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Apple Quietly Updates Time Capsule (2TB and 3TB) and AirPort Extreme

Well Im convinced that there is something going on here regarding the APE. Here is my conversation from 10:15 Mt Time.

You are chatting with Cale M, an Apple Expert

Hi, my name is Cale M. Welcome to Apple!
Hello! How may I help with your shopping today?

I just received my new airport extreme in the mail. It is the MC340LL/A model. Im wondering what the difference is between it and the new version that just came out

We do not have any information concerning what the differences are between the two at this time.

if this one is new in the package can I exchange it at an apple store? I bought it off amazon and data vision was the vendor.

You would need to call the store and see if they would be able to take it back. Usually you would have to send it back to Amazon.

ok thank you.

Are there any other questions or concerns that I can help you with today?

No thanks Have a nice day

Thank you for visiting the Apple Store. We appreciate your business.
If you would like more help, please chat with us again.
 
William25 said:
Well Im convinced that there is something going on here regarding the APE. Here is my conversation from 10:15 Mt Time.
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What's your point in quoting an Apple chat protocol? It's not meant as an offense, but I can't see the context....
 
Sahib7 said:
What's your point in quoting an Apple chat protocol? It's not meant as an offense, but I can't see the context....
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Well, I felt that its strange because an issue like this should be cut and dry. Either there is a change in capabilities or there isn't. A non answer leads me to believe that there is and they don't want to talk about it. Im going to return my APE because I don't want to pay full price for outdated equipment. I thought I would share it just for informational purposes and save someone else the trouble. Thanks for your response
 
I am a bit dissapointed that there has not been a tear down of the new devices. Perhaps Apple has found a new way to ship to everyone but those who want to rip it apart.
 
William25 said:
Well, I felt that its strange because an issue like this should be cut and dry. Either there is a change in capabilities or there isn't. A non answer leads me to believe that there is and they don't want to talk about it. Im going to return my APE because I don't want to pay full price for outdated equipment. I thought I would share it just for informational purposes and save someone else the trouble. Thanks for your response
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More likely it is what it appears - the customer service folks don't know of any differences.
 
Oh well. My first gen 500GB still works and has enough space, so I don't think I will be upgrading. If the new TC's had the recently rumored features, I would definetly upgrade to the 2TB.
 
RamGuy said:
I'm not a huge fan of OpenWRT and sadly DD-WRT on the WNDR3700 doesn't work that well, making the wireless performance going all over the place.

When it comes to the wireless coverage, like I said the WNDR3700 seems to have somewhat directional antennas pointing upwards from the unit when it lies flat on the ground so unless you have placed it sideways or anything I have no hard time believing you are getting some really decent performance several floors up, but what about if you take a notebook and move to the side of the router?
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I played with mine when I first got it and tried putting it in different rooms, etc., especially for the 5GHz signal, which is not optimum (but works) on the other end of the house on the bottom floor (2.4 signal is decent there, but a bit faster upstairs even at a further distance). Two rooms back (i.e. ~60 feet) and one floor down the 5GHz signal is unusable, but the 2.4 one is still good. Moving to the center of the house didn't really help much except for the back room on the bottom floor (5GHz signal became usable, but not great). 2.4 signal remained similar regardless what part of the house I put it in. The signal was slightly better putting the router vertical (it has a stand for this and it takes up the least room that way so I see no reason to mount it horizontally unless you're going to put it on a very short shelf system or something), but the difference wasn't that great. I tried putting it in different parts of the room and at different heights. The effects were negligible for the most part.

I didn't get the feel that it was terribly directional at all, to be honest. It's currently sitting on the 2nd floor on one far end of the house on a desk using the vertical stand. I get full coverage in the house with the 2.4 signal and halfway into my backyard for that matter. The 5GHz signal is usable (although not always ideal and can lose signal sometimes) just about anywhere but the far back room (on either floor), but those rooms have like 8-10 walls between them and the den and 5GHz doesn't do well through walls like 2.4. The other end of the house is around 60 feet away to the AppleTV on the top floor and probably 80+ feet for the bottom floor (taking height into account). (that's 18-24 meters away)

The USB hard drive for UPnP and DLNA works best if you format it EXT3. It can get over 20MB/sec reads (that's MegaBYTES, not bits) that way. Writes seem to be around half that. It's not fantastic, but it's not terrible either. My 3TB USB3 drive connected USB2 to my PowerMac only does 18-20MB/sec reads, although it does do a bit better with writes than the Netgear setup (i.e. maybe 15MB/sec). If it were connected USB3, it supposedly gets 30-35Mb/sec. Both are still terrible compared to my 7200 RPMS Raptor 1.5TB 3.5" Sata drives in my PowerMac (which read over 100MB/sec and write well over 80MB/sec). I think the PowerMac itself may be limiting performance at times. My 7200 RPM 500GB 2.5" Hitachi in my MBP does 110MB/sec reads and 100MB/sec writes.

Our WNDR3700 is being used as and access point and I had to flip it sideways in order for it to reach from our hallway to the living room which is about 8-12 meters depending on where you decide to sit down in the living room.
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It sounds like something must be odd about your house construction. I get good reception at 2.4GHz 18-30 meters away inside the house and probably 35-40 meters away outside the house (and that includes broadcasting through two rooms). 5GHz probably makes it 20-25 meters depending on the time of day, probably only reliable to 20-22, though (works with my farthest AppleTV two large rooms away and downstairs, but not my Netbook on the far corner lower room of the house).
 
TC available in stores tomorrow, Friday

Asked the Apple store employee when the TC will be available, she briefly confirmed with coworker that it's ok to say, and told me that it will be available tomorrow morning.

No, they would not get one from the back and sell it to me now. :p

The store is still selling the previous version of the APE. I'll check tomorrow if they swap them out for the new version.
 
Uffish Thought said:
Asked the Apple store employee when the TC will be available, she briefly confirmed with coworker that it's ok to say, and told me that it will be available tomorrow morning.

No, they would not get one from the back and sell it to me now. :p

The store is still selling the previous version of the APE. I'll check tomorrow if they swap them out for the new version.
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I'm curious to know what you find out today. Has anyone else seen the new Time Capsules at the retail Apple stores yet? I'd like to pick one up this weekend.
 
Yesterday I bought a new 2TB time-capsule at apple store online, and just received today at morning (really fast shipping).


Is detected as 4th gen time capsule. Firmware 7.5.2.

After some tests I get these connection speeds with WIFI:

iMac 2011 - 450MBits/s (wifi 5Ghz) (same room)
MBP 2011 - 450MBits/s (wifi 5Ghz) (same room) | 277MBits/s (wifi 2,4Ghz in same room) | About 130MBits/s (wifi 2,4Ghz in other rooms)

AppleTV2 - 65Mbits/s (wifi 2,4Ghz) // 58Mbits/s (wifi 5Ghz) (all places into house)
iPad 1 - 65Mbits/s (wifi 2,4Ghz) // 58Mbits/s (wifi 5Ghz) (all places into house)
iPad 2 - 65Mbits/s (wifi 2,4Ghz) // 58Mbits/s (wifi 5Ghz) (all places into house)
iPhone4 - 65Mbits/s (wifi 2,4Ghz) (all places into house)


I can't compare with 3th gen timecapsule because i don't have it.

Comparing with my old isp router (comtrend VR3025un) (VDSL2 30mbps), this router is much faster and devices are getting better signal in all conditions.


Currently doing timemachine backups (700GB using 1gbit/s ethernet), is very quiet, but it gets very hot.
 
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Maybe the teardown people are having the same problem finding an AE on the store shelves as I am. I've been visiting my local store since Wed. with absolutely no luck at all. The local store manager didn't know as of yesterday that Apple had even put a new one out on the market until I told him yesterday
 
I was told to call/come back after 4PM. Sounds like the shipment was due to arrive this afternoon.

The employees will only tell you what they are allowed to say.
 
Man all these people gettin' their Time Capsules is making me anxious! I ordered mine the day it was announced. It didn't ship within 24 hours, even though it said it would, and the shipment is coming from Shanghai, so it won't be here until Wednesday. Next time I order from the online store I'll get the 2 day shipping, even though it costs more. I still don't think it would cost as much with 2-day shipping as it would to get it in the store, since the tax is so high here - it was much lower online.
 
With imac 2011 and 5Ghz wifi i get real about 20-25MB/s (wifi 450mbits/s) real speed.

Using gigabit ethernet (1000mbits/s) I get 80-90MB/s.
 
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mikepro said:
For everyone slamming this product as limited, not as good as NAS, etc, and promoting other solutions, such as Synology, isn't it true that those other Time Machine solutions will be broken in Lion due to it updating the Apple File protocol version? I understand some manufacturers like Synology are working on providing upgrades, but don't think they are there yet. So, one thing to remember is that while the Time Capsule may be "overpriced" for what it does, it does have the appeal of "It Just Works". As someone with an HP MediaSmart sever NAS setuo, I can appreciate all of the other awesome stuff that a NAS can do. But, it's Time Machine is essentially broken, and HP has stopped supporting it's WHS product line.

I am sooo sick of having to be a sysadmin at home, and work to get all of this crap working. Especially for something so essential as a backup solution. So, I'm ordering a Time Capsule. I wish it was cheaper and had more cool rumored features, but will be relieved to have such an easy to maintain backup solution that will just work with all my Macs. I'll still have my MediaSmart windows home server for other file storage. But, honestly, since I've gone all Mac, I may just sell that damn thing, and replace it with a mini and expand the storage with external drives.
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Agree. I just ordered the 2TB model. I was planning to get the base staion anyway. However, I purchased an NMH300 NAS from Cisco a couple of years ago. It was released with much fanfare and in a flash, support was gone and I'm stuck with 2 year old firmware.

I'm willing to pay a little more of the stuff will be kept up to date and just work.

BTW, anyone interested in a gently used NMH300? :D:eek:
 
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