Anyone Know of NEW AIRPORT Hardware???

[rashdown_online]

Does anyone know if the mighty Apple are in the process of updating teh Airport range of devices?

I've got the old White Airport base startion and haven't used it for a while as I don't have a house and it's in storage. However, I'm going to get a new pad cool: ) and as such want to get the Airport up and runnin gagin, but would like to get with the program and get speedy (bethere.co.uk @ 24Mbps!!!) So it would be quite ironic that for the first time in my history of personal computing that the LAN side of my network becomes the bottleneck!!! Can't be doing that!!

So before I go and splash out on an Airport Extreme infrastructure and the occasional AirTunes here and there, I'd happily wait a bit to get some new fast stuff!!!

Any news would be appreciated!!!

 

[Peace]

Does anyone know if the mighty Apple are in the process of updating teh Airport range of devices?

I've got the old White Airport base startion and haven't used it for a while as I don't have a house and it's in storage. However, I'm going to get a new pad cool: ) and as such want to get the Airport up and runnin gagin, but would like to get with the program and get speedy (bethere.co.uk @ 24Mbps!!!) So it would be quite ironic that for the first time in my history of personal computing that the LAN side of my network becomes the bottleneck!!! Can't be doing that!!

So before I go and splash out on an Airport Extreme infrastructure and the occasional AirTunes here and there, I'd happily wait a bit to get some new fast stuff!!!

Any news would be appreciated!!!

The standard Airport specs are 802.11g which is 54Mbps

 

[Mal]

That would be Airport Extreme, you mean. The Airport station you have now won't be enough, but the Airport Extreme is plenty. I wouldn't be surprised to see an 802.11n Airport from Apple sometime in the next few months though.

jW

 

[cubist]

I wouldn't buy the Airport Extreme if you already have the white Airport. 802.11g is not 5 times faster than 802.11b; in practice, it's only about twice as fast. Also, third-party wireless routers (e.g. Netgear) are much cheaper than Apple's Airport hubs, and completely compatible, so if you did need to buy something, you should go that way.

You might consider the Airport Express if you have a stereo you want to stream music to.

Apple's involvement with Intel should give them a leg up on the forthcoming 802.11n stuff that skywalker mentioned. That should be interesting, with longer range and higher speeds. The best idea would be to wait for that stuff to come out before spending any significant money.

 

[nutmac]

The first draft of 802.11n was approved unanimously today (Apple is among the members). 802.11n has raw thruput of 540 Mbps (10 times 802.11g) and greater broadcast range than 802.11a or 802.11g. Of course, real life performance with all the overhead will be considerably slower (but probably still in the excess of 100 Mbps).

If I recall, Apple released AirPort Extreme Base Station when first or second draft of 802.11g was approved. So 802.11n-based AirPort is coming, but when is anybody's guess.

 

[Epicurus]

i think it is safe to assume some stuff is coming for April 1st, the new AirPort possibly being one such item.

802.11n would seem like a logical upgrade, as would a new design/form factor. The Express package is pretty nice, but there is room for improvement. A price drop couldn't hurt either.

The thing is, if they update the wireless spec after the MacBooks have been out for a while, they'll need to provide a simple upgrade option. ExpressCard options seem like as good an option as any. I'm not sure if anyone has bothered to see if the AirPort card is accessable on the MacBooks. Maybe they will ship with "pre-n" hardware that just needs a firmware upgrade to work with the new "official-n" AirPort Base Stations.

All I'm looking forward to is a streamlines AirTunes capable of streaming video to my TV. My iMac is upstairs and my TV downstairs, so I'm not exactly running an S-Video cable between the two. How about an AirPort Express AV? Toss in AV in/out and let it stream the cable/satellite signal back to the desktop and I'd be set. Why cripple a perfectly good Mac mini by making it a DVR tied to the TV when you can cut the cables with AirPort and put the mini wherever you want?? Of course the AirPort would end up having an IR port so you can use your "Apple Remote". I wouldn't expect much more than the standard Front Row interface at first. Apple isn't exactly going to make it easy to record TV right away, not while its video store is still in its infancy.

I'm hopeful we'll see some fraction of this in the coming months. Of course, Apple could sidestep the whole AV issue by simply putting out a 42" iMac/mini DVR.