airport
Latest
Airport Extreme showing up in retail stores
Several readers have written to tell us that Airport Extremes are on the shelves in Apple Stores (a few California stores, to be exact). I have an authorized reseller by my house (not an actual Apple Store) which hasn't received any, but they're typically towards the end of the list.So, does your local store have Airport Extremes on the shelves, and have you purchased one yet?
Xbox incompatible with 802.11n Airport Extreme
TUAW reader Bryan Hughes writes in to tell us that after many unsuccessful attempts, he was unable to connect wirelessly to his Xbox 360 via the new 802.11n Airport Extreme. Over at a discussion at Apple Tech Support, other users report no problem connecting their Wiis and Playstation 3s to the Airport Extreme network but that the Xbox is another matter. The Xbox 360 apparently will not recognize any network with security, whether WEP or WPA and Microsoft's tech support apparently is telling customers that Apple routers are not recommended. So would you be willing to entirely disable security on your wireless network to connect to your Xbox? That's apparently one way of making the connection work. Some readers report that turning off security and closing their network (not advertising the SSID) and using MAC address filtering work. You can join the Xbox/Airport Extreme discussion here.
Airport Extreme 802.11n base station tested and dissected
We've already seen Apple's 802.11n-enhanced Airport Extreme base station unboxed, but that'll hardly satisfy those more curious about the router's inner working than its shiny exterior. Thankfully, the folks at iFixit ripped theirs apart so you don't have to, also taking the time to run the base station through some benchmarks to see how it performs. On that point, they found that the base station definitely delivered the goods, providing a 10x performance boost and 3x range increase over the non-802.11n base station. In transfer rates, that translates to a speedy 9MB/s in short range tests, and a still-impressive 500KB/s when put to a long-range test, with some 300 feet (and a building) separating their MacBook Pro and the base station. As for that peek under the hood, you can check out another pic after the break, then click through to iFixit for a look at the complete operation.[Via Digg]
Liberate For-Pay WiFi (and Get Sued?)
Okay, we post this one as news, not necessarily to recommend it. Our sister blog Engadget is reporting on the WIFI LIBERATOR Toolkit. It is an open source project designed to encourage the undermining of for-pay WiFi service (e.g. t-mobile, Sprint, etc.). Basically you plug in an USB WiFi adapter and connect through the USB adapter. Then, you run the Liberator software and activate Internet Sharing in your System Preferences. Now both you and others can connect to the internet through your computer. The software is based on Ping Tunnel, so I'm guessing it will only work if the network allows you to ping outside IPs. The project's ultimate goal is "eventually to reach a high enough usage and penetration rate that all pay-per-use wireless networks will begin to free their access to everyone." Or you could just go get a sandwich at my favorite free WiFi source: Panera Bread.[Via Engadget][Edit: fixed the software description - Thanks burbu]
Apple ships AirPort Extreme 802.11n router, busts out $1.99 802.11n Enabler
Looks like those new shuffles weren't the only thing to pop up on Apple's store this morning, Apple has also finally released that AirPort Extreme 802.11n Enabler we've heard so much about. We figure there's been enough drama at this point, so just suffice it to say that if you have a MacBook C2D, MacBook Pro C2D, Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme or a C2D iMac that isn't the 17-inch 1.83GHz model, you can fork over your two bucks and update right now to glorious draft-n wonderment.[Via AppleInsider]Update: Apple let us know that you can't identify systems with the Network Utility; the 802.11n capability only shows up if you've used the software update, so know your mac and get the update if you need it. Also, the $1.99 update is considered by Apple to be a site license, so you can upgrade all the machines in your home with the single $2 purchase (if you didn't alright sign up for the router). Not bad!Update 2: It wasn't entirely clear before, but the launch of the Enabler coincides with the launch of the AirPort Extreme today, too. Don't let the "Estimated Ship: February" on their site fool you, Apple is definitely shipping now.
UK bandwidth restrictions to affect Airport Extreme use
Macworld UK reports that UK bandwidth restrictions may negatively impact Airport Extreme use in that country. Airport Extreme uses both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies to communicate. In the UK, Japan, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia and Spain, regulatory restrictions prohibit wide-channel operations, so Airport Extreme users won't be able to use part of the 5GHz frequency. Macworld's article suggests that this puts a limit of a 2.5x speed increase over 802.11g rather than the 5x increase that's achievable by using the entire 5GHz frequency with 802.11n. It's hard to say how noticeable this will be in practice or whether users will be able to "work around" these restrictions. Anyone with better knowledge about how channel operations work and how wide-channel restrictions will affect performance, please jump in in the comments.
Software Update: Airport Extreme update 2007-001
Newly available from Apple is the Airport Extreme 2007-001 update. Says Apple, 'This update is recommended for all Intel-based Macintosh computers and provides compatibility with AirPort Extreme base stations and networks.' The Apple site doesn't say whether this "compatibility" includes 802.11n support (which I'd highly doubt--those new Airport Extremes aren't even shipping yet, are they?) or in fact much about what this update actually does. So if the update makes your computer explode or something else that's new, radical or interesting, let us know in the comments.Thanks Ian GowenUpdate: News.com reports that the update plugs several security holes that were discovered during the November "Month of Kernel Bugs" campaign.
Airport shoe scanners holding up the show
Although it shouldn't take you by surprise to get held up a bit while going through airport security these days, a good few travelers are a bit perturbed by the Clear's problems with metal-infused footwear. Passenger's that spend more time cruising the friendly skies than motoring around in their own vehicle have the option to submit to a federal background check and cough up $100 in order to pass through newly-installed biometric scanners at certain airports such as Orlando International and New York's Kennedy Airport. However, even the snazzy scanners can't distinguish between benign and harmful metals, so customers who thought they'd save themselves the inconvenience of kicking off their kicks are still being forced to remove their shoes if even the slightest hint of metal is detected. Although the shoe scanners still won't be "broadly used" until they receive further TSA approval, Verified Identity Pass senior vice president Shawn Dagg simply suggested that "he hopes customers will learn to wear shoes without metal." We're sure that's exactly the answer these disgruntled customers were looking for, Mr. Dagg.
iStat Pro 3.3 widget brings temp and fan readings for Intel Macs and more
The feature-packed iStat Pro Dashboard widget is a reigning favorite here at TUAW, and its recent v3.3 update has heralded some handy new features. First, it now includes (though prompts you to install upon first run) a new module that can read the temperature and fan speeds of Intel Macs. That's right - SpeedIt-be-gone. The other nice enhancement is an active AirPort signal quality meter - the AirPort icon in iStat Pro's network section will now dynamically display a quality meter based on the network you're connected to. Of course, for the record, other bugs and "various minor improvements" made this new version, and it's available either by running the widget (it auto-checks for updates by default), or by heading over to iSlayer.com.
Apple holds 802.11n capabilities hostage
It was odd enough for Apple to slip 802.11n chips into its recent Core 2 Duo systems without really letting on about it, but now they've gone full-out loony by charging $4.99 to download the 802.11n enabler patch on your system. If you purchase one of those new 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations with your hard-earned $179, Apple will throw in the enabler software for free, but if you happen to already own an 802.11n base station or just wanted to feel like a big kid with an 802.11n wireless card of your very own without buying the Airport Extreme Base Station, you'll have to fork over the annoying 5 buck fee. The folks at iLounge dug into the story a bit, and it appears Apple is blaming accounting for the odd fee: "the company believes that if it sells a product, then later adds a feature to that product, it can be held liable for improper accounting if it recognizes revenue from the product at the time of sale, given that it hasn't finished delivering the product at that point." Yeah, crazy. We know. Until we get a better explanation than that bookkeeping hogwash, we're going to go with our first impression of the situation: this is just that tried and true "wear them down with micropayments" part of Steve Jobs' inevitable path to world dominion.Read - AppleInsiderRead - iLounge
AirPort Extreme has AirPort Disk: USB hard drive sharing
Our own former C.K. Sample III turned us on to some more sleeper features of Apple's quietly-introduced AirPort Extreme. Specifically, that new USB hard drive sharing feature is called AirPort Disk, and it has a few tricks up its sleeve. First, it can share a drive with both Macs and PCs, but its setup utility can easily set the drive to auto-mount when you login or start up your machine. Not content to stop there, however, you can even set up individual accounts for each machine on the network with access to only specific files or folders. Not bad for a $179 device.
Apple drops Airport Express price to $99
Hot on the heels of announcing a new Airport Extreme base station Apple has dropped the price on the existing Airport Express to $99. This is a great deal for those of you interesting in streaming audio only from iTunes to your home theater, as well as folks that don't have an 802.11n ready Mac.I've had an Airport Express for well over a year now, and I am very happy with it though I might be soon phasing it out in favor of the Apple TV/Airport Extreme pairing (isn't it nice that you can stack on top of the other?).
Airport Extreme launched: draft 802.11n and USB hosting now supported
It may not bring the thunder like an Apple iPhone but the Airport Extreme does bring draft-N of the 802.11 WiFi standard. That means up to 5x the speed and 2x the performance of traditional WiFi networks which should deliver a bit of a rumble to the living room or office. It also support legacy 802.11a/b/g giving it full 2.4GHz and 5GHz coverage. It also features AirPort Disk, a USB host port around back allowing you to share an external USB hard drive over your wireless or wired network. Or just attach a USB printer and share that, your choice. Best of all, it should work with the unannounced, but apparently real, 802.11n draft hardware in your recently purchased Mac -- look for a software update to roll soon. By February anyway, when the Airport Extreme ships for $180.
Mac-Friendly Third-Party Routers
While many of us would probably like to have an official Apple Airport Extreme Base Station, it seems rather overpriced to me. Given that you can pick up a router on sale at Best Buy for $40, it can be a bit hard to swallow Apple's $199 price tag. While it's true that the Airport Extreme has a lot of nice extra features (like a modem and USB printer sharing), I still don't think it's enough to justify the price tag.For all the cheapskates like me, MacFixIt has a nice listing of Mac-friendly third party routers. Although practically all routers are compatible with the Mac, some are easier to manage than others, and only some manufacturers offer tech support to Mac users. Preview: of the most common brands, Belkin and Netgear come out on top, with D-Link and Linksys further down the list.[Via MacVolPlace]
Airport Update 2006-002 now out
Many owners of MacBooks and MacBook Pros (MacBooks Pro?) have been suffering with wireless connection problems, particularly when connecting to networks using the WPA security standard and third-party access points. In our own office WLAN, we've had DHCP and authentication issues with the Intel laptops on a WPA/Proxim network, while older G4 laptops connect effortlessly -- and, for what it's worth, the MBPs connect happily to an older WEP/Airport network. To point the finger firmly at a software or driver issue, the same MBPs that have troubles connecting to the WPA network when booted in OS X have nary a problem linking up when running in Windows XP via Boot Camp (a troubleshooting technique I never dreamed I'd use, but there it is).For software problems, we look for software solutions, and Apple's update for Airport in the Core 2 Duo laptops might just help. We hope. Details on the update are thin for now but I'll test this on an MBP and see what, if any, improvements result.[via MacNN]
Heathrow airport testing opt-in big brother biometrics
For every vocal privacy advocate, there are probably one hundred people who would just like to get through the lines a bit quicker at the airport, and perhaps cut down on that 3 hour pre-flight arrival time -- as long as it didn't mean compromising national security in the process. To that end, the UK's Heathrow airport is implementing an opt-in biometrics system called miSense that allows passengers to bypass lines and breeze through the check-in process if they agree to selling their souls forking over some private data do the BAA. Beyond your fingerprint data, you'll need to have held a valid passport for over six months and be subjected to some UK government background checks, but after that you'll get your fingerprints tied to your passport and be able to bypass lines at the airport with a simple swipe of the finger -- and eventually face and eye biometric scans as well. Seems to be a pretty good trade-off to us, and we like how the program is optional right now, we just hope that with UK's predilection for big brother activity, this won't become a mandatory program and get all biometric on the more paranoid privacy types who would rather not fork over such data.[Via Fark]
Phoenix airport set to test all-seeing x-ray
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport looks to have the distinct honor of being the first airport in the United States to put the controversial "backscatter" x-ray technology to use, the very same excessively-intimate inspection technique that made its debut at London's Heathrow airport a couple of years back. The airport won't just be taking a peek at everyone that passes through the gate, however, instead using the scanner as a backup to existing screening measures -- and, even then, individuals will have the option of a pat-down search instead of the picture postcard seen here. What's more, unlike earlier implementations of the technology, the Transportation Security Administration has reportedly sanitized the end results somewhat, with certain areas being discreetly blurred out, and no images saved after the person steps away from the machine. While the Phoenix airport gets to be first it, not suprisingly, won't be the last, with the TSA saying that a "handful" of other airports will be installing some scanners of their own sometime early next year.[Thanks, Ben B.]
PSA: The TSA is not down with Nike+iPod
So you picked up the latest kicks from Nike -- you know the ones that work with the iPod Nano -- and, even though you don't run, you wanted to check out the high-tech angle (and why not, with only $20 separating you and the Nike+iPod sports kit?) But then on your way to grandma's for Thanksgiving, you got more than you bargained for going through security at the airport. The TSA is going to have a few questions for you when some odd shape shows up on the X-Ray of your new sneaks, so expect to spend the next 30 minutes explaining whats in your shoe. After all, who knows what they think they'll find in your shoes: if it's bad enough to make every traveler take theirs off, it's bad enough to hold you on the side till the coast is clear. So do yourself a favor and leave the sensitive accelerometer at home or in your carry on -- and unlike us, you may want to shave off that scraggly beard and sport a t-shirt that doesn't say "Shü Bomba" on it.
Another potential fix for Intel Mac + Airport station problems
If you're using an Intel Mac with any of Apple's AirPort base stations, you might have noticed some 'less than stellar' performance after updating to 10.4.8, as well as wonky connection problems that Apple tried issuing a support doc for. As an owner of both a MacBook and an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, I can personally vouch that Apple's doc has a ways to go before it solves this most frustrating of wireless problems.While troubleshooting this issue over the weekend, I came across a few new threads at Apple's discussion forums for AirPort and, more specific to my setup, the AirPort Express. In particular, this AirPort Express-related thread contains some theories and potential solutions from other users in a similar boat. Being that it is now Wednesday, I'm happy to say one of them seems to be working well for me so far, though your mileage may obviously vary. Here's a rundown of my personal setup and the remedy that's bringing some sanity back to my wireless world: typically, I roll with WPA2 Personal security, and since these sketchy connection issues began I've been playing with settings like Interference Robustness and adjusting my APE's (AirPort Express) channel, etc., but to no avail. As it turns out, users in these forums are beginning to suspect wireless security (at least WPA, not sure about WEP, which seems to be making the ill-advised list these days anyway) as part of the problem, so I simply reset my station with no security. For the past three days, this setup has been working like a charm, though it's understandable if no security simply isn't an option for some users. To help keep our network to ourselves, I turned on 'Create a closed network' in the AirPort tab of the AirPort Admin Utility (that's Apple-speak for "hide SSID"), which simply meant I had to type in my network's name manually from the AirPort menubar item - but you should only have to do this once.Again, YMMV, but there are a few potential solutions in Apple's discussion forums for these increasingly frustrating AirPort connectivity issues. Let's hope we don't have to keep jury-rigging our base stations for long, and Apple can issue a fix so the "it just works" reputation can actually apply to these things again.
FCC rules to reinstate free WiFi at Boston-Logan International Airport
Although the Federal Communications Commission isn't exactly known for ruling in favor of popular consumer desire, even we have to give a hearty round of applause to the traditionally nettlesome agency for its edict in the WiFi battle at Boston-Logan International Airport. The Massachusetts Port Authority (better known as Massport) had ordered airlines that were providing wireless internet free of charge in their customer lounges to pull the plug in favor of fee-based services in 2005, but as we expected, the FCC overturned the pronouncement and agreed that the agency's "OTA reception devices regulations" allowed airlines to offer WiFi gratis. In a staggeringly pro-consumer remark, the Commission's commissioner insinuated that open internet access was meant to be free and readily available to travelers "who can make productive use of their time while waiting to catch their next flight." Bravo FCC, bravo.
