AirPort Time Capsule
 | This article needs to be updated. (March 2009) |
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| Developer | Apple Inc. |
|---|---|
| Type | Backup drive Airport Extreme base station |
| Release date | January 15, 2008 |
| Introductory price | 500GB US$299 |
| Website | Apple - Time Capsule |
Time Capsule is a wireless network-attached storage device combined with a wireless residential gateway router made by Apple Inc. It was introduced at the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo on January 15, 2008. Time Capsule is described as a "Backup Appliance", designed to work in tandem with the Time Machine backup utility, introduced in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard".[1]
The device includes a full AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n wireless, an Ethernet WAN port, three Ethernet LAN ports, and one USB port. There is also a "Server grade" hard drive inside the casing. Introduced at Macworld Expo 2008 and was released on February 29 2008, with pricing announced at US$299 (£199) for the 500 GB version and US$499 (£329) for the 1 TB version.
The USB port can be used for an external hard drive addition or a printer to be shared over the network.
Comparison to the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station
The Time Capsule is a fully-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station[2] and supports all the same features as the AirPort Extreme Base Station, featuring the same set of ports on the back. Modifications upon the design of the AirPort Extreme Base Station include the addition of the storage hard drive for backups and NAS type file storage which will be available to both Macs and PCs (after installing supplied drivers) on the network. The Time Capsule measures 7.7 inches or 19.7 cm square and 1.4 inches or 3.63 cm high;[2] slightly larger than the AirPort Extreme Base Station and closer to the Apple TV in volume. This is partly due to the newly included internal power supply which eliminates the requirement for a separate external power supply, enabling a direct connection between the household power outlet and the back of the Time Capsule.
Using Time Capsule as a backup device
One of the key features of Time Capsule is the ability to backup your system and files wirelessly and automatically, which eliminates the need for a separate USB external drive to be attached. This feature requires OS X 10.5.2 Leopard or greater as it is this OS release that enables back up over a network. The backup software is Apple's Time Machine which regularly makes images of the files that are being changed every hour, condensing backup images as they become older, to save space. Even when using an 802.11n wireless or gigabit ethernet connection, the initial backup of any Mac to the drive requires significant time and Apple anticipates this process takes "overnight or longer"[3]. Subsequent backups will typically be quicker as they only backup the changed files. The backup disk can also be used by Windows-based computers, and the files on it can be managed by another OS such as Windows.
Hard drive
The hard drive used in Time Capsule is the Hitachi Deskstar (in the respective 500GB and 1TB sizes), which is sold by Hitachi as a consumer-grade product (the Hitachi Ultrastar is the enterprise version)[4]. Apple labeled the drive as a server-grade drive in promotional material for Time Capsule, and also uses this type of drive in the Xserve servers. Apple states that the Hitachi Deskstar meets or exceeds the 1 million hour Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) recommended for server-grade hard drives[5].
References
- ^ Macworld 08: Apple launch Time Capsule wireless NAS - SlashGear
- ^ a b Apple, Inc. "Apple — Time Capsule". Retrieved 2008-09-21.
- ^ Apple (United Kingdom) - Time Capsule - Backup
- ^ Macworld: Apple Time Capsule Server for Wireless Time Machine Backups
- ^ Time Capsule Ships with Support for USB Drive Backups