Apple's Retail Stores Running Dry of AirPort and Time Capsule Stocks?

[tlinford]

Prize time.

A new Airport Extreme would be nice, along with AT LEAST a $50 price cut. $180 for that thing is ridiculous, especially with similar routers going for well under $100 (sometimes under $50) from other manufacturers...

This comment deserves a 'daft' award. I agree that the price does seem high, BUT, these devices work like no other I've yet to come across.

The ease of setting up an extended network is unbealiebaly good. I started with an express device in our apartment, it was driving two USB printers wirelessly. Faultless performance...

When we moves into a bigger house, I got an extreme set this up as the network hub and bridged my express... I also set up a hard drive onto the extreme.. The whole network was a doodle to set-up and I have had over a year of faultiness performance. With many devices attached to it at the same time, 2 laptops, 2 iPhones and now an iPad... Networked printers and hard drives for time machine for two laptops.... Configured in minutes....

My only complain might be that Apple might be offering me something I can't resist.... And I cannot justify replacing the network hardware!!!!!

 

[mstrze]

They have way too much brand "Air" pollution (Airport Extreme, Airport Express, Airport Extreme Base Station, Airplay, Airdrop, Air Tunes, Macbook Air, etc.)

Dropping "Airport" from what is actually a wifi radio (name didn't make sense to me on the Macs) would make sense. I see the "airport" as the router/hub, not the laptop/planes connecting.

Although the Airport name has been around for more than a decade. It's a legacy, well-known item and dropping that wouldn;t make a ton of sense honestly.


And as for other comments...I would hate to see a combined ATV and Airport, since my internet does not feed into my home near my TV, so I would have to do some re-wiring.

Someone brought up a 3G (or LTE) modem inside the Extreme...that's a very good suggestion and with Apple's recent history of stand-along modems (iPhone, iPad) this seems the most likely to me and would be a perfect reason to update the Extreme. Maybe allowing 3G as an option, but still allowing the usual Ethernet-connected modem internet connection as well. Boy, it would be nice to still have an internet connection if my cable internet ever goes out.

 

[SBeardsl]

I hope that this allows the printer you share over the Airport to be used for Airprint.

There were patent issues with AirPrint over Wi-Fi to things other than HP printers. (I assume but can't confirm the patents belong to HP and HP didn't want to license away a competitive advantage from their printer line). Apple might be able to program around them, or not, but that was why it was pulled when almost working.

 

[maroontiger2k9]

this is a really exciting opportunity for Apple to add more value to the iOS devices and TV

(probably wont happen but..) i wish they could add HOME SHARING functionality where you can stream to your iOS devices w/o having to have a computer running with itunes open... and for apple tv, to be able to stream to the apple tv at will w/o having a computer open with home sharing on

PLEASE ADD A 7200RPM HDD.. and RAM upgrade please!!!!

if apple could make the time capsule into a device that supported HDD upgrades, that would be great as well

id also like to see some 3GB, 4GB options available to allow RAID backup options..

i just hope that apple doesnt drop the ball and release a time capsule this year with mediocre updates

 

[revelated]

And the other routers perform better for less money.

Not with Apple computers and portables, they don't. Apple's hardware plays extremely nice with the Airports/Time Capsules. They don't do so hot on non-Apple routers. Not only my own experience, but numerous discussions on the issue.

I do agree that a price drop is warranted though. $149 at the most for the Extreme. $79 at the most for the Express. Time Capsule is the worst offender of them all - with drive prices and given it's nothing more than an Extreme with a basic hard drive in it the Time Capsule should be no more than $200 for the 1TB version, $229 for the 2TB version. I'm serious.

 

[onetoescape]

Could it be a buffer and or cache being added to it for the icloud?

 

[bradkrischel]

Wouldn't be surprised to see a Thunderbolt port on it

 

[doctor-don]

Not really. The cheapest I have seen a 2TB external HDD is just under $100. There's no way Apple would offer a 2TB drive with an Extreme thrown in (which is essentially a TC), for just $100 more. Heck, a 2TB external from Apple without AEBS capability might cost you 200...then throw in the AEBS circuitry for an extra $100?

My speculation...and it's just that....is that a plain old AEBS will cease to exist and all will get HDDs added, so essentially they will only sell Time Capsules...starting at $200 for a 1TB. $300 for 2TB? $350-400 for 4TB?

And I am only saying this cause AEBSs are disappearing off the shelves and like others, I cannot for the life of me think of what they could be doing to improve the product. Leads me to believe it's a wholesale change into a TC...you'll get an internal drive for just a few bucks more than you'd pay for the current AEBS.

My ONLY complaint about my AEBS is the heat it generates. That's why I raised it off the surface with a stand that allows air to circulate under it.

Including any HDD in the AEBS will only lead to a shortened life as the HDD life is finite.

 

[theOtherGeoff]

Could it be a buffer and or cache being added to the icloud?

I see all airports getting several GB of RAM storage... and all time capsules being multi-TB plus a a couple GB of RAM. Then they become part of a staged storage system.

This has been my theory for at least a year (iOS 4). time capsule and airport extremes are 'near line' caching of your data... upstream (backups) and downstream (same, and purchased content). Now each device only really needs to store a few % of the media, allowing the rest to stream from a local caching server.

Long term... I can see P2P caching of common data (the patent on 'partial' content delivery... think a licensed torrent... apple seeds a new movie... all the Airport Extreme's TimeCapsule that get it then are part of the torrent to supplement the download to other nearby (same ISP) users), to both offload Apple's data center and pipes, and keeps most traffic to your iDevice low latency in your home.

How does this help. I definitely see stuff like Facetime being able to expand to 'conference calling' (my router is part of the traffic management, minimally handling the multicasting of my signal out, and ideally, doing the buffering of all the inbound information (IP packet buffering is better the closer it is to the core and to the core transport speeds)

Finally, getting this to the edge allows for your domicile to better participate in the cloud services. Your laptop can now sleep. Your iPad can now be turned off. your local data services are just part of your network... always on (if you want them to be), and when you get to podunk ohio, you can click on 'my folder' and get 'your stuff,' either from the Apple iCloud, or from your personal server back home... or both.

 

[toddybody]

Although the Airport name has been around for more than a decade. It's a legacy, well-known item and dropping that wouldn;t make a ton of sense honestly.


And as for other comments...I would hate to see a combined ATV and Airport, since my internet does not feed into my home near my TV, so I would have to do some re-wiring.

Someone brought up a 3G (or LTE) modem inside the Extreme...that's a very good suggestion and with Apple's recent history of stand-along modems (iPhone, iPad) this seems the most likely to me and would be a perfect reason to update the Extreme. Maybe allowing 3G as an option, but still allowing the usual Ethernet-connected modem internet connection as well. Boy, it would be nice to still have an internet connection if my cable internet ever goes out.

It would have to have a MAJOR size reduction and internal battery for that to be useful.

Whats the point of a mifi station that isnt portable? Chances are, if you have 3G reception in your area...youve got high speed internet as well (much less DSL).

...Are you going to pay $30.00+ a month for capped data, just for occasions when "cable internet ever goes out"?

 

[mingoglia]

It figures since I just bought 2 Extreme's like 2 or 3 weeks ago. One for home, and one for the office since I was tired of all the Linksys routers that would fail every few months.

 

[toddybody]

I see all airports getting several GB of RAM storage... and all time capsules being multi-TB plus a a couple GB of RAM.

Sorry, but Apple beat you to it. Its called a Mac Mini

 

[rdlink]

Well my Linksys 610N has been on for a year without a reboot, and that was because I moved. Before that it was turned on for two years with no reboot. And my parents' wrt54gc has also been on for a year or two now with no problems. Also the interface is quite similar. I'm not saying anything bad about the Airport extreme, but from my experience the Linksys router are top notch.

Never said Linksys doesn't make good routers. As I said, I've owned several myself. But my post was referring to the statements that the AEBS is overpriced compared to similarly featured devices.

And I'm not calling you a liar, but I have owned/configured/supported enough Linksys routers to know that two years without a reboot makes you a very rare exception. In fact, there is a 610N sitting outside of my office right now that generally gets rebooted once every month or two.

And your statement that the "interface is quite similar" makes my point exactly. Looking for "interface is identical."

 

[extradryny]

D/A conversion upgrade?

If I could have one wish for my AE, it would be an upgrade to its poor D/A converter. Haven't seen that mentioned. Love the functionality and ease of use of Airtunes but the sound quality is.. ugh.

I have a Gen 1 TC, so I'll assume my position on TC upgrades needs no clarification, i.e. "yes please". Although surprisingly enough, mine is still chugging along (at approx. 8,000 degrees and with quite a racket, but chugging nonetheless).

 

[flopticalcube]

They have that 3*3 MIMO stuff. Bumps 802.11n to 450 BM.

AEBS and TC already do this. Have done for the past 2 years.

If I could have one wish for my AE, it would be an upgrade to its poor D/A converter. Haven't seen that mentioned. Love the functionality and ease of use of Airtunes but the sound quality is.. ugh.

Use the optical output to an outboard DAC. I'd rather Apple kept the cost down.

 

[DJinTX]

Yes! Hopefully everyones predictions about it incorporating an iTunes server are true. Only yesterday I was thinking that as leaving my computer on just doesnt seem the best option.

And please whatever they do get away from the horrible white. Nice aluminium / black combo please like the Macmini and a nice black for the AEX! White id for washing machines and dishwashers.

Between white and black I choose white. Most people have white walls in their houses, which makes the Airport much easier to hide or blend into surroundings. Ultimately I like aluminum, but this isn't so great for wi-fi signals. Although, I guess Apple could punch a ton of micro sized holes in the aluminum for the signal to get through.

 

[Tup]

The addition of PPoA would be helpful. As it is though stuck with another modem bridging PPoE to PPoA.

 

[bigwig]

Funny that people always reference Netgear and Linksys nearly exclusively - try Draytek Vigor instead!

I've never heard of them before.

 

[grapefruitx]

It is difficult to guess were there going with this, sort of stuff i would like, USB 3 Firewire, is unlikely. Apple will want to add services, My guess would be some sort of IOS device, for serving up stuff they can sell from Steve's Cloud. with networking thrown in for "free" cos it has to do that stuff anyway

 

[old-school]

I bought one of these (Airport Extreme) at the weekend.

Any chance they will let me take it back so I can get the new one they bring out?

 

[kingtj]

Eh... depends ....

I have to agree that the Airport Extremes are VERY good wi-fi routers, all in all. They do justify paying a premium price. I've tried a LOT of different makes and models of wireless routers over the years (especially since I have a side business where I do a lot of these installations for other people), and few are better made and more reliable than the Airport Extremes.

On the flip-side though? If you want to do really advanced things with your router, you'll have far more configuration options and flexibility with something like a Linksys that's been custom re-flashed with the "dd-wrt" firmware. But for 98% of the people out there, Apple covered the features they'd ever want to use.

The device I think needs to go away is the "Time Capsule". The fact that it only holds one hard drive is a major weak spot, IMO. After all, you can pretty easily throw a USB or firewire external drive on any Mac in your house and do your Time Machine backups directly to it -- and those have gotten dirt cheap. (I've seen 2TB external USB drives going for as little as $79-99 on sale occasionally at retail stores in town.) They're going to back up and restore far faster than a Time Capsule too, since they're attached directly to the machine.

If Apple wants to offer a centralized network backup solution, they need to make a *real* NAS box out of the thing! How about a little cube-shaped box that holds 4 hot-swappable SATA drives in trays? Better yet? How about a web-based control panel for it where you can enable a feature to make it act like another Mac on your LAN sharing a video/music library stored on it in a special folder - so even your AppleTV can play from it? Now THAT I'd buy real fast!

This comment deserves a 'daft' award. I agree that the price does seem high, BUT, these devices work like no other I've yet to come across.

The ease of setting up an extended network is unbealiebaly good. I started with an express device in our apartment, it was driving two USB printers wirelessly. Faultless performance...

When we moves into a bigger house, I got an extreme set this up as the network hub and bridged my express... I also set up a hard drive onto the extreme.. The whole network was a doodle to set-up and I have had over a year of faultiness performance. With many devices attached to it at the same time, 2 laptops, 2 iPhones and now an iPad... Networked printers and hard drives for time machine for two laptops.... Configured in minutes....

My only complain might be that Apple might be offering me something I can't resist.... And I cannot justify replacing the network hardware!!!!!

 

[mstrze]

My ONLY complaint about my AEBS is the heat it generates. That's why I raised it off the surface with a stand that allows air to circulate under it.

Has this been a problem for you? My AEBS and older ATV1 were hot, I agree with you there, but it never affected performance. In fact, since the outside was so hot I felt confident that the inside was being cooled due to conduction of the heat from inside to the outer casing.

It's not like I ever needed to hold these items or put them on my lap. They are on desktops or in entertainment system furniture and they have just worked without issue for me and for millions of other folk. My ATV1 was just replaced last month, but worked perfectly (and still does for its new owner) for 3 years and my AEBS is still going strong at just shy of 4 years. I had not done anything special to dissipate the heat that is supposedly causing it major damage.

 

[4nNtt]

New A5 based airports? iPhone app for configuring? Better support for airplay? Built-in AppleTV? Maybe a new home server version of time capsule? iTunes Library on time capsule?

 

[BeachChair]

I could see it become like a local iCloud server. Host all your media locally for wifi speed advantages when you're at home, supplemented by Apple's servers hosting your iCloud when you're on the go.

iCloud Home, $199.

A local repeater of whatever you have in your iCloud, syncing automatically with Apple, and backing up iPhones, iPads, Macs and everything.

 

[asr]

Antenna

Id love to see a unibody aluminum Time Capsule with a SATA III bay (user accessible)...starting at $100.00 ...that would be stellar

I posit that the aluminum unibody design would be a poor choice for a wireless router. The aluminum would block the wireless radios' signals pretty effectively. The unibody design works with the MacBook Pros because the antennas are in the black (plastic) hinge cover. However, while cutting a hole in the aluminum (á la iPod Touch antenna) works for an iPod or MacBook, the AirPort Extreme is intended to support up to 50 wireless clients simultaneously, so one would want maximum throughput. A plastic-covered hole in the unibody might be enough to allow a percentage of the wireless signal to pass through, but not nearly as high of a percentage as if the entire case was plastic (hence the current design). Aesthetically speaking, I would suspect a change to black plastic (think: Apple TV) before aluminum.