Here's my take:
Did the software install first, was a little confused by the lack of options but I guess they wanted to keep it simple. After install I checked the Info on Airport and it still read 5.2.2 even though it seemed like the last time listed was correct. Not trusting it, I rebooted and sure enough Info read 5.3. This happened on both my MBA and iMac.
I didn't want to disrupt my present wireless-N network (yet) so I hooked the TC ethernet to an empty port on my router, plugged it in and full steam ahead. The MBA found the TC immediately and went through the setup with no issues. I was a little confused at first, but I guess it was so easy that I could immediately double click on the TC icon and that would give me regular drive access. I hit Time Machine and started the initial backup process wirelessly, which took about 4 hours for about 40GB.
My PC setup was very similar, a couple of quirks (software keeps wanting to update Airport Extreme and a reboot required) but eventually the PC recognized the TC as a network drive. The PC is presently directly connected to the primary router. I tried copying some files over and it was pretty decent speed (relative to wirless), also keeping in mind I was doing this while the backup was in progress.
Now on a roll, I went through the process on my iMac. Mostly smooth with a few quirks (reboot required, at first it didn't see the TC). I also copied a few files over wirelessly (again simultaneous with the backup) and while it was slow, it seemed to work fine. I could immediately see the files I had copied over from the PC so working exactly as intended as a wireless drive.
I tried listening to a song and watching a couple video files (with the files on the TC) on the MBA and PC, and it all worked great, exactly as I'd hoped. File may have been a tiny bit choppy but nothing horrible and certainly better than streaming off the web. While TC seems like a relatively simple idea and isn't as sexy as other Apple stuff, it may turn out to be one of the most useful things yet. Finally I have a central hub for my files which can be accessed by all my computers wirelessly, and I don't have to have a dedicated computer or any other hardware, just one pretty white box.
It's also the perfect companion for the storage starved MBA; I can now offload songs and movies, etc I don't use often and then pick them back up on the fly, or just watch them off of the drive, all while letting it do Time Machine backups in the background. If there's a long trip and I really want some big movie files, I can copy/move stuff from the TC to the external drive and just bring that along on the trip. Also very much appreciate the almost seamless sharing with PC files. For example, I have an Excel file where I track some financial info, but I'm always copying it back and forth to different computers (both mac and PC) and I end up confusing which is the most recent or relevant version; now it's in a central location and I'll access/update it only from there. Again, a pretty simple idea which could be solved differently, it just hasn't been implemented this well in the past.
All in all, I'm very happy with this from day one. Aside from a few quirks and the problems mentioned below, it's an extremely useful and easy-to-use piece of hardware.
Only problems so far (noted in another thread):
- External USB drive was recognized by the iMac but not the PC, still working on this. Haven't tried MBA yet.
- iPhone doesn't automatically see the TC, will try manually forcing it.
- Unit seems to run fairly hot when under load, not a big deal but just something to note.
