hmmm, now where's mine?

thank goodness for leap year! you got it in february!

Awsome

yes i want the impressions soon!! i still got that 100 dollar store credit to burn!! and who doesn't need more than 1 airport extreme in the apartment anyways!!

Does it annoy anybody else that Apple only offers the audio out option on the Airport Express? For those of us looking to stream audio around the house it really sucks to add the extra cost of wireless router/access point to this product, yet still have to spend another $100 to get audio out and then duplicate the wi-fi capabilities of this.

I'm not sure I'm explaining this right, but put audio out on this and I'd buy it immediately...

and who doesn't need more than 1 airport extreme in the apartment anyways!!

@mdawg4624:
Nobody... unless you have a massive apartment having two airport extreme's gets you nothing.

I wonder how easy it is, or how hard it is, to get that drive out of there. Here's to hoping it's as easy as the ATV.

@Keebler: Yes. It annoys me too. I use my Airport Express all the time to listen to music. It would be great if I could simultaneously send it to my Airport Extreme, which is just a Time Capsule minus hard drive. Which brings me to the other thing that annoys me - that Time Machine doesn't work with USB drives connected to the Extreme.

This is a kinda expensive thing I'm considering, so I'm also anxiously awaiting your verdict.

Right! Since they shipped the firmware must be finished. If Apple doesn't ship a firmware update for the AE soon I'm going to be pissed (and surprised).

You need to be a hard core apple fan to plunk down money on this thing.

From apple.com/store I gather this thing is a router/switch with 3 ports to add other makes via wire. And it has a USB port to act as a print server. And it has wireless (although 802.11n is useless to me). I don't see the value of $499 for the Tb model nor $299 for 500 Gb.

@stwf: why would you be surprised? apple almost never releases new firmware that adds capabilities to old products.

look at the 5G iPod and 6G iPod. They are almost the same, i dont see why the 5G wouldnt be able to run the 6G's firmware...

or a better comparison. why didnt apple include the "search" function in the 5G and only put it in the 5.5G it makes absolutely no sense and theres no reason why the 5G couldnt do it.

Only time they add capabilities to a product in their firmware they CHARGE for it, and ive only seen them do it twice. $2 for wifi-n on lappys and $20 for iPhone apps on iPod touch.

its BULL ****

The real question is how it handles TimeMachine recovery if my whole machine has tanked. Can I NetBoot off of it?

Hey Giz, what's the firmware version on this puppy?

@Keebler:
I will need two networks - my Macbook does not have an N card, the GF's does. If she is going to surf the net at hyper-speed, she needs me on a separate network.

Can you store your iTunes library on the networked drive? Does the WiFi drop down to 802.11g speed for everything when you are streaming AirTunes music over an AirPort Express? Can an AppleTV access media from the Time Capsule drive?

@rexplex: you have an N card. google

@ronnsprocket: How do you know he does? Not all Macbooks have N cards....

OMFG this does NOT need an unboxing!

New iPod concept: ok.
Brand new piece of $2000 equipment: sure.
A box with a hard drive taped to a router? HELL. NO.

Get a damn grip, would you?

We honor civilization-advancing technology with an unboxing event. This is a damn gimmick. You look less like reporters and more like useless fanboys when you do this.

does 1 terabyte of memory on a router turn on any1 else?

i see loads of different versions of open firmware comming and introducing stuff which routers could never do before!!

SOLD!!

OMG everything needs unboxing. Its the law. I want one.

@Caidence:
Actually, i hav no way of getting to my local apple shop, it nice to see some non photoshopped glory shots of the product. and i must say, its looks alot nicer than what i saw on the apple store. dont like the story? then dont read it! ps, you say fanboy like its a bad thing, they can be fan boys if they want.

I'm considering getting this once my $600 Tricky Dick Fun Bill comes in the mail in May. At first I was all like, "Do I need yet another wireless access point, yet another gigabit ethernet router, and another terabyte of hdd space?" Yes. Yes I do. I have a gigabit switch hooking up my server and iMac, and that connects to a wireless G router. And having the Time Capsule act as storage purely for my iTunes content/Time Machine for my Macbook, seems pretty good to me. My PowerMac is ungodly loud so I'll keep that asleep unless I need to print or or back up my iMac/iTunes/photos.

@Caidence: looks like more people want to see it than not see it. Now shut up.

mine hasn't shipped yet. was using this to go to n in the house and upgrade my backup solution that is 500GB currently and almost out of space.

Well, although I hated the AppleTV upgrade, it was backwards compatible. My iPhone keeps getting new funciotnality for free. I'd also be surprised because Apple originally said Time Machine would work with an AE and USB disk.

So I just assumed it was taken down until they could get the firmware right.

I mean Apple can be jerks like this, but this would be beyond their usual behavior. iPods are a different ballgame, I don't know what goes into supporting various features on each version, there may be reasons for teh things you note, even if its just development costs.

But I'm guessing thast the dev work done for TimeCapsule would still apply to Airport Extreme. I suppose I would pay a small fee if thats what it takes, although hopefully that won't be necessary.

Apple's marketing department missed the boat on this one. I'd have shipped a product named 'Time Capsule' buried in a mound of dirt that you had to dig it out of.

I have an Airport Express which is setup as an extension of the network of my Airport Base Station. On that Airport Express I have speakers, printer and Ximeta hard drive(ethernet port). (all holes are plugged :)

@itchytooth: I'm able to use Time Machine on the Ximeta hard drive

@nocar: My iTunes library is on the Ximeta hard drive and I can play it and stream it to the speakers on the express.

@Dr_Blip: I'm talking about plugging a plain old hard drive into an Airport Extreme. Interesting solution though. I didn't know you could plug NAS into the Express.

@MadColombian: why would they update older products when they know you will just buy everything that they sell

I just bought the time capsule from the apple store

lucky + bastards = you guys