This weekend is tax-free weekend in South Carolina, which means there is no sales tax on items that are commonly purchased by students before going back to school (clothes, computers, etc.). I took advantage of this today by buying my wife a 15" MacBook Pro along with a 1TB Time Capsule to replace our dying Linksys WRT54G router. Apple was also running a deal where customers got a free HP C4680 printer (after rebate), so I got one of these, too.
The Time Capsule seems to get a lot of flak for being too expensive for what it does, so I'd like to share the positives I've found after having set it up today that make it worth it for me:
- We're now a two-Mac, two-Phone family, so Time Capsule pretty much integrates seamlessly with these devices. I don't have to worry about any of the headaches or missing features that plague Windows users. Setting up the Time Capsule using AirPort Utility was a snap, and I especially liked the fact that I could choose the "replace an existing router" option which set up Time Capsule with the same SSID and encryption key as my previous router. All I had to do was choose my old router from a list of recently-connected networks and AirPort Utility did the rest.
- The USB port on the Time Capsule lets me share my new printer with both Macs as well as the iPhone. I printed a 4x6 photo straight from my iPhone using the HP iPrint app and it turned out great. I've yet to see anyone mention this nifty feature in a review of this device. Sure, you could get the same result if you were using a Mac or Bonjour for Windows to share the printer, but that would require purchasing a desktop computer that we'd be willing to leave running 24/7 (I have an old Windows machine that would have worked but it sounds like a jet engine).
- The dual-band router seems to be working really well. Both my wife and I have noticed a bump in our Internet connection speed (especially when streaming video) over our old router, and I suspect it's because we're connecting on the 5Ghz frequency and avoiding the interference from the six other wireless networks around my house.
I am backing up my computer to the Time Capsule, and yes it is taking quite a long time (I'm doing it wirelessly). I'm hoping that the incremental back-ups will be pretty quick. I've never been a back-up fanatic, so if the constant back-ups get in the way, I'll just turn off Time Machine and periodically put the files I care about on there manually.
Overall I feel it was a good purchase. I'll post more later if my impressions change.
The Time Capsule seems to get a lot of flak for being too expensive for what it does, so I'd like to share the positives I've found after having set it up today that make it worth it for me:
- We're now a two-Mac, two-Phone family, so Time Capsule pretty much integrates seamlessly with these devices. I don't have to worry about any of the headaches or missing features that plague Windows users. Setting up the Time Capsule using AirPort Utility was a snap, and I especially liked the fact that I could choose the "replace an existing router" option which set up Time Capsule with the same SSID and encryption key as my previous router. All I had to do was choose my old router from a list of recently-connected networks and AirPort Utility did the rest.
- The USB port on the Time Capsule lets me share my new printer with both Macs as well as the iPhone. I printed a 4x6 photo straight from my iPhone using the HP iPrint app and it turned out great. I've yet to see anyone mention this nifty feature in a review of this device. Sure, you could get the same result if you were using a Mac or Bonjour for Windows to share the printer, but that would require purchasing a desktop computer that we'd be willing to leave running 24/7 (I have an old Windows machine that would have worked but it sounds like a jet engine).
- The dual-band router seems to be working really well. Both my wife and I have noticed a bump in our Internet connection speed (especially when streaming video) over our old router, and I suspect it's because we're connecting on the 5Ghz frequency and avoiding the interference from the six other wireless networks around my house.
I am backing up my computer to the Time Capsule, and yes it is taking quite a long time (I'm doing it wirelessly). I'm hoping that the incremental back-ups will be pretty quick. I've never been a back-up fanatic, so if the constant back-ups get in the way, I'll just turn off Time Machine and periodically put the files I care about on there manually.
Overall I feel it was a good purchase. I'll post more later if my impressions change.