Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Time Capsule
- Thread starter dj420118
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Unfortunately, that's the sad mentality of commerce today, "Give me your money and go away before you start bothering me."
I disagree with you. Apple actively marketed using Airport disks with Time Machine as a selling point for the Airport Extreme Base Station, and it wasn't just a "subject to Change" bullet point on a spec sheet. It is precisely why I bought one. You are right that Apple has to answer to their stockholders, but if they loose enough trust of their customers, there won't be stock worth holding. I cannot say I trust Apple.
HLdan
macrumors 603
I totally agree with how you feel this is the reality of electronics. It's a good thing it's not Sony that makes great things like Apple, we would feel like we got jacked all the time.
Sony's new releases come much more often then Apple's and Sony does not accommodate their old customers.
Edit: Just saw WWDC and SJ in fact states this feature to allow external drives to work with an AEBS. Well, looks like Apple changed their mind and built their own product to to this feat of magic.
Again, there's nothing we can do.
jaw04005
macrumors 601
Not to mention, Steve Jobs specifically touted this feature in his WWDC Keynote while marketing Time Machine.
To be honest, I think the memory and/or processing power of the AirPort Extreme Base Station was underpowered to begin with. Apple has had consistent issues with this device. Even now, there are numerous bugs with WDS bridging and AirDisk with the latest firmware release.
I don't know why I'm surprised. The original AirPort Extreme Base Station and AirPort Express had a firmware update that prevented a large number of DSL users from connecting to their ISPs because of PPoE authentication errors. Those users had to downgrade their base stations back to 5.1.1 and 6.1. Years have went by and Apple still has not fixed it, despite knowing it was a problem.
Miraculously, the PPoE error was fixed with the introduction of the AirPort Extreme 802.11n base station.
I have no faith in Apple's AirPort team.
They had it all over the place, and snuck in changes to it all a week before Leopard's release. Plenty of people read it and have complained.
Jshwon
macrumors 6502
I would like to confirm this as well. Will we be able to use Disk Utility on this NAS drive to partition space like any HD to allocate a portion to TM then the rest to media etc?
This might be exactly what I would have done if I had not already lost faith in Apple regarding Aiport Disks and Time Machine. Perhaps in time I will consider this - but at the moment I'm utterly outraged by Apple developing a new product when their existing product isn't working properly.
They would have saved a lot of people from getting upset if they had 1) acknowledged the problems with Airport Disk 2) announced a Leopard and / or AE firmware update that properly fixed the problems.
I honestly suspect that many of the AE + external HD users would be MORE inclined to buy the Time Capsule if Apple got Airport Disk working reliably for them so they could feel confident using it - and then ebay their stuff to get the neater solution of the Time Capsule.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Precisely why I would urge everyone to avoid buying the Time Capsule, whether they are AE AirDisk owners or new customers.
pjarvi
macrumors 65816
I never bought the original Airport Extreme, and had been considering buying one for several months now. I decided to hold off on any Apple purchases until after the keynote and am glad I did. I've now got a Time Capsule on order, and look forward to using it.
You could always sell your existing AEBS and put the money towards getting one of the new ones.
You could always sell your existing AEBS and put the money towards getting one of the new ones.
That's not the point.
The issue is, many people on this thread purchased the AEBS and an ext HD in preparation of Leopard's/Time Machine's capabilities touted by Apple before the release. And now it seems they expect us to ditch these perfectly working AEBSs and purchase something else that does something the current model should do?
When the wireless back up wasn't present in the OS, I figured it would come laterfigured maybe it just wasn't ready at the time of release. Now that they've released Time Capsule it very much feels like a slap in the face.
If they can make it work on this new version of AEBS, then they can make it work on previous (n)AEBSs purchased during the marketing of the original feature set.
I understand all to well. And it irks the heck out of me.
I realize I am technically not an Apple customer. I understand that they are legally "in the right". I also understand that it was a rather savvy business move. Ethically, however, it's wrong. That is my damage and that is what pisses me off.
If they want my continued loyalty and trust as a consumer and potential future customer, I suggest Apple rectify the problem and deliver a firmware update that does precisely what they said it would originally do sans Time Capsule: allow me to backup to an ext HDD using AEBS:n.
It's a suggestion that seems to be supported by a number of people in the same boat as I am. I realize large companies don't always listen to "suggestions". What're ya gonna do?
For now, I'm gonna bitch and moan.
t0mat0
macrumors 603
I know the feeling (Having got a nice HD enclosure, and put a drive in it, to set up my dad's partitions for his music and Time Machine. I was a day or two away from kitting him out with Airport extremes etc to get wireless music and backup.
But let's just give it 2 weeks eh? Can't we give Apple that? The products won't get reviewed until then, so why can't we hang fire. I'd wager an update will come soon.
Where did it come from that being a customer requires paying a monthly subscription? That's a pretty narrow definition and one I've never heard before. 🙄
The New Oxford American dictionary defines a customer as, "a person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or business." So that makes each of us bought the AEBS a customer.
But even by your definition I am a customer. I pay a subscription for the .Mac service. OK, so it's not monthly, but it is a subscription. Maybe that makes me half a customer.
Chef Medeski
macrumors 6502a
Already do. Attached my HD to my computer. Then switched it to the Extreme. Bam, automatic backups when its connected.
They didn't give any directions it seems because they were releasing this product. But its quite eas to do. Just few know about it.
Chef Medeski
macrumors 6502a
GUYS GUYS!!! It works. DONT SELL UR ****!
I encourage everyone to use the feedback form to politely let Apple know how you feel. For reference, here's what I said:
Abstract
macrumors Penryn
Yes, well in Australia, the 500 GB version cost $429 AUD, which is like $390 USD. ****ing ripoff. I'd happily pay $329 instead. I'm Canadian, so technically it's easy to order it to my parents house and have them ship it to me or something. Hmmm.....
OK, it seems like a lot of you think that Apple purposely withheld functionality from the AEBS so that they can make and sell Time Capsule.
I don't think so.
They were probably having problems getting Time Machine to work reliably via Wifi, and when they couldn't make it by the deadline for Leopard, had to cut the feature, rather than delay Leopard again, which would have been immensely more embarrassing.
Now if it's just a software problem that they were eventually able to fix to get Time Capsule to work, then I'm sure they'll issue an update that will make it work on the Airport Extreme too.
On the other hand, there is a small possibility that a USB drive connected to the AE presents hardware related restrictions that can't be fixed with a software update.
I don't think so.
They were probably having problems getting Time Machine to work reliably via Wifi, and when they couldn't make it by the deadline for Leopard, had to cut the feature, rather than delay Leopard again, which would have been immensely more embarrassing.
Now if it's just a software problem that they were eventually able to fix to get Time Capsule to work, then I'm sure they'll issue an update that will make it work on the Airport Extreme too.
On the other hand, there is a small possibility that a USB drive connected to the AE presents hardware related restrictions that can't be fixed with a software update.
Nugget
macrumors 68020
I think this is exactly the case. Supporting this theory is the observation that many people who have used one of the "hacks" to enable Time Machine on their Airport-connected USB drives have reported lots of trouble with it. It seems like the most likely scenario is that Apple had to disable support at the last minute because of these problems. Hopefully they've had to fix the problems in order to get Time Capsule working and the same fixes will apply to Airport base station users as well.
All the problems and moans about buying kit before or as soon as a new updated version is announced is a universal problem not just an Apple one. Just take a look at the early adopters of video recorders, Minidisc, Bluray or Vista as an example. This has been going on for years in the technology world and most people have learnt the lesson i.e. don't rush out and buy a newly released product, wait a while for someone else to find the bugs and pay the high prices.
I almost bought an AEBS for the air disc backup but read the problems and waited, thankfully. I definitely want a Time Capsule (if it works as advertised) but will wait to see how it works for others first.
One major reason for waiting is to see if the USB port on the Time Capsule will allow wifi access to discs (or other periphials), this is a stated feature remember, but it is not working well in AEBS.
I almost bought an AEBS for the air disc backup but read the problems and waited, thankfully. I definitely want a Time Capsule (if it works as advertised) but will wait to see how it works for others first.
One major reason for waiting is to see if the USB port on the Time Capsule will allow wifi access to discs (or other periphials), this is a stated feature remember, but it is not working well in AEBS.
$429 AUD includes 10% GST. The US price doesn't include sales tax. The Australian ex tax price is $AUD 390, or around $USD 343 at the current exchange rate.
Jshwon
macrumors 6502
Just an FYI for those who were considering the TC and wondered if you could partition the HD. I just read this on TUAW:
"A further conversation at the Apple booth leads me to believe that you will not be able to partition the drive on the Time Capsule. If your purchase decisions are contingent on this capability, please wait until I can get a solid answer from the product manager at Apple on this. You could conceivably 'reserve' space on the TC by creating a disk image to hold your files, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you absolutely have to do it. A couple of contrary reports are saying that you cannot store other files on the TC drive, but everyone I've talked to says that it does mount as a regular wireless disk and you can write to it if needed."
If this is the case I'm disappointed. If you are going to allow the HD to be backed up to at least give us a way to manage the space!
"A further conversation at the Apple booth leads me to believe that you will not be able to partition the drive on the Time Capsule. If your purchase decisions are contingent on this capability, please wait until I can get a solid answer from the product manager at Apple on this. You could conceivably 'reserve' space on the TC by creating a disk image to hold your files, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you absolutely have to do it. A couple of contrary reports are saying that you cannot store other files on the TC drive, but everyone I've talked to says that it does mount as a regular wireless disk and you can write to it if needed."
If this is the case I'm disappointed. If you are going to allow the HD to be backed up to at least give us a way to manage the space!
Does anybody know if i can use the time capsule as a NAS harddisk?
maybe with an alternative firmware in future with more functions like a torrent client or something else?
At the moment i'm using a buffalo linkstation live and i would like to exchange it with these new gadget from apple.
maybe with an alternative firmware in future with more functions like a torrent client or something else?
At the moment i'm using a buffalo linkstation live and i would like to exchange it with these new gadget from apple.
i want to know more about this product, like can it be used as an external drive instead of a backup?... can you attach a HD to to use with time machine...they just don't give enough storage space in their computers for me, i need two hds one for backup and one for media...