Oh, I think I'll pay a lot more for a bastardized Apple product because some rumor sites said months ago that Apple is abandoning a product (that they still happen to sell)! That seems like a good use of my time and money.
Apple has sold lots of things until they just didn't one day. The engineer moves are confirmed, and a fact.
What happens now is up to Apple. I'd like to see at least a spiritual successor to the Airport, having had one since about three weeks since the original shipment of the UFO, but who knows.
As far as this particular product goes, I'm chatting with the vendor to get one for testing. We have loads of stuff, including an unmodified Time Capsule of my own, to compare it to.
I still maintain that the engineer moves don't really mean that much. The only upgrade AirPort itself is really going to need in the near future is maybe a bigger hard drive, and that's not even terribly pressing. You don't need an engineering team drawing engineer salaries to figure out how to do that. As others have noted here, the signal strength on these puppies is quite adequate for most homes. I'll be interested in what your tests of this jury-rigged monstrosity yield. I'd encourage you to note whether or not any additional signal strength (if there is any) is of any actual use to the average person. The ability to pick up your WiFi signal a half mile away is probably not anything most people need. For that matter a signal blasting out that much power might actually overdrive and degrade signal quality if you're in the same room as the thing. My guess is that the after-market antennas are about as useful as those giant, ugly aftermarket tail-wings some people put on old Honda Civics.
My vote is that the eventual successor to AirPort will be some sort of all-in-one HomeKit hub that eliminates the current need for multiple base stations for various HomeKit enabled devices.
Comments
My vote is that the eventual successor to AirPort will be some sort of all-in-one HomeKit hub that eliminates the current need for multiple base stations for various HomeKit enabled devices.