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Apple Ceases Development of 'AirPort' Wireless Routers as Engineers Reassigned to Other Products
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Since there has been no development for 3 years, it probably is not anywhere near the best. And even 3 or 4 years ago there were probably faster/farther ranged units available for less money. What it did well was being a relatively high performance unit that was very simple to set up and reliable for most people long term, and there weren't and aren't a lot of those type of units around.
No... perhaps in 15 years or so, but the most modern of best practices in terms of data backup (which is what your cloud comment seems to be pointed at) is to have AT LEAST 1 backup onsite and 1 backup offsite. having your data in the cloud is not a backup at all. However if you were to assume your data is on your computers hard drive (ie not in a folder that is being synced to the cloud) then having a backup of that data reside in the cloud is only HALF of the proper solution.
And restoring your data from the cloud (many hundreds of gigabytes typically) takes FOREVER... and with home internet companies starting to impose monthly data caps, restoring your 1TB hard drive from the cloud is going to cost you in overages on your home internet connection AND take up most if not your entire weekend.
Having a local copy resolves ALL of that (while still needing one offsite can be fulfilled by the cloud backup).
The point is that this incessant belief that the cloud is now and the cloud does all is retarded with the current state of things. At best, the cloud currently compliments traditional setups, but it will be a decade until it's reliability, pricing, and availability (significant portions of the US are still slave to DSL or dial up) actually reach levels that are acceptable.
Finally, proof that The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming.
This is deeply disturbing.
Desktops are also products at the edges nowadays.
Glad I sprang for the Lenovo M900. It'll likely play well with my new router when the old Airport Extreme finally gives up the ghost.
This is deeply disturbing.
Desktops are also products at the edges nowadays.
Glad I sprang for the Lenovo M900. It'll likely play well with my new router when the old Airport Extreme finally gives up the ghost.
Apple routers never had QoS. As someone about to enter the White House would say, "Big Problem!"
Apple, you lost me. Next up - Chromebook.
Apple, you lost me. Next up - Chromebook.
I think the addition of USB C actually makes the monitor better. In the past, you needed to connect 2 cables with the Thunderbolt Display (power and thunderbolt). Now, you need to plug in just one. The only thing you are potentially missing out on is the legendary Apple build quality.
And that was then. Apple was a lot smaller and less successful, and its shareholders might have been more willing to hold off on dividends if they thought Apple had better use for the money.
Today, Apple is a huge financial juggernaut, and most of its money is literally just sitting around collecting dust. To the investors, it's time to start seeing some returns. Else, why even bother investing in the first place? And it's not like Apple is short of money at the moment.
Steve might not have bothered with such stuff, but I believe he would likely just appoint someone to deal with this matter. It's just that Tim Cook is handle this personally since he is more the traditional CEO type of guy.
He didn't. Gene Munster if I remember correctly was quoted as saying Apple would never have paid dividends under Jobs, I'm not sure that is exactly true but he absolutely didn't pander to investors.
On the subject of Apple having plenty of money sitting around collecting dust, thats partially true. They have plenty of money outside of the US that they can't/won't repatriate. Tim Cook has actually raised Apples debt to pay the dividends and fund buy backs.
The constant focus under Cook seems to be one of trying to upsell customers into buying the more expensive model or device. It permeates nearly every product line now..
- The 21.5 4k iMac,released in 2015, base model ships with a 5400 rpm hard drive.
- The 16gb iPhone fiasco that went on far longer than was acceptable.
- culling of any products that dont ship in the millions or yield large margins. Even seemingly important ones like the Mac Pro*
- The storage situation on iOS devices that seems to have got more and more extreme. iPad Pro, marketed as a laptop replacement, starts as 32gb storage!?
- hiking of prices in response to falling sales (iPad pro again)
- Putting higher end features on the larger (more expensive) iPhone. Some of this can be passed off as space restraint on the smaller device but much of is a marketing decision.
This kind of nickel and diming shows that there is a focus on pleasing Wall Street as much as there is the customer these days. Remember the interview when Cook sat there next to Jobs while Jobs insisted Apple would not ship junk? That philosophy is certainly gone now.
*He gets the benefit of the doubt for now on the Mac Pro but it doesn't look promising.
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That sums it up nicely.
[doublepost=1479871713][/doublepost]Perhaps Apple should have just released a rose gold colored router to keep the execs still interested in making them.
I agree with you on a business side, but this signals a disconnect from the user base. When Jobs came back before the iPhone release he squashed a lot of non-core products, however this is a multi-billion dollar business at this point, and even the router business unit has to be profitable given the fact they haven't done anything game changing other than making a really solid set of routers over the years.
I have two airport extreme base stations and they make networking plug and play. It pissed me off when they changed the airport utility to limit the specifications, but I took it as the dumbing down of wireless industry. You used to be able to control how far the frequency went, and so many other specifications before the utility got updated a few years ago.
Either way, it was a really solid router that was beautifully designed with no antennae sticking out. So so sad this is being discontinued. This indicates a changing of the guard. Sometimes you have to look at the whole user base and their needs instead of profit margins. Jobs understood the the ecosystem, Cook does not.
Why doesn't Apple just make colonoscopy equipment since they seem to like sticking it to Apple users.
Yeah, this is sad. I agree this has been the best router I've ever owned. If Apple isn't married to their ecosystem I guess I'm not either... Google looks likes they have some pretty good products in the pipeline.
Wow, I remember that one time I set up my 2010 Time Capsule 6 years ago (that I'm using up to this very moment) and have literally never had a problem with it other than to update the firmware a handful of times. I remember using Belkin and Linksys routers that crashed every couple of days and had to be restarted over and over, then installing linux firmware and then only had to deal with them crashing every few weeks.
I was expecting a refresh sometime this year and I was going to be buying one on day 1 but I guess now I gotta find something else.
I was expecting a refresh sometime this year and I was going to be buying one on day 1 but I guess now I gotta find something else.
For a little light relief - head over to the official Apple support forums where the same old grand-wizards, weighed down with their diamond-encrusted 'levels' and 'points', are shutting down any conversation that suggests Airports may be on the way out. Posts are being deleted and heads firmly placed in sand..
Haven't had time to read this whole thread but here's what I think will happen to Airplay.
Apple will replace airplay with a Beats wireless solution. It will be very similar to Sonos systems. Beats were working on this when they were acquired by Apple. BeatsAir or something.
The days when any stereo or speaker could be turned into an airplay device for $100 with an airport express are numbered. The Sonos equivalent is more than $300.
This also explains why for so long it has not been possible to stream to multiple airplay receivers from iOS devices. This will be a new exclusive feature for those who are willing to pay the big bucks for a Beats system.
Apple will replace airplay with a Beats wireless solution. It will be very similar to Sonos systems. Beats were working on this when they were acquired by Apple. BeatsAir or something.
The days when any stereo or speaker could be turned into an airplay device for $100 with an airport express are numbered. The Sonos equivalent is more than $300.
This also explains why for so long it has not been possible to stream to multiple airplay receivers from iOS devices. This will be a new exclusive feature for those who are willing to pay the big bucks for a Beats system.
Yeah, that's what I said when I bought the 12.9" iPad Pro. "They're working on something big, for sure iOS 10 is going to be awesome on this huge iPad." A few months later I got the same phone OS with no improvements for the big screen.
If everything is in the cloud, how long do you think it would take someone to restore a Mac with an image size of say 750GB over the internet? In comparisan, how long would it take doing it locally?
If the Cloud can't offer better solutions than existing ones, then it's not a viable option for the masses.
Functionally, they've been way behind competitors for a long time.
After 4 iterations of AirPort Express and Extreme I left Apples WiFi solutions 2 years ago and never looked back. My current ASUS setup performs like a champ — way uglier than Apples stuff, but I can always count on its perfomance (speed, stability and range).
After 4 iterations of AirPort Express and Extreme I left Apples WiFi solutions 2 years ago and never looked back. My current ASUS setup performs like a champ — way uglier than Apples stuff, but I can always count on its perfomance (speed, stability and range).
Thats a shame. My Airport Express, even though it hasn't updated for ages, it performs well, has given no trouble, easily manageable, notified of any software updates easily, and has a nice companion app. I think it would still be a good market for them if they wanted to put the effort in. I think its bad decision, one of many they are starting to make now. hmmm
Totally agree. I produce music with my iMac - my backup is 1.85TB. That would be a nightmare in the cloud. My TC (with an additional HDD attached) makes alternate backups seamlessly and without fuss. Its probably the least needy bit of tech I own.
I wonder though what backup size the vast majority of users have? Perhaps a very high percentage of users would be quite OK with cloud backup? And Apple are very obviously going for the vast majority. Sucks for me though..
R.I.P Great Man.
Tim is a beancounter, Steve was a visionary.
Morons can't help themselves tho, maybe he's trying but he simply can't fix anything.
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The millions dollar question: Who (whom!) should I trust now for my computing needs?
Google: No Computers.
Microsoft: Windows is the hell I escaped from in the first place.
Linux: hmmm!
Apple knows that, we will complain but so far, no alternatives.
For someone who uses Desktop as media hubs, file servers and backups storage, I will just get a high end NAS, run Plex and call it a day. But for prosumers, it sucks.