing

Time Capsule shipping this week?

by Ryan Block posted Feb 28th 2008 at 5:02AM

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?