Anyone see the new airport express?

[TC400]

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

Because I sure in the hell didn't.
Thats twice this week Apple announced two new products kind of under the radar.
The new iPad smart case and now this?
AM I MISSING ANYTHING ELSE?
-.-

 

[nuckinfutz]

I'm buying this.

Had me at Dual Band. Ethernet LAN port is just cream on top.

 

[drsox]

I bought one on the first day. It's been in use for a few days. Does what Airport Extreme does wrt Wireless. Unfortunately that means there is no setting for 802.11n 5Ghz only (has dual band 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz). This means my MBA usually connects at 2.4Ghz instead of 5Ghz. Sitting 10 feet away from it means 144Mbps vs 300Mbps with the older Airport Express.

 

[papelboyl1]

Can I plug this in straight to the wall socket? Thanks

 

[spillproof]

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

Because I sure in the hell didn't.
Thats twice this week Apple announced two new products kind of under the radar.
The new iPad smart case and now this?
AM I MISSING ANYTHING ELSE?
-.-

A tiny post was posted in the Mac Blog. Check there for all the little things even MacRumors considers small. https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/11/apple-introduces-redesigned-airport-express/

Can I plug this in straight to the wall socket? Thanks

No, it has a cord (but no power brick).

 

[Weaselboy]

Can I plug this in straight to the wall socket? Thanks

Nope. It has a separate power cord which totally ruins it for me. I have the last gen. Airport Express and it is perfect for travel because there is no cord to drag around. I understand the benefits of dual band, and that is a nice feature add for the home user, but for travel I think the last version was a much better design.

 

[NewbieCanada]

.

 

[papelboyl1]

Thanks for the replies ☺☺☺

 

[SR45]

Nope. It has a separate power cord which totally ruins it for me. I have the last gen. Airport Express and it is perfect for travel because there is no cord to drag around. I understand the benefits of dual band, and that is a nice feature add for the home user, but for travel I think the last version was a much better design.

Agree, and I wished Apple would have kept the current size with Gigabit capability.

Side Note:

Checked out the manual section for the new airport express (Date June 11th 2012) and it came up with the older smaller model instead. What is wrong with Apple in goofing up the Manual section ?

http://support.apple.com/manuals/#peripherals

 

[paulrbeers]

I bought one on the first day. It's been in use for a few days. Does what Airport Extreme does wrt Wireless. Unfortunately that means there is no setting for 802.11n 5Ghz only (has dual band 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz). This means my MBA usually connects at 2.4Ghz instead of 5Ghz. Sitting 10 feet away from it means 144Mbps vs 300Mbps with the older Airport Express.

You know, you can set which network you prefer to connect to (i.e. the order of preference) in your network setup. This will ensure you connect to the 5ghz band instead of the 2.4 if both are available....

This is true for OSX and Windows....

 

[drsox]

You know, you can set which network you prefer to connect to (i.e. the order of preference) in your network setup. This will ensure you connect to the 5ghz band instead of the 2.4 if both are available....

This is true for OSX and Windows....

I don't think I can do that if both bands have the same SSD.
Sorry, just had another look at the Airport setup. There's a second screen with the option to give the 5Ghz SSD a different name. Is that how I do it ?

Cheers.

 

[paulrbeers]

I don't think I can do that if both bands have the same SSD.
Sorry, just had another look at the Airport setup. There's a second screen with the option to give the 5Ghz SSD a different name. Is that how I do it ?

Cheers.

Yep. I recommend you set it so one is like "MySSD" and "MySSD 5GHZ", that's how I do it. Then I just make sure that "MySSD 5GHZ" is my preferred wireless and that it falls back to "MySSD" only if for some reason the 5ghz band is down....

 

[drsox]

Yep. I recommend you set it so one is like "MySSD" and "MySSD 5GHZ", that's how I do it. Then I just make sure that "MySSD 5GHZ" is my preferred wireless and that it falls back to "MySSD" only if for some reason the 5ghz band is down....

Yes, I tried it and it seems to work OK.

Some oddities :
1. I have an Extreme as the router with some 1st gen Expresses and 1x new Express. Before I made any changes, the Airport Utility correctly displayed the tree with the Extreme at the top. Now, the new Express is at the top "connected" to the Internet (no) and the Extreme underneath (ha)
2. I tried the 5Ghz add-on, but it was confusing, so I have given the bands 2 different names and set the order with the 5Ghz one first. That way I can use the 5Ghz named one also in the Expresses that ONLY use 5Ghz and keep the current name for the 2.4Ghz ones. So far so good.

Yes, I am sitting 10 feet away from the new Express and I am connecting at 300Mbps on 5Ghz. Success !!!!

Cheers

3rd oddity :

The MBA would rather connect to an older Express at 5Ghz one floor down at 60Mbps than the Extreme one floor up at 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz, even though it's nearer. If I go 1 floor up, then the connection is to the Extreme at 300Mbps and 5Ghz.
Carrying the open MBA 1 floor down preserves the Extreme connection (nominally at 300Mbps), but sleep/re-awake switches again to the Express.
Nope - It's gone back to the Exteme at 180Mbps - so logical after all.

 

[paulrbeers]

3rd oddity :

The MBA would rather connect to an older Express at 5Ghz one floor down at 60Mbps than the Extreme one floor up at 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz, even though it's nearer. If I go 1 floor up, then the connection is to the Extreme at 300Mbps and 5Ghz.
Carrying the open MBA 1 floor down preserves the Extreme connection (nominally at 300Mbps), but sleep/re-awake switches again to the Express.
Nope - It's gone back to the Exteme at 180Mbps - so logical after all.

I've seen this too. I have 3 Airport Extremes (one for each floor and yes it is completely excessive). My Macs seem to randomly connect to the various Airport Extremes regardless if it is the closest one or not. I've stopped caring for the most part. I've read various articles on using the same SSD for multiple wireless hot spots and it seems that the hand off from one access point to another isn't always handled the best (i.e. even though there might be a stronger hot spot near, it might retain connection to the weaker/further away hot spot). Anyway, I figure unless I am doing file transfers, my internet connection is a bigger bottleneck so I've stop worrying too much about it.

 

[drsox]

I'm only bothered because WiFi is the only practical connection for the MBA, iPad and iPhone. As long it is responsive then I'm OK - but there is a big difference in MBA response between 300Mbps and 100MBps. Doesn't seem to bother the iPad and iPhone.
All the other stuff is wired into a CAT6 LAN. I'm installing a MacMini as a server to do the heavy file shifting between NASs, to be controlled by the MBA.

Cheers.

PS We might compete for the excessive title. I have a tall, long house (think L shaped) with 1 Extreme and 5 Express units.

 

[smellalot]

I bought one on the first day. It's been in use for a few days.

Does it support client mode like the last version? I've seen sb mention they dropped support for that, which would be very odd. Basically you would have to use it with another apple airport and would loose the ability to just use it with any wireless access point.

 

[drsox]

How would I test this ? I only have Apple WiFi stuff. Is there a screen option somewhere ?

 

[jclardy]

Question for those that have it...can you use your Mac/iPad power brick wall connector to plug the new AE straight into the wall?

It appears to be the same design as the AppleTV and the Apple TV works with it, but you can't reach the HDMI port as the adapter blocks it.

It is a bit of a hacky solution, but seeing as when I travel I always take my power brick plus the cable/direct adapter for it then I could plug it in using whichever I am not using. And for non-travel usage I would rather have this up on my desk rather than under it.