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Apple Now Selling Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi System But Will Continue Offering AirPort Line

Airports have always been the simplest and most workable solution for me. Even in small office settings where I could connect 3 or 4, plug in shared printers, and get dependable communication between people/devices. I've used Airports since the first spaceship.

I'd love to see Apple retool the AE to enable Mesh and then offer a 'space gray' version that would blend better in many settings.
 
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As a Mac user for over 25 years. I am beginning to hate Apple trying to sell 3-5 year products at full price with old components/tech. Mac mini (HP have a much better PCmini), Mac Pro, (I know a new one is due, after 4+ yrs). The ridiculous requirement to take your new shiny iMac Pro to an Apple store or authorised dealer for additional RAM. Wasting precious driving time, precious waiting time etc. When it takes 3-5 mins on an iMac. No screens, 4K or 8K, no 17" laptop, no new iMac screen size, it's still 27" from 2009. We want 30", 32" or 34". Not just 27". Apple is now just a phone company. It manages to update the phones every year with minor updates. What about software Apple? Apple released loads of great software from Appleworks, iMovie, Aperture in the early days. When was Pages, numbers, keynote last updated (not dumbed down) with features to take on Microsoft?? Those products are useless for anyone apart from 10 year old kids. Business users and professionals have been screwed over by Apple with inferior products but with superior prices. Quality control means nothing to Apple anymore. Things don't work anymore, they always need fixes. Can't remember when Apple had anything innovative, in the last 10 yrs apart from the iPhone. Mac Users might as well get the highest spec models available and not replace it for at least 5 years. As only then will Apple have anything new worth upgrading to.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
What's the issue with the current AirPort Extreme? Offers the current speeds. Works better than most sub-$100 routers too.
Click to expand...

But its not a sub-$100 router...its $199. And it is certainly outperformed by similarly-priced routers as well as the new mesh routers.

If Apple isn't planning to keep things updated, they should discontinue the products or cut the price. This applies to AirPort, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, and various other forgotten Apple products. It really is outrageous.
 
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FightTheFuture said:
Linksys products are what drove me to Airport. When I upgrade my Time Capsule, I'll likely go the Eero or Google Mesh route.
Click to expand...

Agreed -- I would rather Apple update the AirPort / TimeCapsule lineup than do this. I'd also rather they make their own 5K display rather than going with LG. Part of what makes Apple great is everything working together and being supported together (no finger pointing when you call for tech support).

I've got 3 x Aiport Extreme base stations in my home that are connected via a wired gigabit backbone and each extending the network in my large home to every corner. You don't need mesh routers to do that when you have Cat-6 Gigabit network wired in your home. Even the AirPort routers do wireless network extension, so I'm not seeing what the LinkSys routers are suppose to provide that is "better".
 
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Delorean2006 said:
Ive had fios for years not and still used my airport until it couldn't handle the workload I was throwing at it and had to finally replace it.
Click to expand...
It pooped out when I could NOT use it at the time back in 2008 and I could not get the TV GUIDE updates to work. I had coax for the TV and the WAN for the apple, but FIOS told me I had to use the WAN with the COAX in the FIOS router to get guide updates. Thats ok, I was hoping for an Apple Mesh System but they sadly neglected that market.

But again love the Google WIFI MESH.
 
I bought a Velop system last year, and it has worked really well - I bought two so I could cover a three story house but one node alone is plenty strong for the whole house, even located in the basement! So I ended up not even using the second node and loaning it to a friend, who then bought it from me... I had a Time Capsule providing WiFi before, so what I did to keep it running was to hook it into the Velop, configure the Time Capsule in Airport Utility to stop providing network, so now it is basically a network drive that happens to be fully Time Machine compatible (from what I read, may be the only option for a fully Time Machine compatible NAS).

I would love if Apple would make a simple NAS version of the Time Capsule, just a simple device that would connect to the network and provide backups for all Apple devices in the house.
 
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Looking at the photos on the Apple Store page, I don't see a USB port. Nor do I see a port for an audio jack. So if I have non-wireless printer, peripherals or speakers and want to integrate them into my wi-fi system, how exactly am I supposed to do this? I suppose by buying a lot of supplementary gear that jacks up the price of the whole deal and reintroduces all the ugly cables and clutter these things are supposed to eliminate.
 
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Man, why does apple kill off so many cool products? Killing off Aperture really hurts me because I dislike Lightroom, and I don’t know any good alternatives. The AirPort also seemed like a pretty good product that I might have purchased in the future if they had stayed committed to it
 
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The Airports are vastly more simple for the average person to install, configure and manage. I run 4 Airport Extremes with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks in our 4-floor brownstone. Coverage is incredible, speeds are fast and they are (relatively) unobtrusive.

The extreme difficulty configuring the 3 unsightly, multi-antennae LinkSys eyesores are what drove me to paying such a ridiculous price for the Airport Extremes. Home networking should be simple. Linksys fails (failed?) to deliver simple.

Yes, an Airport Extreme is expensive but the Airport software makes it super-simple for a relative networking neophyte to set up and configure even in a multi-frequency extended configuration. And (so far) they seem less vulnerable to the security woes that seem to be uncovered regularly on LinkSys products.
 
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AirPort is one of Apple's products that has "just worked" for me. I have an Airport Extreme for Internet over a 3000 square foot house and works fine. And I have an AirPort Express connected to Audio Engine speakers for rocking out—it's also connected to my Hue Hub.

Sad to see them not continue with the products. On the other hand lately it seems Apple updating a product is not always a good thing.
 
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Bought 4 Eeros for my house - 2 up, 2 down. Never looked back, haven't had a single networking issue since. 190 down, 15 up, 24/7 from anywhere in my house. Probably 30+ devices on our network between all the iPads, iPhones, iMacs, Macbooks, ATVs, etc., etc.

The Eeros are a little pricey, but for not having a *single* problem in the past 12 months+ ... worth every penny. The management app is dead simple.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
What's the issue with the current AirPort Extreme? Offers the current speeds. Works better than most sub-$100 routers too.
Click to expand...

Every Extreme I've owned needed constant reboots to make work properly. And that's over the course of YEARS, so if there were ever to be a fix, they had plenty of time to do so.
 
I was so lucky to sell my AirPort Extreme, and I will never ever buy Apple accessories. Apple introduces something brilliant what works, then updates firmware to remove features and at the end it kills the product!
Same happened with iDisk, frontrow and many other features in OS X and iOS. Bah bah bah
 
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