Airport Extreme was $299.
i wish they had more controls.
but they just work, never had to restart them.
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Apple's Discontinued Line of AirPort Wi-Fi Routers Could Return in an Unexpected Way
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i wish they had more controls.
but they just work, never had to restart them.
That was in 2018… a time when top end routers were $200. Now we have top end Orbi mesh systems going for $2000. I wonder where Apple will land in that spectrum if they even bother to resurrect the AE.
The 'plain' AirPort extreme was $189 . Putting a 2TB HDD in the device is mainly what pushed the price to $299 .
"...
The AirPort Extreme Base Station is priced at $199.
The Time Capsules come in 2TB and 3TB variations and are priced at $299 and $399, respectively. ..."
Apple Announces New Airport Base Station and Time Capsule with Faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi
At today's Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller announced a new...
www.macrumors.com
Top end routers at the time typically have 4 LAN ports though ( again on Apple's general 'theme' of war on wired solutions ... which is odd for a high end router.) . They also didn't care if running Apple Phone/Mac to management them either. ( The Airport was a ecosystem moat ).
Vendors that have $1000 mesh systems tend to also have 3-6 other systems they sell at far more reasonable prices. If Apple did something it likely would be one and only one model. If so it won't be anywhere near that 'fringe' , hyper low volume end of the spectrum.
But we’d be paying for the hardware and then paying for the service, it wouldn’t make sense. iCloud backup currently is paying for the service which includes Apple buying/renting server space.
Also if we had the hardware, Apple would be in trouble if they didn’t open that hardware up to competition. So someone else would create a free or nearly free version. Apple will not do this, take that to the bank.
You’d have both. iCloud would mirror your ‘TimePod’ so you wouldn’t have to dial in to your home network to retrieve files but you’d have local access at home or in your small business. You could have both if you wished.
You could ask it to cache streaming media during the day to watch in the evening when the network is busier, keep a local backup of your MP3 collection alongside Apple Music and hoard your images allowing you to take ownership of your data.
Sure thing - I have a 2TB A1409 (4th gen, the short/squat one). Basically ran Airport Utility and shut off network mode, plus put it in bridge mode. eero has a handy how-to here: eero
Unfortunately your Eero can't be used as an Airplay 2 input for practically any receiver or amp ever made. Nor for TimeCapsule. Fortunately my by now ancient AirPort Express and TimeCapsules still work... My only sin, not having bought additional ones to keep as a future just in case replacement.
I couldn't believe Apple would never come back with replacements, or some third party would cover all of Apple's existing AirPort features. Neither happened.
Debating on doing something similar but after wife left, I moved from an entire house to one floor of a house. Don't really need too much for coverage.
The Apple Airport devices were some of the best in the business. It is a shame that nobody builds interfaces like Apple did instead of pathetic websites to manage the network devices.
I don’t think it’s the same for everyday users.
Even just their branding is a bit tech nerd off putting to a regular consumer.
What if....
Maybe a wild thought here, but here goes.... The yet unannounced Home device that's supposed to have a screen, mounted on a speaker also has a WiFi router built in, and the new HomePod mini's are all part of a mesh wifi network? I have 8 mini's scattered around my house, and the layout of these would make for an amazing mesh network.
I would purchase that in a heartbeat.
Maybe a wild thought here, but here goes.... The yet unannounced Home device that's supposed to have a screen, mounted on a speaker also has a WiFi router built in, and the new HomePod mini's are all part of a mesh wifi network? I have 8 mini's scattered around my house, and the layout of these would make for an amazing mesh network.
I would purchase that in a heartbeat.
I'm just wondering how many people want a speaker in the same location their router currently is at.
Mine is in a closet.
It used to be behind a TV and before that it was on a shelf in an office.
I've honestly never had a router in a location that's also where I'd want a smart speaker to be located.
Yep, I get it. Lots of logistics to work out. Just a thought...
If they get the engineering of the antennas right, having those HomePods spread around the house would certainly help with mesh networking.
For where I have things set up, an AppleTV + Router base station would actually be a good combo.
I'm not an expert on these things, but I did get some eeros a while ago & see quite the debate online about having too many hubs (or hatever they are called) on a mesh network causing issues. Having 8 homepods around the house seems like that could cause problems. But since they are likely in pairs, I'd imagine Apple would think to only enable networking on one of each pair, which should help.
This is obviously speculative, but it would be interesting to see them jump back in. Depending on what they came out with, I'd be willing to go back to them.