Apple Announces Time Capsule

[ilogic]

the silly sh#$ is that, Apple preaches all in one devices!! now they have 3 different wireless devices, that opt different features! - for me its a huge blow, my external data is important to me and my back up is important to me... they want us to make more purchases when they have it in their power to correct it with one freakin firmware update!

 

[Chris F]

I hope this product will cause Apple to fix the current AEBS + USB + Time Machine issues.

The fact I own and AEBS and an external USB disk which I can not use with Time Machine (and doesen't work so hot at all TBH) and then they go and release a product that does exactly that greatly damages my opinion of Apple.

 

[Spike Lightfoot]

I'm assuming the drive's performance is far superior to that of an external drive connected via USB?

No, it's still has to be limited by wireless bandwidth. That's one of the things that irks me about Time Capsule: for wireless users there's no improvement in performance over the APE.

 

[synth3tik]

due to lack of OS or airport update I doubt they are helping out us that can not use our NAS drives.

This keynote kind of sucked.

 

[MoSha]

Missing the point

Quote:
Originally Posted by citi
It is obvious that this is the reason wireless hd backup never worked. They were coming out with time capsule from the very beginning.
$20 iPod Touch update.
No video card upgrade path for last gen Mac Pros.
Time Machine crippled to sell a new device.

What the heck is wrong with Apple?

Air disk was time machine feature that never made it into the release version. The problem from posts at the time seemed to be the formatting of some of the external hard drives interfering with time machine. Time machine needs to work consistently for all users. The best way to assure consistent and safe backups would be to have an apple supplied and formatted hard drive. The most controlled environment that one can find but safest and natural for a company that "does the whole banana".
You were not screwed, it was just that the best implementation of the feature changed. Anyway thats my take on this.
Hope that helps.

 

[Thistledown]

Restoring

Can you do an install restore with Time Capsule? Specifically, if I have a catastrophic drive failure in my laptop and replace the drive, can I boot off the Leopard DVD and perform a Time Machine restore? I know I can do this from a firewire drive.

 

[EagerDragon]

If it can support multiple machines backup-up to it then some sort of partitioning must be going on, but I guess it depends whether this is hidden from the user or if its up to you to assign space and control permissions.

UK Prices:

500Gb - £199
1TB - £329

Time machine is suppoced to create a master directory at the disk level and inside that directory is suppoced to creat a sub-directory for each of your systems to contain all the versions of the backups.
Each machine is kept separetly with no particion so the space on the drive is used as needed and not limited to the partition size.

 

[redwin11]

We'll have to wait and see, but if Apple have chosen to keep it a Router with Internal HDD and not much else (as the name would suggest) - then surely they've missed a trick.

Combining two products that most computers users actually need (wireless router and back-up drive) is a great move, and I will more than likely buy this once my router packs in as i need a new external back-up at some point.

BUT...imagine if this could be used, essentially, as your home hub (nothing to do with BT for the UK readers) - being able to transfer files, music and movies to and from your desktop, laptop, mobile and ATV, as well being used as your main back-up? Then it would become an almost must-buy product and you would not have to worry about having such a large HDD on your computer (Macbook Air, anyone?)

In fact, what would have stopped Apple combining this with the ATV?
It could have sat under your TV, doing everything it needs to, and you simply use your TV to not only navigate through your files in a menu system (if need be), but also use it to download movies through the ATV menu - straight to the HDD.

Like i say, i still think the product has potential, especially if you CAN use it as storage as well as back-up, but surely the iHub® would have whet more appetites - and you can be sure they'd have sold more of those than ATV and this together.

 

[Mydel]

Air disk was time machine feature that never made it into the release version. The problem from posts at the time seemed to be the formatting of some of the external hard drives interfering with time machine. Time machine needs to work consistently for all users. The best way to assure consistent and safe backups would be to have an apple supplied and formatted hard drive. The most controlled environment that one can find but safest and natural for a company that "does the whole banana".
You were not screwed, it was just that the best implementation of the feature changed. Anyway thats my take on this.
Hope that helps.

He? What you talking about??? Its enough to format the drive?? Do you think that its Apple HD?? Its regular drive....Server Grade...Very funny

 

[ilflyya]

Let the whining begin!

Folks,

I'm no expert in computers, but I do know this, computers never appreciate or work as first advertised! When I shop for a car, I know NEVER to buy the first model...EVER. First models have quirks that need to be worked out. This goes with computers, I'll let someone else buy the new stuff, praise and complain, and then I make a choice, only after careful research. Don't be an early adopter unless you have money to burn, or can justify the purchase.

I also look into what I REALLY need as far as my computer set up/wireless network. Airport Extreme looks great, but it had problems, I read about them on here and other blogs, so I steered clear. If you didn't do this, maybe you should have? Lesson Learned. Also, a no brainer, Keynote was coming up and highly advertised on the web, so why not wait? I don't feel bad for those who bought an extreme weeks before. Lesson Learned. Time Capsule looks great, but I don't need it yet with my current set up, and I'll wait to see how it really performs.

I'm actually not too impressed with the Keynote. Apple Rocks, don't get me wrong! My personal hopes were for Blu-Ray drives. I'm not going to waste any money on anything until that happens.

As with anything, use common sense. Apple is a company out to make a profit like everyone else, learn the game, and go with the flow. Buyer remorse should be motivation enough.

 

[lazyrighteye]

yeah...as I read between the two products, I thought, wait, this is airport extreme with a hard drive. Why couldn't they just update the firmware in airport extreme? Sucks for people who already bought one.

It is obvious that this is the reason wireless hd backup never worked. They were coming out with time capsule from the very beginning.

I just realized precisely the same thing. Ugly, ugly realization.

Ditto that.
I bought an AEBS a few weeks ago and have been shopping HDs.
Was a bit miffed to learn TIme Machine does not support wireless backup to AEBS. Now I see why.

Sucks.

What's are Apple Store return policies on, say, a brand new AEBS?

Crap...

 

[alst]

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.

Obviously Time Machine wireless backups can be done....Time Capsule proves it.

This isn't released for 2 weeks. Patience people....

It has a built in airport extreme. Apple isn't stupid enough to expect people with existing AEBS to junk them simply to get this functionality. So there is nothing to lose by releasing the update to the AEBS firmware, or 10.5.2 to solve the problem. They won't lose sales...

But, and this is only a theory mind you, by pulling the functionality in Leopard knowing full well that Time Capsule was coming, they have probably held a few people off buying the airport extreme and another vendors hard drive.

So now, anyone who wants an airport extreme would be mad not to buy a time capsule instead and Apple make a bit more profit off of the premium for the hard drive.

As long as there really isn't a fundamental problem with external USB drives being used versus some sort of internal SATA link then I would be very surprised if the AEBS + external USB with Time Machine never arrives.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Does this mean no AirDrive support (ie USB-attached drive + AEBS) for Time Machine?

Ya, I am not very amused by this. Welp, anyone wanna buy an AirPort Extreme Base station ? Brand new, only used 2 times.

 

[eme jota ce]

I wonder if they'll give everyone that's been screwed with the Airport Extreme a refund. Shocking that they haven't even fixed the problems with AirDisk and they go brining out a new product like this.

I called customer service. Apple will allow anyone to exchange their AirPort 802.11n base station for the Time Capsule -- as long as you bought your base station within the last 14 days.

The customer service rep fully understood that I had purchased during the Leopard pre-release and that it was reasonable for me to conclude that Time Capsule is a Hardware replacement for the missing Leopard / AEBS feature, but wanted to make sure that Apple customers understand how long 14 days is.

 

[EagerDragon]

As far as I know NAS drives (TODAY) can not be used with Time Machine. There maybe some hacks out there and I think someone posted the name of "iTimeMachine" as an option. I would not try it under any condition, it is my data being backup, I want to make sure it is safe and that it will continue to work from system upgrade to system upgrade.

I agree with you all that Apple needs to fix the AirDisk, it will create too much bad blood otherwise and maybe a suit or two.

I personnaly plan to buy the new device as it does everything I need and I needed a 802.11n router anyway. Price is comparable and it is actualy promised to work with Time machine. I have 3 Macs to backup and I am tired of moving the current drive from system to system.

 

[ilogic]

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.

Obviously Time Machine wireless backups can be done....Time Capsule proves it.

This isn't released for 2 weeks.


As long as there really isn't a fundamental problem with external USB drives being used versus some sort of internal SATA link then I would be very surprised if the AEBS + external USB with Time Machine never arrives.

I hope you're right, is there somewhere we can nag apple so they know our grief?

 

[combatcolin]

OK sure, but you still need either a upnp device or to use a NAS that supports the streaming. The Time Capsule itself won't be sufficient for streaming.

I think you have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick.



The end of said stick i was implying obtains content from certain places that may or may not be a tad naughty and not have any DRM placed in them.

Stick may also be connected to a certain type of wire that might be a bit Limeish, stick could also be used in torrents of water that might have bits in them.

 

[ascender]

I called customer service. Apple will allow anyone to exchange their AirPort 802.11n base station for the Time Capsule -- as long as you bought your base station within the last 14 days.

Interesting.... I wonder if that would be on some sort of rebate system? So you buy your Capsule, take delivery, then send your AEBS back with proof of purchase?

I think Time Capsule is a great device, but the whole Airdisk shambles has soured things. Airdisk simply isn't reliable and shouldn't have been released in its current state as its clearly buggy. Just check out all the threads on here and the Apple forums.

 

[MrCrowbar]

Interesting.... I wonder if that would be on some sort of rebate system? So you buy your Capsule, take delivery, then send your AEBS back with proof of purchase?

I think Time Capsule is a great device, but the whole Airdisk shambles has soured things. Airdisk simply isn't reliable and shouldn't have been released in its current state as its clearly buggy. Just check out all the threads on here and the Apple forums.

Is "AirDisk" only referring to a disc attached to the AEBS?
I want to get a Mac Mini, hook up a USB drive to it and use the (shared) Drive to backup my Macbook that would be on the same network. In other words, does Time Machine work with shared drives?

 

[ascender]

Yes, Airdisk is the term Apple uses for sharing a HDD via the USB connection on the Extreme. But it doesn't actually work that well at the moment....

 

[SolRayz]

I called customer service. Apple will allow anyone to exchange their AirPort 802.11n base station for the Time Capsule -- as long as you bought your base station within the last 14 days.

The customer service rep fully understood that I had purchased during the Leopard pre-release and that it was reasonable for me to conclude that Time Capsule is a Hardware replacement for the missing Leopard / AEBS feature, but wanted to make sure that Apple customers understand how long 14 days is.

Yeah but what about people who bought an AEBS after 14 days with the anticipation of Time Machine Airdisk support...besides that, Apple needs to seriously release updates for the AEBS in general. It has been nothing but flaky when trying to access AEBS through Airport Utilities since day one!

 

[chaird]

I have had a airport extreme since June 07 and finally just bought a 1TB my-book pro from best buy last week it was 349. I am planning on returning he hard-drive and buying the 1TB time capsule as long as you can also share it as a hard-drive. I really wish apple would have just fixed time machine and allowed wireless back ups from the start.

 

[mojohanna]

So 3 weeks ago I spent $159 on an Airport Extreme and $120 on Leopard so I could plug my $120 HD into for Time Machine when they finally updated it to support backups wirelessly. Now Im out all that. Unbelievable.

No you are not. Its not like the stuff you just bought is going to stop working now. You will get good use out of everything you purchased.

 

[combatcolin]

please delete me let me go.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.

Obviously Time Machine wireless backups can be done....Time Capsule proves it.

This isn't released for 2 weeks. Patience people....

It has a built in airport extreme. Apple isn't stupid enough to expect people with existing AEBS to junk them simply to get this functionality. So there is nothing to lose by releasing the update to the AEBS firmware, or 10.5.2 to solve the problem. They won't lose sales...

But, and this is only a theory mind you, by pulling the functionality in Leopard knowing full well that Time Capsule was coming, they have probably held a few people off buying the airport extreme and another vendors hard drive.

So now, anyone who wants an airport extreme would be mad not to buy a time capsule instead and Apple make a bit more profit off of the premium for the hard drive.

As long as there really isn't a fundamental problem with external USB drives being used versus some sort of internal SATA link then I would be very surprised if the AEBS + external USB with Time Machine never arrives.

Backing up over wireless works fine. Although slow for the base backup, snapshots are quick. There are some minor quirks to it.

However, I have been backing up 2 laptops over wireless (and wired) since Leopard has been released. (Over SMB, to a Linux server) It works fine.

If you are backing up to a remote Leopard installed machine it also works fine. (Over AFP)

There is *NO* reason Apple couldn't make the AEBS work with Timemachine. Apple decided to go the Time Capsule route to make more money off it. Who can blame them ?

However, I am not going to dump money on it. Not only is it cheaper to buy drives outside of it, I am not going to dump a bunch of cash on a device that does storage for 1 thing. The 2 TB existing system I have, I can use for more then just timemachine storage. I also store media there and SVN backups.