Apple's Time Capsule Wi-Fi hard drive shipping

Apple has begun shipping Time Capsule, its latest external hard drive that is pretty much the only game in town if you want to do wireless Time Machine backups from your notebook.

Time Capsule was first introduced at Macworld. It's an 802.11n Wi-Fi base station with either a 500GB or 1TB hard drive that allows you to back up files to the drive or share files across a network without having to connect a cable. It will set you back either $299 or $499, depending on the storage size chosen.

Time Capsule is now available for either $299 or $499, depending on capacity.

(Credit: Apple)

It's a solid product in its own right (although stay tuned for CNET's review), but Time Machine Capsule is actually a workaround for a feature in Mac OS X Leopard that disappeared just before Apple was getting ready to ship the new operating system. In the runup to Leopard's debut, Apple advertised wireless backup features as part of Time Machine, the intuitive backup and recovery program that was included with Mac OS X 10.5.

But that language was pulled from the ad copy just days prior to Leopard's debut, and its disappearance has never been officially explained, as far as I can tell. As a result, there was no way to use Time Machine on a MacBook or MacBook Pro and an external hard drive without physically connecting the notebook, which is kind of a pain. You can set up wireless backups if you're running a Leopard server in your home, or if you set up a Xsan storage-area network, but those aren't really practical options for most of us.

It seems likely that the external hard drive itself needs some sort of extra intelligence to process the Time Machine handoffs over a wireless connection, requiring Apple to design Time Capsule with that updated firmware or software. Still, it would be a shame if Apple is unable or unwilling to add that capability into Leopard via a future software update, forcing anyone who wants to do wireless backups to buy Apple's hard drive.

[ikcizokm]

Maybe now Apple will also fix the Airport Extreme 802.11N

It's been broken for the same amount of time. It has issues with hard drives connected via USB. Very well documented on Apple's support forums, but the response has been :crickets:

[manny.valencia]

Windows Home Server is NOT reliable

I?ve used Microsoft Windows Home Server and it was a horrendous <br />experience. It was unstable and crashed several times and <br />eventually I ended up losing the data. I am a PC user and certainly <br />would NOT recommend Windows Home Server for those seeking a <br />stable and reliable back up solution.

[John-D]

Windows Home Server Can Already Do This!

Microsoft Windows Home Server can provide efficient wired and wireless backups at the drive image and individual file levels. <br /><br />WHS also acts as a centralized repository (i.e. shared files) for audio and video files that can be accessed by PCs, Macs and even your TiVo. It also supports a single point of remote entry for all your home computers.<br /><br />Apple needs to get this right!

[kelmon]

WHS Overkill

I definitely agree that Apple needs to fix the problems with Airport <br />Extreme but I will also note that Windows Home Server is just <br />overkill for what I want - a simple wireless storage device. I've also <br />read enough reports of issues with WHS to know that I don't want <br />to touch that either.

[manny.valencia]

Time Capsule

Will it work with PCs or is just a Mac solution?

[kelmon]

Should Work But Major Benefits Lost

Given that the Airport Extreme Base Station allows access for <br />Windows PCs to the data stored on a connected USB drive then <br />Time Capsule should work fine for a PC as well. However, the <br />major selling point is that Time Capsule is compatible with OS X <br />10.5's Time Machine application for wireless back-ups. I rather <br />feel that you'd be paying money for a feature that you won't use <br />unless you have Macs in the house and that therefore you'd <br />probably be better off spending your money on another router <br />with similar functions. Given the issues that I have had with the <br />Airport Extreme Base Station (recently returned to Apple for <br />replacement) I honestly can't recommend buying a router from <br />Apple. Mind you, my previous AEBS (802.11g router) is still <br />going strong and has recently had to be promoted back to being <br />my main router again.

[geekazine]

One drive?

I like the idea that it's wireless, but a backup system that is only one hard drive? Still not totally impressed with this appliance - especially since people will leave that on 24/7.

[kelmon]

Better Than Nothing

Well, given that this is supposed to be a simple solution for those <br />people who currently don't do any backups, I think we can all agree <br />that this is better than nothing. I agree with the sentiment that this <br />is not the best solution but anything else would push the price up <br />and put off buyers who would be well served with at least some <br />form of safety net.

[mathdave]

I am using Time Machine wirelessly already

I have a 500 gb hard drive connected to my iMac by firewire. My <br />MacBook Pro accesses the hard drive over my network using an <br />Airport Extreme base station.<br /><br />The laptop is currently creating its initial backup on Time Machine.