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AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule Out of Stock at U.S. Apple Stores [Updated]

My Time Capsule (1st gen) has served me faithfully for 7 years, but is now getting doddery and my wallet is open for a new one.

My wishlist:

- SSD drive cache to make Time Machine backups go faster. 4GB or 8GB, either one, I don't mind. 8GB of SSD costs pennies nowadays. Just get that backup done, get off my wifi, then transfer it to the multi-TB drive later. Apple has the Fusion tech to make it happen.

- iCloud caching. I want my photos and stuff available to my local mac stuff. I don't want to wait for my photos or videos to download before looking through them.

- iOS backups. The current system of only letting iOS backup to a local Mac is crazy now that many home Macs only have 128GB SSDS, sometimes 256GB. That's laughable considering that iPhones and iPads now have up to 256GB storage. How do I back up a 256GB iPad to a 128GB Macbook Air? I'm currently using an external HDD which is crazy considering that sitting 2 feet away from me is a Time Capsule with a vast HDD in it sitting unused and ready for action.

- USB 3 ports. I back up my Time Capsule to (another) external HDD. At USB2 speeds, a multi-TB HDD can take several days to back up which is crazy. I heard that USB3 was left off because it can interfere with AC wifi. However, that seems a solved problem, given the flood of AC routers with USB3 ports.

- Wave 2 802.11ac, with active antennae to boost upstream reception from mobile clients with poor transmit power. This will really help out with FaceTime and other live video upload clients (Skype etc). Wave 2 also has MU-MIMO which helps with multiple high-bandwidth users (eg multiple Netflix streams). Wave 2 routers started coming out last year so it's time for Apple to incorporate this.

- Maybe incorporate Apple TV into the new Time Capsule? All the gubbins are there, it shouldn't take much extra.

Hell, probably none of this will happen. Apple may even be discontinuing the Time Capsule - it seems dead nowadays. Clearly more profit for Apple to ask us all to back up Time Machine to iCloud and charge us monthly for the privilege.
 
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Moved on.

Almost bought an Eero but opted for a Luma (getluma.com) should be here next month in a 3-pack. Mesh and security features.

I don't know why any of you expect Apple to come up with something cool in networking. They're popping bland products half asleep.

If it wasn't Eero or Luma i'd be looking at Ubiquiti products. Tired of consumer toys playing like network devices.
 
zorinlynx said:
One thing I would love to see is iCloud caching with Time Capsule.

It seems so silly to get home with 300MB of photos and have to have them all upload to the cloud, then download them again to my iPad and Mac. There should only have to be ONE upload to the cloud, then the data should be distributed on the local network to save bandwidth.

Apple could do this with the Time Capsule if they wanted to. The TC could have a complete cache of your entire iCloud account, which would not only serve to speed things up locally but it would also be an additional backup. Too many people only have their data in ONE place (whether it be their phone, Mac or iCloud)
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ya... because apple has such a great track record when it comes to syncing data!
 
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Thunderhawks said:
My , how times have changed.

We used to proudly display our Apple stuff and logo

Now we want to make sure it's small enough to hide!

"Siri, where is my airport extreme?"

Siri: The next airport is 15 miles away, extreme weather forecasted!

Opens iTunes and plays: I'm all out of love" by air supply
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Why would I want to show off a Wireless Access Point? I have one in my living room to give me better coverage there. I really don't want to look at a big hulking white box sitting on my built in shelves. This isn't like taking your macbook to a starbucks.....
 
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danranda said:
That makes no sense. A cloud backup only would take sooo much longer to make, and quite a while to restore from.
The actual smart move that follows best practices would be to keep the time capsule AND add a cloud backup option.

this way you have your data backed up locally for the quickest back up making /restoring /browsing AND an offsite copy in an encrypted cloud. The only purpose for a cloud backup is if your house burns down or your primary backup medium fails.
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Agreed, my three Mac and two windows machines backups are about 2 TB. My time capsule has worked great as a combo router/backup. Pretty funny when someone yells Cloud without a clue on all of the use cases out there.
 
IJ Reilly said:
The timing and geographical limits of this stock outage can hardly be coincidental, though I wonder as you do why Apple would still have noncompliant product in the pipeline years after the FCC requirement became known.
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Likely the plan all along has been to make the update on the fly as stores are replenished with stock. However, it's almost inevitable that stores will have some "old" stock on hand that needs to be flashed with the new firmware, particularly for an accessory that isn't a high profile product. I'd guess that most Airport sales are online.
 
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Amazing Iceman said:
How about a real router with a VPN Server so I could connect to my home network from my iOS devices?
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Not quite the same (yes, a VPN server _should_ be built into the Airport), but if you have an always-on Mac at home, VPNs are very easy to set up with OS X Server.
 
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RedTomato said:
- Maybe incorporate Apple TV into the new Time Capsule? All the gubbins are there, it shouldn't take much extra.
Click to expand...
The only issue is that then Apple would have to sell two different models, one with Apple TV and one without, making it more confusing and a higher chance of accidentally purchasing the wrong one. But I love the idea. I have my Apple TV and Airport right next to each other. It would save space and decrease the clutter of wires behind my TV if they were combined.
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FrozenDarkness said:
I think they kept the form factor because of the antennas. I don't expect the next airport extreme to be any shorter.
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Then Apple better release it with all the bells and whistles. They would have no excuse for skimping if they decide to keep the same form factor.
 
kcoombs said:
Not quite the same (yes, a VPN server _should_ be built into the Airport), but if you have an always-on Mac at home, VPNs are very easy to set up with OS X Server.
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Thanks for the tip.
I never considered getting OS X Server due to the memory overhead it brings with it. To install it just to have
VPN may be overkill; unless I'm wrong and the overhead is minimal.

Another reason why I want a router-based VPN is so I could have my iMac in Sleep Mode and connect to the VPN to Wake it up.
 
I am glad they are finally replacing these because the current ones are terrible. The hard drives in them break easily as well as the power supply. I would have been on my third replacement, had it not just ran out of warranty.
 
Although the timeline fits I don't get this, Apples routers can't run 3rd party firmware. You can't even download the European firmware for one bought in the US or vice versa.
 
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I've had Apple routers since the grey/snow alien ship models (~2001 ish) and most generations there after.
However we've been wanting some more control and visibility that we lost in the Apple models a few years back.
So I was just shopping around thinking about an asus rt-ac5300, or an asus rt-ac88u

but perhaps I'll hold off for a little longer, in case this supply means Apple has something new and shiny coming out.
 
Why are people still buying these?

There are gobs better WiFi routers these days with far newer standards. Also people want backup solutions and storage that are many terabytes if they care to store things at home anymore and not the cloud. Not 1 or 2 that Apple wants to offer for a considerable price.

Personally, Apple should get out of this particular market of crappy over designed accessories for a shrinking market.
 
I was actually looking to pick up a 2TB time capsule 2 days ago. Explains why I couldn't.
 
I have been having the infamous issue of of needing to reboot my Time Capsule on a daily or multiple times daily basis thanks to Cox Cable and their new version testing. I know Apple is well aware of the issue. I'm hoping this new firmware update solves things. I've been waiting for it!!

Anyone know how I go about updating my Time Capsule's firmware?

Thanks!
 
Weaselboy said:
I don't think this is the issue. All this FCC requirement does is require wireless router manufacturers to update to a firmware that prevents the installation of hacked firmware builds that enable either unauthorized channels, or power boosts to authorized channels. Apple has known this is coming for over two years now and they could have easily rolled that firmware into the production line for their wireless devices during that time period if this is the issue.

As I understand the FCC rule, I believe Apple's routers are already compliant with this requirement anyway. Apple's router firmware appears to be closed source and I have not seen any hacks to enable the issues the FCC rule addresses.

This FCC rule is IMO aimed more at routers that allow open source packages like some of the WRT variants to be installed on their routers. Asus just rolled out an update that will block variants of these packages that can access the relevant wireless settings.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on this topic on the Asus Merlin firmware threads on SmallNetBuilder the last couple months or so.
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Agreed....do you see any other router vendors pulling all their old stock? If it was because of the FCC regulation, they'd all have to be doing what Apple's doing.
 
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