Time Capsule: Has Apple even noticed *this*?

[Sesshi]

$21 less AND an extra 500GB hard drive. Are you dense? Read my post more carefully.

If it were just $21 less without the drive you'd make sense. But you have an extra 500GB drive you can use/sell/whatever.

You people really make me roll my eyes repeatedly. The sheep-like nature of most Apple customers is irritating. You're happy to spend a fortune and just take it in the rear, not realizing that if you STOP doing this, the prices will come down eventually.

It may be irritating but it's what makes them buy Apples these days. As a Mac user, are you any different?

To me, there are some (always non-critical - I can never actually fully depend on anything Apple from a business standpoint) elements of the way Apple gear works that I appreciate - Time Capsule and iPod being a couple of them. And if adjuncts like Time Capsule and iPod are fully usable even by the sheep, I'd rather have that as they are things I really don't want to worry about.

What's the price difference between sticking in your own drive? $100? Peanuts if you're willing to make the compromises that using an Apple OS brings in the first place. And if you're worrying about that inconsequential an amount, perhaps you should be among the bottom-feeders with the $500 DIY XP machines?

 

[IJ Reilly]

1TB bare hard drive from NewEgg: $179

Western Digital, the cheapest drives made. If Apple put these drives into Time Capsule to drop the price, a lot of people would be howling like stuck pigs.

Incidentally, from the day they came out, it was noted that the 500GB Time Capsule was the better buy.

And why pay a bit extra for an Apple product? If you have to ask...

 

[zorinlynx]

Know what's even more irritating? People like you who come on forums, say something that not everyone agrees with and then proceed to dole out insults.

I sent my letter to Steve Jobs about lowering prices today. I'll be sure to let you know when he gets back to me.

Excuse me, but you're the one that didn't even bother to read my entire post before responding in a way that shows you did not comprehend the entire thing.

Perhaps the insult was out of line, but it's frustrating when people don't get something that is plainly spelled out in the post. I have no quarrel with anyone, and am simply pointing out pricing weirdness, and providing a good idea for anyone thinking of buying a Time Capsule.

 

[johnsy]

$21 dollar savings? 500 GB cost $75 so total is $96. Minus your time, loosing warranty.

 

[Alan Taylor]

You all *vastly* underestimate how many people buy computers who do not have the technical know-how to replace the drive themselfs. Hell, a lot of the people I know would be suprised that you could buy a hard drive on it's own!

 

[coogee]

Apple really have cornered the market in apologists who will go the nth degree to defend their precious company.

The OP just pointed out you can sweeten the TC deal with a little effort and that Apple's pricing on the 1TB Time Capsule is, apparently, too much.

But let's all get the marshmllows on sticks and nestle by the flames building around this horribly deviant behaviour, questioning the APPLE MASTERS and their Holy Pricing Structure

I paid extra for a High-Quality Laptop and am pleased with it but Apple aren't perfect and many of their peripherals are a rip-off imo, why not stop pointlessly defending them and join with fellow consumers in spotting better deals/avoiding Apple's megaripoff products?

 

[Sesshi]

Apple really have cornered the market in apologists who will go the nth degree to defend their precious company.

The OP just pointed out you can sweeten the TC deal with a little effort and that Apple's pricing on the 1TB Time Capsule is, apparently, too much.

But let's all get the marshmllows on sticks and nestle by the flames building around this horribly deviant behaviour, questioning the APPLE MASTERS and their Holy Pricing Structure

I paid extra for a High-Quality Laptop and am pleased with it but Apple aren't perfect and many of their peripherals are a rip-off imo, why not stop pointlessly defending them and join with fellow consumers in spotting better deals/avoiding Apple's megaripoff products?

It's not that I can't understand your sentiment, but you guys are looking in the wrong places and complaining about the wrong company for a deal.

 

[IJ Reilly]

It's not that I can't understand your sentiment, but you guys are looking in the wrong places and complaining about the wrong company for a deal.

I understand the sentiment also, but I don't mind saying that I think it's repellant. Also, familiar. In the end, it's all about geek pride, isn't it?

Apple has always specialized in products that don't require an advanced degree to operate successfully. But sadly, for as long as Apple has done this, there has also been a significant amen corner for the idea that maybe this isn't such a good thing, inviting all those insufficiently geeky people into their private temple of technology. The most common way of arguing that maybe this isn't such a good thing (without saying as much) is to show how the components could be bought somewhere else for less money, concluding that anyone who is actually willing to pay more than the cost of raw components for ease of use and convenience is either an "apologist," or perhaps too dumb or ill-informed to know that they are being "ripped off."

 

[t0mat0]

<snip>

500GB Time capsule: $299
1TB bare hard drive from NewEgg: $179
----------------
$478

I wonder if Apple has noticed this yet? It makes them look like idiots! <snip>

Ah yes, making profit as a company that reports to its stockholders... Such an idiotic thing...

 

[johnsy]

If you check internet history in archive.org, you can see that Apple has not changed prices for almost anything- laptops are at the same entry point. Only iPods are less expensive. Of course you can say that you get more- more processor, more power and so on, but Apple can sell you anything as long as you pay entry price to the club.

 

[WPB2]

No, I won't "get over it". If we just sit here and smile at the high prices, they'll never go down.

Pointing out stupidity like this is the only way to tell a company "your **** costs WAY too much". If the sales of 500GB TCs goes up, and 1TB goes down, and Apple finds out people are doing this, they WILL lower the price on the 1TB TC. Why would they want to lose sales of a more expensive product because of this?

Don't sit there and take it when companies don't lower their prices to match the market. Pressure them to do so. It's the only way it ever happens.

The way you tell them is to not buy their products, they will get the point when their sales drop.

 

[gwsat]

There are a lot of reasons to buy Apple gear and a lot of other reasons not to do so. That doesn’t mean those in either camp are entirely right or entirely wrong. Consequently, I’m sure I will be pardoned for refusing to take entirely seriously either the Apple knockers (sorry, couldn’t resist) or the Kool-Aid drinking Apple apologists.

 

[johnsy]

competition is the power behind good service and good price. Look to my post about at&t. They do offer cheaper service, but that just to order them costed me 4 hours of time and money for phone calls. Plus I got impression that they totally don't care about your business. Go to apple store and they will take care of your needs. They will try to help you. Not just shuffle around from one point to other just because "of the system", "account" or whatever. All these things reminds me this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yBAibOQchD0&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VopgXjVFcqI


Of course apple should compete with others, because it will get lazy and greedy.



check out http://mises.org/

 

[Eraserhead]

There are a lot of reasons to buy Apple gear and a lot of other reasons not to do so. That doesn’t mean those in either camp are entirely right or entirely wrong. Consequently, I’m sure I will be pardoned for refusing to take entirely seriously either the Apple knockers (sorry, couldn’t resist) or the Kool-Aid drinking Apple apologists.

I think that is exactly right.

Apple products are often more limited, but work well within those limitations, which means if you don't have the time to spend with alternatives they are good buys.

If you are a 1337 haxx0r with little money they are generally very poor buys.

 

[IJ Reilly]

There are a lot of reasons to buy Apple gear and a lot of other reasons not to do so. That doesn’t mean those in either camp are entirely right or entirely wrong. Consequently, I’m sure I will be pardoned for refusing to take entirely seriously either the Apple knockers (sorry, couldn’t resist) or the Kool-Aid drinking Apple apologists.

If it were a matter of right or wrong, but I don't see where those values come into the discussion at all. Unless they effectively or realistically have no choice, people buy products which they believe suits their particular needs.

 

[paduck]

If you are looking to do backup/version tracking, TimeCapsule is certainly a reliable consumer option. The all-in-one router/wireless configuration is convenient and you get a good backup. If the backup dies, the only risk is that your original goes before you get the TC replaced.

Many people already have a router and want some flexibility with the hard drive, especially as it will eventually die or get full. Another option is to assemble yourself a NAS. One configuration (using NewEgg prices) would be:

ReadyNAS RND2150 for $380
Add a 500GB WD HD for $85

Total $465

That gives you 500GB of RAID mirrored storage for use with TimeMachine or as server storage. A redundant backup if you will. Plus, the drives are replaceable with larger ones as you go forward. Wire it straight into your existing router and you are set. It can also be a media server or web server.

Since you should always look at the total cost of ownership, power usage is important. Power usage is about 35 watts when two drives are on, or 12 when idle. The TC also uses about 12 watts when idle and something less than 30 when running the hard drive full out. Your independent router is going to come in at about 3-4 watts. That gives you a general power differential in the neighborhood of about 15 watts, which is basically the power usage of the second drive. While not insignificant, that is about $1.25/month in power for 24x7 operations.

I am a big Apple fan and have recommended and installed TC for my mother. I think it suits her requirements of cost, simplicity and integration. A seamless backup for her MacBook. She doesn't even have to think about it, it just happens and she gets some peace of mind that everything on the laptop will not be lost. If her TC backup hard drive were to die, she could reasonably replace it in a timely manner, a reasonably managed risk which she is aware of (at least theoretically). She is, however, at risk to catastrophic loss of her house, although I suspect that computer data will not be high on her list of concerns at that point.

However, for the more technologically astute among us (or the more paranoid), the NAS mirrored backup provides an additional level of redundancy for not that much more cost. And trust me, if you have ever had to restore after a hard drive disaster, having a recent, clean backup is worth more than an extra couple hundred dollars or so. If you are particularly concerned about damage at your house, you can have a third drive that you use for periodic off-site storage. You might consider a relatively inexpensive UPS as well.

Have I gone this route myself? No, not yet, although I aspire to. Right now I use TimeMachine to backup to a single external hard drive. I usually do that backup about once a week, not continuously. I also have infrequent CarbonCopy clones of my hard drive as a redundant backup to a second external hard drive. I have no off-site storage. I probably do need to invest a little bit in data protection via UPS, additional, systemic backup, a more robust home network, and a safety deposit box for off-site storage.

 

[gwsat]

If it were a matter of right or wrong, but I don't see where those values come into the discussion at all. Unless they effectively or realistically have no choice, people buy products which they believe suits their particular needs.

My point was that whether or not one buys Apple products is not a matter of right or wrong, but you would never know it from the tenor of some of the posts to this thread whose righteousness convinced me that they believed anyone who disagreed with them was an apostate. That sort of narrow-mindedness does little to advance any discussion, it seems to me.

 

[IJ Reilly]

My point was that whether or not one buys Apple products is not a matter of right or wrong, but you would never know it from the tenor of some of the posts to this thread whose righteousness convinced me that they believed anyone who disagreed with them was an apostate. That sort of narrow-mindedness does little to advance any discussion, it seems to me.

Point taken. I've always thought it was interesting how "moralistic" these technology debates become. They're products. We decide to buy them on the basis of whether they suit our needs.

 

[Sesshi]

That sort of narrow-mindedness does little to advance any discussion, it seems to me.

Good luck. It's pretty typical of all tech discussions, and especially with Apple forums one way or another, of which this is the most representative I've found. Never known anything like it to date - it's quite fascinating, and perhaps one of the reasons I hang around reading posts whose subject matter doesn't directly interest me, going 'whoa'.

 

[gwsat]

Good luck. It's pretty typical of all tech discussions, and especially with Apple forums one way or another, of which this is the most representative I've found. Never known anything like it to date - it's quite fascinating, and perhaps one of the reasons I hang around reading posts whose subject matter doesn't directly interest me, going 'whoa'.

It's true that a certain amount of judgmental pontificating is inevitable in any special interest forum and it's also true that the sort of thing we saw earlier in this thread isn't typical here. I like MacRumors a lot and have learned a lot as a result of it.

 

[jeremy.king]

Do you think Apple notices how ridiculously overpriced their RAM upgrades are?

 

[gwsat]

Do you think Apple notices how ridiculously overpriced their RAM upgrades are?

I agree that Apple's RAM is insanely overpriced. When I bought my old PowerBook G4 in the spring of 2003, I ordered the then available 512 MB RAM upgrade from a third party vendor. I installed it myself and, not surprisingly, it continues to perform flawlessly to this day. But Apple got proprietary on me about 18 months ago.

When I had the local Apple Store send my old PB in for repairs completely unrelated to its memory, the Apple tech who did the work took out the third party memory chip and, completely unnecessarily, re-imaged the hard drive, which was also still perfect. To add insult to injury, he sent a form letter back along with my computer and now removed memory chip telling me that non-Apple memory "might not" work correctly. That made me the maddest I've ever been at Apple because it seemed to me to have been more than a little punitive. Worse, the Genius who helped me at the Apple Store confessed that it happens a lot.

 

[Sesshi]

Do you think Apple notices how ridiculously overpriced their RAM upgrades are?

Not hugely more than many other vendors. It doesn't put people like me off buying it.

 

[jeremy.king]

Not hugely more than many other vendors. It doesn't put people like me off buying it.

It was a poor attempt at sarcasm on my part.

My other idea was going to post about how much cheaper it is to build your own PC. In any case, so what if you can do it yourself cheaper? This is the norm in computing technology. A majority of computer users could care less as they wouldn't feel comfortable ripping a HDD out of a Time Capsule, or building their own PC, or installing their own RAM upgrades...

 

[IJ Reilly]

I bake my own bread, weave my own clothes, and I built my car out of spare parts from the junk yard.