Product Description

TIME CAPSULE 1TB . IN

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72570 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Apple
• Model: MB277B/A
• Released on: 2008-02-20
• Platform: Windows Vista
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 3.53 pounds

Features

• Time Capsule 1TB Hard Drive

Manufacturer's Description

Introducing Time Capsule. Automatic wireless backup for your Mac. Available in 500GB and 1TB models.

Backing up is something we all know we should do, but often don’t. And while disaster is a great motivator, now it doesn’t have to be. Because with Time Capsule, the nagging need to back up has been replaced by automatic, constant protection. And even better, it all happens wirelessly, saving everything important, including your sanity.

Built for Time Machine.

Time Capsule includes a wireless 500GB or 1TB hard drive1 designed to work with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. Just set Time Capsule as the designated backup drive for Time Machine, and that’s it. Depending on how much data you have, your initial backup with Time Capsule could take overnight or longer. After it completes, only changed files are backed up — automatically, wirelessly, and in the background. So you never have to worry about backing up again.

Backup for everyone.

Have multiple Macs in your house? Time Capsule can back up and store files for each Leopard-based Mac on your wireless network. No longer do you have to attach an external drive to each Mac every time you want to back up. Time Capsule spares you the work.

Room for it all.

Time Capsule is your one place for backing up everything. Its massive 500GB or 1TB server-grade hard drive gives you all the capacity and safety you need. So whether you have 250 songs or 250,000 songs to back up, room is the last thing you’ll run out of. And considering all that storage and protection come packaged in a high-speed Wi-Fi base station starting at £199, data isn’t the only thing you’re saving.

The ultimate wireless base station.

More than just a wireless hard drive, Time Capsule is also a full-featured AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n technology. Experience a high-speed wireless network and a breakthrough way to back up all the Mac computers on your network. All in one device.

Fits your Wi-Fi lifestyle.

Time Capsule uses the 802.11n draft 2.0 specification, so you can rest assured that it works with certified 802.11n draft 2.0 products. And it’s compatible with Macs and PCs that use 802.11a, b, or g technologies, as well as wireless devices such as iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV.

Print command central.

The included USB port is great for sharing a printer throughout your wireless network. Time Capsule and the Bonjour networking technology let everyone in the house or office — Mac and PC users alike — take advantage of one centrally located printer. And if you want to share both a printer and an additional hard drive, you can. Just connect a USB hub to Time Capsule. Whatever the combination, Time Capsule divides and conquers.

Works with Mac and PC.

Time Capsule with Time Machine in Leopard is the ideal backup solution. But that doesn’t mean Tiger, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users can’t enjoy the benefits of Time Capsule, too. Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Apple Time Capsule
I finally received my time capsule yesterday, ordered from the main apple store, not from amazon, but I thought I'd share my experience. Having successfully set it up now I can say that it's a nice piece of kit. Apples' trademark minimalism is ever present, the glossy white box makes any surface it sits on look about 500 years old immediately, as do most apple products. Setting up is very easy, plug in the power cable, and ethernet cable from your modem and you can wirelessly set it up once you install the software. There are easy options that carry over the settings from your previous modem, or there are in depth configuration options. I went for the easy options, enabled the Time Capsule as a bridge from my modem, and bob's your uncle, it was up and running in about 5 minutes.

Time Machine wireless backups are not as fast as backing up via USB cable, the initial backup of 40gb took 4 hours, but the hourly backups are discreet, and of course if your computer dies, you'll be thankful that it was at least backing up at all! And the massive amount of storage is a big plus too.

I must point out that like the Airport Extreme Base Station this is not an all in one modem and router device (as I was lead to believe, not apples fault) and you are still required to have an external modem. I am using my previous wireless router, which has a modem, and the setup has worked out fine, the Time Capsule being very high quality is already more reliable than my previous router after only a day.

So another quality product from Apple, aside from little annoyances, like discovering I wouldn't be able to bin the useless old router after all, again not Apples fault, and the slow transfers over wifi, a highly recommended product.

Not ready for sale
Unlike most Apple hardware Time Capsule has some serious problems - which may account for the weeks of delays in shipping following its announcement.

Setting up the system is complex to say the least. Take a look at the apple.com forums on this. The paper based instructions are inadequate. Be prepared when doing an initial backup wirelessly for it to take days - and I am not exaggerating. It's best to backup first using an ethernet cable although the instructions hardly cover this.

Once it's set up - and note that Apple for some reason do not include a broadband modem so you have to have two boxes for this to work - backups remain slow even using the latest and fastest 'n' protocol. If your existing wireless modem does not support n then you'll need to directly wire TC to it and use TC as the wireless device. Otherwise backup will take even longer. Further, the software performs a backup every hour. I'm finding that it's taking so long to backup incremental changes that backup is running continuously. You cannot change the backup frequency - a major failing.

There's also suggested on the Apple support forums that if TC gets too hot it slows down even more. As it tends to run continuously it will get hot. I've had mine in a room with all the windows open and a fan directed onto it. This is in Northern Ireland where it never gets very hot. If you want to use this in the south of England get an air conditioning unit!

I'm a great fan of Apple but you'd do better to get an external hard disk and use that for periodic backups. The only bright spot is that in the winter I won't need to turn the heating on as the TC will warm any room.

For the moment I'd avoid. Hopefully firmware updates will improve TC - it certainly needs it. As it stands it's simply not fit for purpose - particularly if, like me, you want to back up several machines.

Good but watch for set-up issues
Fantastic device, great idea, but can be a pig to get set-up so that the it works reliably. I use BT Home Hub (BTH) with a Vista SP1 PC and a MacBook running Leopard.

My original idea was to extend my existing wireless network from the BTH and add the Time Capsule (TC) as an extra device that the PC and MAC would connect to... Nope, connection kept dropping out and it was slow. After much faffing, I ended up with:

TC plugged into the BTH via Ethernet
PC plugged into the TC via Ethernet
MAC connecting on 5Ghz Wireless

Works like a dream!

If you are using only one or the other, then the set-up will be easier...

Anyway, excellent device, worth £329 of anyone's money.