Apple announces Time Capsule backup appliance

[AppleInsider]

As one of its first orders of business at the Macworld Expo on Tuesday, Apple introduced Time Capsule, a backup appliance that automatically and wirelessly backs up everything on one or more Macs running Leopard, the latest release of the company's Mac OS X operating system that includes the Time Machine automatic backup software.

Time Capsule combines an 802.11n base station with a server grade hard disk in one small package. Simply plug it in, then easily set up automatic wireless backup for every Mac in your house to a single Time Capsule with just a few clicks, Apple says. Time Capsule offers the benefits of a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station, and comes in two models: a 500 gigabyte model for just $299 and a 1 terabyte model for just $499.

“Bring Time Capsule home, plug it in, click a few buttons on your Macs and voila—all the Macs in your house are being backed up automatically, every hour of every day,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. “With Time Capsule and Time Machine, all your irreplaceable photos, movies and documents are automatically protected and incredibly easy to retrieve if they are ever lost.”

Built to work seamlessly with Time Machine, Time Capsule lets users wirelessly back up all of the data on their Macs, find lost files and even restore all of their software. In the event a file is lost, users can wirelessly search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file. If it’s ever necessary, Leopard can also easily restore an entire system from the Time Machine backup on Time Capsule.

In addition to being an ideal way to back up a Mac, Time Capsule is also a full-featured Wi-Fi base station with the latest 802.11n technology. Delivering up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g, 802.11n is built in to Apple’s iMac desktop and the entire Mac notebook line up, including MacBook, MacBook Pro and the new MacBook Air. Time Capsule features a sleek design with a built-in power supply and connections to print wirelessly to a USB printer. With Time Capsule, it’s very easy for users to create a secure, wireless network for up to 50 users and set security restrictions such as Internet access limits for children’s computers.



At $299 for a 500GB model and $499 for a 1TB model and a fully integrated 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station, Time Capsule can serve as a backup solution for multiple computers as well as the backbone for a high-speed, 802.11n wireless network, making it effortless and affordable for everyone at home, school or work to protect their digital files.

Additional Time Capsule features include:
dual-band antennas for 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies;three Gigabit LAN ports;one Gigabit Ethernet WAN port;one USB 2.0 port;Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA-2), 128-bit WEP encryption; anda built-in NAT firewall supporting NAT-PMP for features like Back to My Mac.
Pricing & Availability


Time Capsule will be available in February through the Apple Store, at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US) for a 500GB hard drive and $499 (US) for a 1TB hard drive.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[iDave]

I wonder if it's any faster than a USB disk connected to the current Airport Extreme.

[SpamSandwich]

Looks good. Maybe I'll get one o' these.

[macbookschmo]

Originally Posted by iDave

I wonder if it's any faster than a USB disk connected to the current Airport Extreme.

That's what I was wondering- is this just a nice way to charge even more for an airport extreme by throwing a marked up hard drive inside?

Does a current Airport Extreme with a usb hard drive hooked up allow PC's to interface as well?

[mahk]

I really hope this doesn't mean that they are giving up on Time Machine support through AirDisk on Airport Extreme ...

[jragosta]

Originally Posted by iDave

I wonder if it's any faster than a USB disk connected to the current Airport Extreme.

I'm not worried about speed - I wonder if it will work at all.

TimeMachine doesn't work with an external (Airport Extreme) hard disk. I am hoping that the new software will allow me to use my existing hard disk and Airport Extreme.

[Zyniker]

Recommendation: expand the line of these devices with a few that don't have WAN/WAP capabilities. Sure, it has to be connected in this fashion to minimize end-user problems (read: people complaining because they can't remotely access the drive because they failed to setup port-forwarding or UPnP correctly); however, for those of us who already have multiple network hard drives and a router 'collection' (which I imagine a good number of Mac users are in this category), a NAS without the added functionality of a router/wireless access point would be rather useful. Naturally, I believe they should leave the switch hardware in any future additions to the line...cheap hardware, vast benefits.

[superduperjacob]

Wonder if this will work with SuperDuper! (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13803) - no, we are not related ...

[martijnbolkestein]

OUTRAGED

In its adds Apple promised Time Machine would work wirelessly. I bought a base station, I bought a USB harddisk, I bought Leopard. Only to find that Apple had withdrawn support last minute.

And now they are selling this 'alternative'. Why would we trust Apple that this actually does work?

[aiolos]

I would get one, cept they're kinda expensive, and I just got a Seagate 750GB external + Sandisk Cruzer 4GB flash drive for 196 bucks :-) Thank you Slickdeals.net

[saleski]

I guess i was happy to see the time capsule. I've been trying to backup digital media using tiger quite poorly. iTunes and iPhoto were not setup to backup files. I was just dragging files onto a 200GB firewire drive (bought 3 yrs ago for $600!). Over xmas the HD on my gen1 macbook died and I lost everything. Luckily I had backed up music, photos and personal files in Late september. But that was more by luck than good planning. I replace the HD in the macbook and moved on, but and upgrade to 10.5 and time capsule should save my bacon should this happen again. I suppose if i buy a ATV or mac mini for my media centre it could locate the files on the TC and stream them also? This is a great product (maybe not cheap) for simple backup and printer sharing as a bonus.

[Bishop of Southwark]

Originally Posted by martijnbolkestein

OUTRAGED

In its adds Apple promised Time Machine would work wirelessly. I bought a base station, I bought a USB harddisk, I bought Leopard. Only to find that Apple had withdrawn support last minute.

And now they are selling this 'alternative'. Why would we trust Apple that this actually does work?

Indeed.

Unless Airport Extreme + External Disk will now do the same as TimeCapsule, then I really don't think this issue is over for apple.

The key question is why is this product any different to that setup. Even if the mac has to more actively verify what Airport Extreme has accomplished with the backup on the disk, it should be possible to do this with the original kit.

[tetzel1517]

Originally Posted by martijnbolkestein

OUTRAGED

In its adds Apple promised Time Machine would work wirelessly. I bought a base station, I bought a USB harddisk, I bought Leopard. Only to find that Apple had withdrawn support last minute.

And now they are selling this 'alternative'. Why would we trust Apple that this actually does work?

Easy now... there'll presumably be an OS update sometime this week that might finally restore wireless Time Machine backups for those of us with external USB drives. Wouldn't be the first time Apple did something like that. I, too, bought a base station, external drive, and Leopard with wireless backups in mind.

And if they don't give us that ability? Then I'll join you among the outraged, and patiently wait for a hack. Apple won't get my money on this one, that's for sure.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by Bishop of Southwark

Indeed.

Unless Airport Extreme + External Disk will now do the same as TimeCapsule, then I really don't think this issue is over for apple.

The key question is why is this product any different to that setup. Even if the mac has to more actively verify what Airport Extreme has accomplished with the backup on the disk, it should be possible to do this with the original kit.

True. The other issue is you can attach a drive to the USB port on the Time Capsule so I wonder if that has the same problem.

[BenRoethig]

It's a good idea, but the price for a good $500 external hard drive plus an access point is far than than $500.

[riversky]

Ha this is why Apple disabled the wireless back up to any device.

They wanted to introduce a new products and make the money themselves. I see the light!

[sandau]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

True. The other issue is you can attach a drive to the USB port on the Time Capsule so I wonder if that has the same problem.

That's for the next update, old airport extreme owners can update their software for $45.

[djames42]

Originally Posted by macbookschmo

Does a current Airport Extreme with a usb hard drive hooked up allow PC's to interface as well?

Yes. I still have a PC in the house, and it has no troubles seeing my airport disk. In fact, because of the way the airport shares the disk, it sees it despite being HFS formatted.

Originally Posted by mahk

I really hope this doesn't mean that they are giving up on Time Machine support through AirDisk on Airport Extreme ...

That's my worry, that Apple withdrew Time Machine support for Airport disks on purpose, requiring a Time Capsule disk instead. That would really chap my hide, considering I just bought an Airport Extreme six weeks ago...

[sandau]

this device is not very appealing for me, but it could be for 'grandma' or a light user. I wouldn't trust a single disk for my backups; raid or software raid is the only answer. If you want reliable backups you are better off with a drobo or windows home server such as an HP EX470.

[BdeRWest]

Originally Posted by mahk

I really hope this doesn't mean that they are giving up on Time Machine support through AirDisk on Airport Extreme ...

I agree. I am perfectly content with my Airport Extreme Base Station (10/100) and two NAS drives. I do not wish to shell out $300 more, only to have the NAS work "officially" with Time Machine (I used an app called iTimeMachine to get it to recognize my NAS drive)

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by macbookschmo

That's what I was wondering- is this just a nice way to charge even more for an airport extreme by throwing a marked up hard drive inside?

The price of the hard drive included isn't that bad, retail on a bare 1TB drive is $300, making the TC 1TB model a little cheaper than buying a separate enclosure + drive. It might be faster and more efficient this way than having an external hard drive.

[djames42]

Originally Posted by sandau

this device is not very appealing for me, but it could be for 'grandma' or a light user. I wouldn't trust a single disk for my backups; raid or software raid is the only answer. If you want reliable backups you are better off with a drobo or windows home server such as an HP EX470.

Very good point. When it was announced that there would be 500GB and 1TB versions, I was really hoping that 1TB was 2x500GB with a raid 1 as an option for redundancy (certainly wouldn't need the performance of raid 0 on a NAS drive).

[BallmerSteve]

We have a tower that you put in the basement that does the same thing!

[iDave]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

It might be faster and more efficient this way than having an external hard drive.

An external disk connected to Airport Extreme is extremely slow, to the point of being unusable. If Time Capsule is just as slow, I'd be stuck with a 500GB drive I couldn't use. Guess I'll wait for the reviews.

[nofear1az]

Originally Posted by sandau

this device is not very appealing for me, but it could be for 'grandma' or a light user. I wouldn't trust a single disk for my backups; raid or software raid is the only answer. If you want reliable backups you are better off with a drobo or windows home server such as an HP EX470.

and why can't you setup a RAID in OS-X? it supports it. It works very well.

[nofear1az]

Originally Posted by iDave

An external disk connected to Airport Extreme is extremely slow, to the point of being unusable. If Time Capsule is just as slow, I'd be stuck with a 500GB drive I couldn't use. Guess I'll wait for the reviews.

speed would be the only reason I can see for this type of upgrade; I wouldn't want to be stuck with a working Airport and a dead drive I can't replace when it decides to go south one day.

[astromac]

I like the idea of this a lot. It is a bit annoying for those of us with a wi-fi router already. But if you're just setting up, this is a really nice option.

My one concern - Where is the audio out??? I love my Airport Express because I can play iTunes to remote speakers. The remote printer option is there, but no audio?!?!?

[EruIthildur]

As I said last week, maybe the announcement relates to TimeMachine back-up... This uses TimeMachine's system according to tfa.

[NOFEER]

so if you want to expand storage, and add another drive, are they both accessible as easily? im worried about expandability

[onceuponamac]

That's my worry, that Apple withdrew Time Machine support for Airport disks on purpose, requiring a Time Capsule disk instead. That would really chap my hide, considering I just bought an Airport Extreme six weeks ago... [/QUOTE]

Not only does time machine with air disk not work - air disk with the current version of airport software doesn't work - I agree this is another example of Apple just trying to find ways to line it's coffers with dough - by not coming through on it's promises and then selling yet another solution....

[clickmyface]

FYI

The page this article links to at the apple store is bizarre. Note that it lists the iPod touch as starting"From $279." Thats a glitch left over from the black friday site and does not appear on Apple's regular store link. Appleinsider should probably update their link, i'm not sure how they even got this one. Talked to Apple, thats the only way they could explain it.

[clindloff]

Originally Posted by tetzel1517

Easy now... there'll presumably be an OS update sometime this week that might finally restore wireless Time Machine backups for those of us with external USB drives. Wouldn't be the first time Apple did something like that. I, too, bought a base station, external drive, and Leopard with wireless backups in mind.

And if they don't give us that ability? Then I'll join you among the outraged, and patiently wait for a hack. Apple won't get my money on this one, that's for sure.

You can right now make a change via the CLI and backup to any drive the OS can see network or local. Apple just does not support it.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/10/h...orted-volumes/

one of many links you can find via google.

I am sure to get this working with this new hardware device Apple will have to allow Time Machine to do this...and then you will be able to do it with any network drive.

[IQ78]

Originally Posted by nofear1az

and why can't you setup a RAID in OS-X? it supports it. It works very well.

I'm not sure if this comment should be directed to the above statement, but in general I hear people comparing RAID vs. SuperDuper vs. Time Machine, as if they are similar solutions.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but RAID and SuperDuper are partition duplications, which are perfect solutions for recovering from hardware failures.

Time Machine does help with hardware failure but it does much more and is integrated in a way that is pretty seemless. I set my parents up with Time Machine, and they've already used it 3 times to recover files that they deleted and needed back. It has also given my father freedom to clear out the non-important clutter on his drive and non-important e-mails, knowing that he can get them back if he really really needs them. It has really changed their experience, and they have not had a hardware failure yet.

I think if I was running a RAID back-up, I'd still use Time Machine.

IQ78

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by IQ78

I think if I was running a RAID back-up, I'd still use Time Machine.

That's a good idea. RAID mirroring isn't really a backup, it's for preventing unplanned down time, though it does keep up with the latest files in a way other forms of backup can't. Time machine keeps up with historical file versions just in case you or your program screws up the newest version.

[desarc]

if i buy this thing, will i be able to:

1] PLAY movies ripped from DVD that are saved on the capsule? [by plugging my laptop into my A/V receiver via dvi/hdmi and audio out]

2] download files directly to the capsule just as if it were connected via FW?

3] work in imovie on my laptop with files saved on the capsule?

4] access files on the capsule when i'm out of wifi range??? [via ip address... prolly not]

5] play mp3's saved on the capsule via iTunes [combine my gf's and my itunes songs into one playlist that we can both access]

6] upgrade my MBP-C2D to draft N without paying $2.99?

7] expect a $100 store credit when the price drops in 55 days?

[teckstud]

Was anyone else underwhelmed by the design on this one? It's rather boring- too much like AppleTV or Airport Extreme. It looks neither like a space module nor prescription pill?

[demenas]

Originally Posted by superduperjacob

Wonder if this will work with SuperDuper! (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13803) - no, we are not related ...

SuperDuper is not even fully compatible with Leopard yet. I am disappointed it has taken so long to update this product.

Steve

[Lorre]

Originally Posted by desarc

if i buy this thing, will i be able to:

1] PLAY movies ripped from DVD that are saved on the capsule? [by plugging my laptop into my A/V receiver via dvi/hdmi and audio out]

2] download files directly to the capsule just as if it were connected via FW?

3] work in imovie on my laptop with files saved on the capsule?

4] access files on the capsule when i'm out of wifi range??? [via ip address... prolly not]

5] play mp3's saved on the capsule via iTunes [combine my gf's and my itunes songs into one playlist that we can both access]

6] upgrade my MBP-C2D to draft N without paying $2.99?

7] expect a $100 store credit when the price drops in 55 days?

1) yes, if you configure it as a network drive and not just for backup

2) yes, see above

3) yes, see above

4) no because the drive will get a private IP only accesible within your home network. Perhaps there are some reverse-Nat tools out there that have a way around this, Idunno. If you get multiple IP's from your provider and know a thing or two about router config, there's a way around this probably (but I doubt this device allows so much user config)

5) yes if you use it as a network drive

6) no

7) no

What I'm wondering is if you can partition it and use one drive as a regular-use NAS and the other just for backup

[Wiggin]

I, too, hope the this means there will be a forth-coming update the Airport Extreme to fix the problems with AirDisk. Both from an overall speed issue and compatibility with TimeMachine. One or two companies at CES announces fire and water proof hard drive enclosures. I'd be much more interested in hooking something like that up to an Airport Extreme base station.

The other advantages are that I can simply unplug the drive and take it with me if the need arises and I don't lose my drive when the wireless router dies (which it inevitably will). I assume one could replace the drive it it died.

As for the price comparisons people are making, remember they said it's a "server-class hard drive." I don't know exactly what that means, but presumably it's a more robust hardrive than what poeple typically buy. Perhaps similar to what TiVo's include, drives that are specificaly designed to be running 24x7.

[Headrush69]

Originally Posted by sandau

this device is not very appealing for me, but it could be for 'grandma' or a light user. I wouldn't trust a single disk for my backups; raid or software raid is the only answer. If you want reliable backups you are better off with a drobo or windows home server such as an HP EX470.

Forget grandma and light users, for 90% of the population of home users this is a smart idea who don't do ANY backup procedures. (OS X users that is.)

Plug it in, turn on time machine on computer and done.

Originally Posted by Wiggin

As for the price comparisons people are making, remember they said it's a "server-class hard drive." I don't know exactly what that means, but presumably it's a more robust hardrive than what poeple typically buy.

Simply means its a 7200RPM SATA drive.