Apple Officially Discontinues AirPort Wireless Router Lineup [Updated]

[bitslap47]

So maybe now they will make sure their software and hardware both work properly with non-Apple WiFi routers.

For example:

- iTunes match would not work properly to upload your own music... it would just hang. Only ever worked for with an Airport Extreme.

- I cannot get any of my Apple TVs to use my homepods as speakers for the Apple TV unless I use an Airport Extreme.


I literally have to have a second WiFi network hosted by an Airport Extreme just to solve Apple software and hardware compatibility issues.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

I’m a long-time Apple fan, but it’s starting to feel like they now want to trap you inside their ecosystem - as opposed to you deciding to stay.

Look at iPhone:

• It provided an industry standard 3.5mm jack to connect it to any 3rd party music playing device or speakers.
• That jack is also gone.
• We still have Bluetooth, but how long will that last?

At least as long as Apple sells AirPods which operate using... bluetooth.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Apple is finally openly acknowledging their push into selling consumer electronics that they have been doing for a long time, abandoning computer products as they focused on gadgets.

Apple is becoming the next 'Sharper Image'.

 

[dermeister]

Really makes you wanna drop a couple thousand dollars decking out your house with HomePods.

Apple's habit of making a new product from an ad-hoc team, then redeploying the team to other things, and finally reaching a point where nobody knows how to update the product or cares and then discontinuing it really does suck. They discontinue it because nobody is buying it and nobody is buying it because they aren't updating it and they aren't updating it because there is no dedicated team.

I normally wouldn't care about no AUX on HomePod like I don't care on iPhone, but on the HomePod it actually makes me think I'll end up with several HomeBricks in five years.

 

[mono1980]

Not sure why Apple doesn't just buy Eero and be done with it.

 

[thadoggfather]

I love my AirPort Extreme I got a while ago now... shame they've made this EOL

...don't need to tinker with custom firmware to have a stable consumer grade router...

speeds and signal are really good (I don't care about benchmarks compared to Linksys Wireless AC, its theoretical and doesn't matter to my 200 down connection), and I never mess with anything. its plug and play.

it sucks Apple is pretty much really just a phone manufacturer at this point, it feels hobbyist like to indulge in their other offerings.

 

[loybond]

Fellow countryman... bookmark redflagdeals.com. I've got gigabit internet for $70/mo. You can currently get 500mb for around $37 I believe.

Cell... 10GB unlimited talk + global sms/mms for $60. Had the 6GB for $50 since 2012.

Here in Canuckle-land. I've got unlimited data 200mbps for < 70/mth for home internet. However, the Cell providers are still charging roughly $90-$110 /mth for 4-6gb of Data.

 

[fairuz]

Broadcast storms aren't really a thing anymore, at least in enterprise networking equipment. I'm not sure about the consumer tech. STP isn't terribly expensive to run though, so you'd think they'd support it.

When I found our switches' lights going nuts due to the loop, I thought the same thing, what about STP? My guess is they don't want to introduce that complexity. Almost all consumer networks are just one router and one switch. Airport devices made it easy to set up networks with multiple wifi access points and such, but even with that, nobody wants anything other than a tree (fault tolerance isn't necessary).

 

[jon9091]

So, goodbye Time Capsule (which saved my butt quite often). And I’m still using my Airport Express to stream music. I’m in the market for a new laptop right now...I think it’s time to break with the Apple eco-system.

 

[LordVic]

Cell... 10GB unlimited talk + global sms/mms for $60. Had the 6GB for $50 since 2012.

whose your provider. going to eventually ditch B(h)ell. but i'm currently on a 10 year old grandfathered plan for $50/mth for unlimited texts, voice calls, longdistance, but only 2gb of data a month. When I call to renegotiate, they refuse to offer me anything close to that for less than $90 /mth

Was looking at Freedom, But right now where I live (About 50km north of Toronto), I'd be in an out of roaming, which they charge extra for.

And yeah, Last time I negotiated with Roger's for home internet, they didn't have gigabit in my area yet. But it was brand new. (as is, I'm paying $150 for my internet, 4k Cable package, home phone, and it all comes with full streaming logins to all the channels for online use, so Really not complaining about my home package, I would never complain about gigabit speed upgrade though!)

 

[fairuz]

Do people seriously believe AirPort “got [Apple] to the top”?

Having a good ecosystem did. This includes hardware, as uncool as it is.
[doublepost=1524850958][/doublepost]

I love my AirPort Extreme I got a while ago now... shame they've made this EOL

...don't need to tinker with custom firmware to have a stable consumer grade router...

speeds and signal are really good (I don't care about benchmarks compared to Linksys Wireless AC, its theoretical and doesn't matter to my 200 down connection), and I never mess with anything. its plug and play.

it sucks Apple is pretty much really just a phone manufacturer at this point, it feels hobbyist like to indulge in their other offerings.

This. People here saying that other router/wifi combos are better just don't get it. We aren't building enterprise networks but nice home setups. But Airport works great for smaller offices too.

 

[loybond]

That 10GB cell deal is/was available on the big 3 + their sub brands, I'm on Virgin. They even gave me a $120 credit this year for the f of it; they're good. You just gotta watch that website I told you, deals pop up all the time. They discuss how to get deals too (if you're grandfathered etc.). My gf has a 1GB tablet plan with Virgin for $5 and uses Fongo for cell calls LOL.

Freedom sucks in the GTA, I wouldn't recommend it. I get speeds of 100 mbps+ most of the time in the GTA on Virgin LTE.

Eh, I notice like zero difference with gigabit from 250. And I use newsgroups and stream 4K.

whose your provider. going to eventually ditch B(h)ell. but i'm currently on a 10 year old grandfathered plan for $50/mth for unlimited texts, voice calls, longdistance, but only 2gb of data a month. When I call to renegotiate, they refuse to offer me anything close to that for less than $90 /mth

Was looking at Freedom, But right now where I live (About 50km north of Toronto), I'd be in an out of roaming, which they charge extra for.

And yeah, Last time I negotiated with Roger's for home internet, they didn't have gigabit in my area yet. But it was brand new. (as is, I'm paying $150 for my internet, 4k Cable package, home phone, and it all comes with full streaming logins to all the channels for online use, so Really not complaining about my home package, I would never complain about gigabit speed upgrade though!)

 

[CharlesS]

However, I do wonder: What will they recommend to replace the Time Capsule for networked backup purposes? We can still do Time Machine backups to local USB drives, but retiring the Time Capsule leaves a big hole for this application.

Most of Netgear's current routers support Time Machine via an attached USB hard drive. I set up one of these for my aunt a year ago, and it works pretty well.

 

[fairuz]

So maybe now they will make sure their software and hardware both work properly with non-Apple WiFi routers.

For example:

- iTunes match would not work properly to upload your own music... it would just hang. Only ever worked for with an Airport Extreme.

- I cannot get any of my Apple TVs to use my homepods as speakers for the Apple TV unless I use an Airport Extreme.


I literally have to have a second WiFi network hosted by an Airport Extreme just to solve Apple software and hardware compatibility issues.

I think your other router just sucks. Airplay, iTunes services, etc all work with our non-Apple routers/switches in various apartments. All of those things operate at layers the routers should be indifferent to, but some routers are nosy and apply things like firewall rules incorrectly.

 

[LordVic]

That 10GB cell deal is/was available on the big 3 + their sub brands, I'm on Virgin. They even gave me a $120 credit this year for the f of it; they're good. You just gotta watch that website I told you, deals pop up all the time. They discuss how to get deals too (if you're grandfathered etc.). My gf has a 1GB tablet plan with Virgin for $5 and uses Fongo for cell calls LOL.

Freedom sucks in the GTA, I wouldn't recommend it. I get speeds of 100 mbps+ most of the time in the GTA on Virgin LTE.

Eh, I notice like zero difference with gigabit from 250. And I use newsgroups and stream 4K.

Thanks for the headsup. I always forget about redflagdeals. I'm on 150u and I probably wouldn't notice the gigabit speed upgrade. there's only two of us using the connection, and we both can stream 4k netflix without problems.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

This says it all: "focus on the "consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue."

Until it does not, as diversification is lost.

Because the next "in" thing, that tickles the consumer mass, may catch Apple with its pants down. History is riddled with one-time technology leaders that now occupy the pantheon of failed corporations.

 

[liberte1776]

LAME!

I also can’t believe Apple STILL has no app to access Time Capsule via iOS!!!

 

[thadoggfather]

Having a good ecosystem did. This includes hardware, as uncool as it is.
[doublepost=1524850958][/doublepost]
This. People here saying that other router/wifi combos are better just don't get it. We aren't building enterprise networks but nice home setups. But Airport works great for smaller offices too.

amazing to get them for the family too- never ANY issues or troubleshooting needed which is a godsend and cannot be overstated

the internet works or it doesn't,

 

[ccsicecoke]

I’m done with Apple. No more new Apple product for me until Someone like Steve Jobs comes back. I’m sticking to Mac running OS X 10.9 and phones and iPad running iOS 6. Time capsule 3TB latest gen and 2TB last gen.

 

[Xavier]

I knew this was coming so I switched out my Time Capsule with a Netgear Nighthawk and never looked back. It's really too bad this happened. I liked my Time Capsule.

I just bought the Nighthawk. Eager to give this a go over my Airport Extreme 2nd Gen. I was waiting on a possible refresh to upgrade but, as I said earlier, time to try a new router. Looking forward to the performance boost!

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

I’m done with Apple. No more new Apple product for me until Someone like Steve Jobs comes back. I’m sticking to Mac running OS X 10.9 and phones and iPad running iOS 6. Time capsule 3TB latest gen and 2TB last gen.

Bye bye. Cook isn't getting replaced any time soon. He's brought them to a new level of profitability and increased sales to a level they've never seen before. Investors and employees are very happy with him. There's no chance of him leaving any time soon.

 

[Apple Corps]

Don't knock it 'til you try it. My personal experience comparing the first-gen Eero mesh system with the latest (2013) AirPort Extremes is that my wireless throughput with the Eeros is anywhere between two and a half to nearly ten times faster than what I was able to get with the AirPort Extremes depending on the device I'm using. The Eeros have been the most "Apple-like" third-party hardware I've used in years.

And what exactly does that alleged throughput get you? We run multiple devices on our AEBS set up w/o delays or buffering. If COMCAST can deliver it our AEBS WiFi can rout it.

 

[MacSince1985]

I wish Apple would make Airport Utility work with third party routers (at least a selection of them) and make it easier to use Time Machine with a 3rd party NAS.

Ease of use was the thing that made the Airport lineup better than other options. Yes, Airport Utility has limited functionality, but it allows you to create a home or small office network in no time. And having a Time Capsule recognized automatically as soon as it's connected to the network makes backing up a breeze (especially for those who don't want to send everything to the Cloud).

 

[Apple Corps]

You don't understand anything about networking if you think Apple's routers are the best. Apple rarely updates the firmware, so there are many open unfixed vulnerabilities and they are nowhere near the best when it comes to performance. Why would they be when they are years old?

You may not understand anything about the real world performance that decision are often made on. The AEBS more than handles our WiFi data with multiple 4k streaming and multiple video / photo editing software exchanges going on.

 

[iTuna]

A shame. It has always been such a nice piece of hardware to use with the Apple ecosystem.

I sort of hate seeing Apple getting out of peripherals, but I suppose its difficult to remain competitive.