Airport Extreme quietly updated with no known changes
On the heels of Tuesday's Time Capsule update, Apple has quietly updated its Airport Extreme wireless base station without advertising any new features.
The imminent release of an updated Airport Extreme was telegraphed early Tuesday by a filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The new base station went up on the Apple Online Store late Tuesday, but other than a new model number, it carries no new specifications, as discovered by Macworld. The device continues to sell for $179.
The new model number is MD031AM/A, compared to the previous generation's model number of MC340AM/A. Apple also quietly updated its Time Capsule base station on Tuesday, with a bump in a capacity from 1TB and 2TB models to 2TB and 3TB models. References to next-generation AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule devices were discovered in an Airport Utility update last week.
The release of both base stations puts to rest rumors that Apple would switch the products to run iOS to allow for features such as media streaming, wireless software updates and integration with iCloud.
Apple last updated its wireless networking and backup appliances in 2009 with minor updates to provide better wireless performance and range. The devices operate simultaneously over both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands.
An unverified report from earlier this week had suggested that Apple would add extended range and better heat dissipation to the products. While it remains possible that Apple did in fact add the new features without advertising them, other rumored additions such as guest networks and cached iOS and Mac OS X updates failed to materialize, although the report did correctly predict the release of a 3TB Time Capsule.
The imminent release of an updated Airport Extreme was telegraphed early Tuesday by a filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The new base station went up on the Apple Online Store late Tuesday, but other than a new model number, it carries no new specifications, as discovered by Macworld. The device continues to sell for $179.
The new model number is MD031AM/A, compared to the previous generation's model number of MC340AM/A. Apple also quietly updated its Time Capsule base station on Tuesday, with a bump in a capacity from 1TB and 2TB models to 2TB and 3TB models. References to next-generation AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule devices were discovered in an Airport Utility update last week.
The release of both base stations puts to rest rumors that Apple would switch the products to run iOS to allow for features such as media streaming, wireless software updates and integration with iCloud.
Apple last updated its wireless networking and backup appliances in 2009 with minor updates to provide better wireless performance and range. The devices operate simultaneously over both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands.
An unverified report from earlier this week had suggested that Apple would add extended range and better heat dissipation to the products. While it remains possible that Apple did in fact add the new features without advertising them, other rumored additions such as guest networks and cached iOS and Mac OS X updates failed to materialize, although the report did correctly predict the release of a 3TB Time Capsule.
Comments
... Or not? Hehe
I wonder if these actually are the 'smart' iOS based base-stations, just not fully 'active' yet, being sneakly marketed as standard units for now, to get people set up now with them... Then when they fully activate icloud, like magic, everyone's new basestation just got more useful/features.
... Or not? Hehe
I suspect it is just changes to either cut cost with cheaper parts or improve functionality, fix bugs, etc.
I suspect it is just changes to either cut cost with cheaper parts or improve functionality, fix bugs, etc.
Yeah I feel inclined to agree.
I wonder if these actually are the 'smart' iOS based base-stations, just not fully 'active' yet, being sneakly marketed as standard units for now, to get people set up now with them... Then when they fully activate icloud, like magic, everyone's new basestation just got more useful/features.
... Or not? Hehe
I think you hit the nail on the head. Once 'LION & IOS5 come out everything will fit into place. While the size increased from 1TB to 2 TB the real features have not been released yet.
the changes are known, i figured it out early this morning and posted it to the apple discussions board for the airport. it never occured to these apple journalists to actually go to the fcc website and actually read the report
the new airport extreme features 2.81 x the maximum power output then the previous model.
i tried emailing crunch gear john and tips @ venturebeat about the actual difference i found but i guess the emails got lost as they always do.
i have read a lot of posts with people and always accusing apple of releasing wireless routers with low power (like 100 mw) and it looks like this time apple finally listened to us
link
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15457087#15457087
summary
there was a link on the news reports about a fcc database so i decided to look at the report and search the database for a prevous airport model
i found an airport model a1354, i believe this is the mc340ll model. this is what it says on test results:
frequency range / mode / output power dbm / output power milliwatts
2412-2462 802.11b 24.57 286.42
2412-2462 802.11g 21.56 143.22
2412-2462 802.11n(ht20) 21.17 130.92
5745-5825 802.11a 23.07 202.77
5745-5805 802.11n(ht20) 22.17 164.82
5755-5795 802.11n(ht40) 21.44 139.32
you compare this to the report of the newer model and these numbers are provided:
2412-2462 802.11b 24.10 257.04
2412-2462 802.11g 24.88 307.61
2412-2462 802.11n(ht20) 24.11 257.63
5745-5825 802.11a 25.14 326.59
5745-5805 802.11n(ht20) 25.28 337.29
5755-5795 802.11n(ht40) 25.94 392.64
ht 40 means 40 mhz wide mode
so based on tbhese numbers there is a improvement of 2.81x in terms of power output of the new md031ll model versus the older mc340ll model.
it really upsets me that all the apple news sites are going around and keep publishing the same story over and over again about "no known changes for the airport extreme"
I also don't know why they say rumours are 'put to bed'. There may well be nothing else new here (other than what you have found) but what tells us this is not iOS? Apple do not say what OS things run, the Apple TV changed OS with no information about it because the normal customer won't care.
I can also see Apple putting in features and not bothering to announce them for now. When iCloud comes out, let us access the features and we're happy. Even the people who just purchased one in the weeks before will be happy since they're up to date.
I think things like the caching of updates is quite nice, but I'm not bothered by whether there's more to this or not. I just have no idea why it's been put to bed just yet.
It currently is impossible to have different DNS settings on the Guest and Internal network.
This gives huge problems if one wants to have a secure internal network which also conains a DNS and DHCP server, and still provide dhcp to the guest network.
DHCP can only be enabled or disabled both internal and guest networks.
Allowing the administrator to activate the DHCP independently (and with independent settings) is a requirement.
I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360
Stop f-ing spamming
The release of both base stations puts to rest rumors that Apple would switch the products to run iOS to allow for features such as media streaming, wireless software updates and integration with iCloud.
It puts to rest none of those rumors. Just because Apple doesn't advertise them doesn't mean they don't exist. Let's wait for MacFixit to take one apart before jumping to conclusions about what's inside.
But they also don't make sense because Apple seems to be positioning the Mac Mini as their server product, at least for homes. In that case, there really is no need for a smart storage system.
From the view of the 'post-PC' era, it does make sense - imho. Over-the-air updates of iPhones & iPads would seemingly happen MUCH faster. I would not be surprised if the Time Capsule also holds backups of the iDevices.
...the new airport extreme features 2.81 x the maximum power output then the previous model.
Thanks for this info.
I wonder if these actually are the 'smart' iOS based base-stations, just not fully 'active' yet, being sneakly marketed as standard units for now, to get people set up now with them... Then when they fully activate icloud, like magic, everyone's new basestation just got more useful/features.
... Or not? Hehe
That was my thoughts too. It's not like Apple to release a new revision without something new in it. The only time that I can remember Apple doing this is during the Intel transition. We found out from Steve Jobs in his keynote that x86 was secretly in Mac OS X for 5 years without anyone outside the transition team knowing it.
it really upsets me that all the apple news sites are going around and keep publishing the same story over and over again about "no known changes for the airport extreme"
the changes are known, i figured it out early this morning and posted it to the apple discussions board for the airport. it never occured to these apple journalists to actually go to the fcc website and actually read the report
Tell me about it. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. After our discussion on the apple board this morning I have been attempting to share this information with all of the tech sites I visit. Engadget, Gizmodo, MacRumors, AppleInsider, etc, etc. They all continue to say "no changes." Its crazy.
...btw, mine shipped this morning.
Tell me about it. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. After our discussion on the apple board this morning I have been attempting to share this information with all of the tech sites I visit. Engadget, Gizmodo, MacRumors, AppleInsider, etc, etc. They all continue to say "no changes." Its crazy.
...btw, mine shipped this morning.
Apple could have asked all those sites to keep whatever is going on secret so as to not ruin the surprise for the Apple community. I doubt it but who knows. Apple has a lot muscle to keep people in line. It's really odd how they rolled out these products. And why hasn't iFixIt disassembled any yet. They are usually super quick at doing it. Usually the same day. With a mystery like this I'd expect them to have done it in hours. But nothing.
Really Strange.
Apple could have asked all those sites to keep whatever is going on secret so as to not ruin the surprise for the Apple community. I doubt it but who knows. Apple has a lot muscle to keep people in line. It's really odd how they rolled out these products. And why hasn't iFixIt disassembled any yet. They are usually super quick at doing it. Usually the same day. With a mystery like this I'd expect them to have done it in hours. But nothing.
Really Strange.
Its possible, I guess. Neil from AppleInsider replied to me this morning saying that he was going to publish this information today and that he was sorry that another store got published saying there were no known changes.
I would imagine iFixit hasn't been able to get their hands on one yet. I don't know if they are actually available in a store right now or are just available through apple.com. Mine shipped this morning with "international" shipping, so I would imagine that means they are coming from overseas. iFixit may do a teardown within the next day or two when they actually get their hands on one.
The new base station went up on the Apple Online Store late Tuesday, [...]
the only thing "late" is appleinsider getting on top of things.
it was discovered as new by an ai member commenting on an ai message board very early tuesday morning: Jackberger at 06:06 am.
the fact that ai didn't learn of the update until much later doesn't make it "late".