My APPLE House - Multiple Questions.

[Trhodezy]

Hey there (first post!)

I have several questions but first; Here is my current Apple setup at home.

My two brothers, sister, mum and dad are ALL WINDOWZ USERS. they are completley aginst my Apple setup as it is, and me being me i thought ill make it worse, for them .

iMac 21.5 2010 i3 - for my personal 'Power-housing' use. i.e. Web design etc.
iPod touch/iPod Nano - Touch for my Sound system, Nano for music on the go.
iPhone 4 16gb - For, erm, Phone usageness?.....
iPad 16gb - For portable computer goodness

Now I want to add onto this (not just to irritate the family)

I want to buy the three following items:

Apple TV 2nd Gen
Apple Time Capsule 500GB
AirPrint enabled Printer.

Now here are the questions:

1. Can i purchase the TC 500GB and then plug in my External HDD? for a total of 820GB (500GB + 320GB) So i dont have to spend more on a 1TB TC.

2. Do you like the sound of my final Apple Setup?

3. When do you think the next refresh for; Time Capsule, Apple TV will be? Should I wait for the refresh?

4. Whens the next Apple Keynote? - The CES is on the 6th of Jan.

5. Is the TC worth buying? As i KNOW the Apple TV is worth every Pence.

6. Is it possible to connect any old Printer into my Time Capsule/Router and then will i be able to print wirelessly?

Im against having wires around my home, they are so irritating! so im trying to make everything Wireless.
Also (SORRY! for all the Q's)

I have decided that I will Refresh one of my Apple Products ever year (Good idea?), as alot of my friends which are apple fanatics spend A HELL OF A LOT on refreshing their Apple products each time Apple refresh their range of items, and im trying to avoid doing that . Good idea or not so good?

I think thats all the Questions i have, LOL.

If you can answer Any of them, i'd really appreciate it. If you have any other information which may help me or interest me, please do tell!

Thank's very much in advance,

Tom.

 

[brucem91]

1: you probably could, but I don't think it will be read as a 820 GB HDD, but rather two HDD's will appear on the desktop. You could probably raid them together, but I don't know how this will work over a network.

2: AirPrint enabled printer and TV2 sound like a good idea

3: TV won't have a refresh for a while, not sure on Time Capsule

4: Again, not sure. If I had to guess, April or May, unless they do something special

5: You mention you are trying to get rid of wires, so the Time Capsule is probably not worth it. I imagine it takes ages to do a time machine backup over wifi. I have an airport express, and I think transferring 1 GB of data over wifi takes about 20-30 minutes between computers. Over ethernet though(my dell can share wifi over ethernet), I get network transfers of about 1 GB a minute.

6: Yes, it is possible, I had that setup in my place for a while. However, it probably won't be airprint compatible.

 

[Trhodezy]

1: you probably could, but I don't think it will be read as a 820 GB HDD, but rather two HDD's will appear on the desktop. You could probably raid them together, but I don't know how this will work over a network.

2: AirPrint enabled printer and TV2 sound like a good idea

3: TV won't have a refresh for a while, not sure on Time Capsule

4: Again, not sure. If I had to guess, April or May, unless they do something special

5: You mention you are trying to get rid of wires, so the Time Capsule is probably not worth it. I imagine it takes ages to do a time machine backup over wifi. I have an airport express, and I think transferring 1 GB of data over wifi takes about 20-30 minutes between computers. Over ethernet though(my dell can share wifi over ethernet), I get network transfers of about 1 GB a minute.

6: Yes, it is possible, I had that setup in my place for a while. However, it probably won't be airprint compatible.

Thank you so much! perfect answer

So you think i should go with a AirPrint Printer and ATV? And then I could just use my 320GB HDD To back up the most important things on my Mac?

Again, many thanks.

 

[brucem91]

Thank you so much! perfect answer

So you think i should go with a AirPrint Printer and ATV? And then I could just use my 320GB HDD To back up the most important things on my Mac?

Again, many thanks.

Yea, that's what I would recommend.

 

[tbayrgs]

5: You mention you are trying to get rid of wires, so the Time Capsule is probably not worth it. I imagine it takes ages to do a time machine backup over wifi. I have an airport express, and I think transferring 1 GB of data over wifi takes about 20-30 minutes between computers. Over ethernet though(my dell can share wifi over ethernet), I get network transfers of about 1 GB a minute.

6: Yes, it is possible, I had that setup in my place for a while. However, it probably won't be airprint compatible.

5: Not sure I understand/agree with this reply. Connecting the TC to your iMac entails one wire via ethernet or as mentioned, backups will be completed wirelessly. What's the alternative? No possible way to have less wires w/o going wirelessly (which you discourage). Any other solution is going to require a minimum of one wire or will be wireless.

My $0.02--there are definitely cheaper router/backup solutions but personally, spending extra on Apple products that usually integrate so nicely with ease of use into an Apple ecosystem such as your own (and mine ) is worth it. Want to save a few bucks--get a refurb. Previous gen 1TB units (I have one, has worked great for year and a half) are $179 ($120 less than new) and you get same 1 yr Applecare warranty standard. There are concerns that many units seem to fail at about the 18 mo mark--get extended Applecare. Added benefit is that you can add on any size external via USB (great place to keep iTunes library for streaming to your new TV without eating up your iMac HDD). Or as you mentioned, you could...

Add on a printer. And contrary to the previous response, if it's already Airprint compatible, it will also be in this configuration. And FWIW, I implemented the Airprint Hacktivator/Activator workaround and now all of my shared printers are airprint compatible. Just a thought that would allow you to save a few more $.

 

[Trhodezy]

Thanks so much great reply

I decided to go for the TV and Printer - Both working flawlessly! as expected.

My birthday is in March so ive decided to wait out untill then for my next Purchase(s)

APPLE ECOSYSTEMS ARE FTW!

Tom

 

[Bibblejw]

Congrats on the printer and ATV! We've just got similar things at home, and they are very useful (currently in the process of recoding videos to work properly, and moving libraries around).

Might I make one suggestion WRT the time capsule idea? Given the proposed use, and the Windows users in the house, have you considered a Windows Home Server (please read the reasons before dismissing).

One of the HP models (I have a Datavault X311) would allow you to set up a (variable size) section for time machine backups, would allow automated backups of the windows PCs, and give you the expandability you are looking for (WHS does allow USB/eSATA to be integrated into the storage pool). It would also mean that you could ram it full of hard drives, and put your media on there, and even install iTunes and have it running as a permanent server to the ATV (which I believe that the Time Capsule is unable to do).

I appreciate that you are looking for an apple ecosystem, and this might not be what you are looking for, but I thought that i would mention it as a possibility that you may not have thought of.

Right, now I'll go and do what I came into the forum to do ...