Gizmodo: Airport

The World’s Largest Earthquake-Safe Building

Chris Jacob — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

The new terminal at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport is the world's largest earthquake-safe building. You're looking at the over two million square feet of scaffolding that support it, all resting on top of giant geological roller skates.

Instead of being built on top of the soil, the whole structure rests on over 300 isolators. These giant bearings let the building move laterally during an earthquake. After Istanbul got rocked by a magnitude 7.4 monster in 1999, and another major quake predicted to occur within the next 30 years, you can see why engineers decided to make this massive building shake-resistant.

As terrible as a massive earthquake would be, it would be incredible to see a building this huge move from side to side. Maybe we will in a future "World's Strongest Man" event. [Wired]

San Diego Floating Airport Would Be A City Of Its Own

Rosa Golijan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:20:00 EDT

San Diego is in desperate need of an new airport, but no one wants it near their land. The so-obvious-that-you'll-slap-your-forehead solution? Don't build it on land, the ocean's right there. There's even a plan, but it's more than an airport.

The basic concept has been done in other places, but the idea for San Diego's solution comes from a guy named Adam Englund, and it's definitely not just a floating airport. It's an entire $20 billion business plan. He's dreamed up an airport on an "oil rig -style floating platform" with four stories of space, a total of 200 million square feet of it, which could be used for hotels, restaurants, even universities. An entire floating city.

It sounds insane, but apparently in initial reviews, Englund's plan lacks any "fatal flaws." I'd consider the absence of $20 billion a fatal flaw, but the man's a bigger optimist than I. [Infrastructurist via Stoke Report]

New Apple Products Leaked, Sources Claim

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:56:02 EDT

AppleInsider claims that they got word of all the product announcements coming today from Apple, including specs for a new iMac, new Mac Mini, and some other surprises. Update: K84 BEST BTR product may be a new MacBook.

MC207LL/A - K84 BEST BTR- USA
MC238LL/A - MAC MINI 2.26/2x1GB/160/SD/AP/BT-USA
MC239LL/A- MAC MINI 2.53/2x2GB/320GB/SD/AP/BT-USA
MC340LL/A - AIRPORT EXTREME (SIM DUALBAND) - USA
MC343LL/A - TIME CAPSULE 1TB (SIM DUALBAND) -USA
MC344LL/A - TIME CAPSULE 2TB (SIM DUALBAND) - USA
MC408LL/A - MAC MINI 2.53/2x2GB/1TB/NO ODD/AP-BT-USA
MC413LL/A - IMAC 21.5"/3.06/2x2GB/1TB/4670-256MB-USA
MC434LL/A - APPLE VESA MOUNT ADAPTER
MC461LL/A - MACBOOK 60W MAGSAFE POWER ADAPTER - USA

K84 Best BTR? Sounds like a new Bluetooth Keyboard. SIM dualband? Are the AirPort and Time Capsules tying in with cellphones? Apple VESA mount adapter? Since when Apple does that kind of accessory?

The new products will not be earth-shattering material—Apple won't announce anything wowiezowie without an event—but I'm curious about the whole SIM dualband thing.

Update: MacRumors claims that the ""MC207LL/A" product is a MacBook running at 2.26 GHz with a 250 GB hard drive and 2 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM." They say this is unconfirmed, though. [AppleInsider and MacRumors]

Very Stupid UFO Spotted at New York's JFK Airport

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EDT

As you can hear in this audio record, a Delta pilot spotted an UFO at New York's JFK airport this Sunday. Allegedly, the object was a "paraglider" who landed illegally, and then took off on a potential collision course:

DAL164: Hey, do you see something over the... looks like a guy on a paraglider.. almost over the approach, er, the threshold of two-two right?

...

Looks like he hit the ground, dropped something off.

...

Now he's airborne again. I guess is it ah, looks like some guy on a parachute.

The question is: What the hell was he or she dropping? Why nobody has found the dropped object yet—if there was actually anything? Air, land, and sea police searches didn't find any traces of this very stupid and insane person. Or whatever it was, because for now it's just "unidentified."

Thankfully, nothing happened as it climbed higher than 1,000 feet across JFK's busy air traffic. [Flightglobal]

Airport Update Fixes OS 10.5.8 Issues

Mark Wilson — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:39:00 EDT

I know of a few people who've encountered weird Wi-Fi problems since the OS 10.5.8 update. Now Apple has released a Macbook/Macbook Pro patch for the networking issues claimed to occur under low battery power. Hopefully things will be all better now. [Apple via Ars]

I Don't Want to Land Here

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:40:00 EDT

Seriously. I don't.

This is Funchal Airport's runway, in the Island of Madeira. It was one of the most dangerous in the world because its runway was just too short for large airplanes. It had to be extended and engineers had two options: Extend the ground base with extra soil and concrete, or build a platform on top of 180 230-foot pillars. The answer just looks spectacular.

And probably as safe as it is scary. [Premier Holidays via Dark Roasted Blend]

Airport, Time Capsule Get Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 'Guest Networking'

John Herrman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:08:37 EST

Accompanying the refreshed Mac Pro, Mac Mini and iMac are interesting (if incremental) upgrades for the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule. Both products get dual-band wi-fi, along with an interesting "guest networking" feature.

For the end user, this means a few things. As expected, the dual-band feature broadcasts on both 2.4GHz (802.11b/g/n) and 5GHz (802.11a/n) frequencies, allowing client devices to connect to whichever standard suits them without forcing the whole access point one way or the other. In other words, different devices could be connected to both g and n network simultaneously.

Guest Networking is a clever feature that essentially sets up a walled, parallel hotspot that provides only internet access, keeping the rest of your network private from connected users—perfect if you share your wi-fi with neighbors, or just run a particularly promiscuous access point.

Otherwise, the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule are almost exactly the same—Time Capsule storage options remain at 500GB and 1TB, for which the prices stay at $300 and $500, respectively. The AirPort Extreme still hovers at a lofty $180, a blow only slightly mitigated by the new features. Both are shipping right now, to the rich. [Apple]

Apple Store Down, Rumors Point to Upgraded Desktops, Time Capsule, Airport Extreme

John Herrman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:06:51 EST

And so the cycle continues: the Apple store goes down, people ask us why, and we speculate. So! Assuming this isn't just a cruel red herring, here are the most likely possibilities.

Rumors of new, extra-wireless Time Capsule and Airport units popped onto our radar earlier this morning, following a serious markdown of the existing Time Capsule model. This came just after a picture of the purported new Mac Mini's packaging—a product update that is not only long-overdue, but that has been the subject of a veritable slew of leaks in the last few weeks. All this comes on the heals of a weakly-sourced (but tantalizingly plausible) rumor of a March product update.

Moving on the the heftier products, MacRumors posted a "last minute" spec leak a few hours ago, which details incremental upgrades and price adjustments for the Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro. None of purported upgrades are going to blow your socks off, but a Nehalem-based Mac Pro and $100-cheaper, better-equipped Mac Mini would be more than welcome. At posting time the store is still down, but we'll let you know if any of this materializes. —Thanks, Chang (and the other 235 of you, too)!

Fake-Weapon Suitcases May Not Be Your Friend at Airports

Kit Eaton — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:30:00 EST

From designers Pinkwolf, each of these cases has a life-size weapon shaped cunningly into the material of its lid: There's a knife, an axe, and a revolver. Now as far as we can see they're just plastic shapes, and an integrated part of each case. But considering the incredible kerfuffle that crazy application of regulations can cause nowadays at airports, to use these faux-weapon suitcases for real you'd have to be either brave, dumb, freakishly lucky or a wonderful melting-pot combo of all three. [Pinkwolf via Makezine]

American Airlines Brings Cellphone Boarding Passes to O'Hare

Sean Fallon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:30:00 EST

Chicago's O'Hare airport, the second busiest in the world, is set to join several other airports serviced by Delta and Continental in offering passengers the option to use their cellphones as boarding passes. The service will be available to passengers departing from Los Angeles International and John Wayne Orange County airports starting on Nov. 17. [Chicago Tribune]

TSA Airport Screener Steals Over $200,000 in Gadgets, Almost Gets Away With It

matt buchanan — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:10:00 EDT

Transportation Security Administration baggage screener Pythias Brown is the reason you hate flying with expensive gear in your bag, especially if you ever flew out of Newark airport. Over the last few years, he stole at least $200,000 worth of electronics. Not just a camcorder here, a laptop there, or an Xbox 360 or two, either. No, this guy had balls. Among his biggest hauls—literally—was an HBO employee's $47,900 camera. And the TSA was totally clueless about it. He was finally caught after CNN found a camera he had stolen from them up for sale on eBay.

When the USPS and local police tracked him down and raided his place, they found they found 66 cameras, 31 laptops, jewelry, camera lenses, GPS devices and more. So yeah, how does a TSA screener systematically walk out of the airport with more gadgets than Best Buy—hell, with some gear you can't even buy there—without a single agent ever noticing? I guess if you ever check anything actually valuable, you might want avoid Newark (not that there aren't a million more reasons to avoid Newark). [Gadling via BoingBoing Photo: Flickr/Joel Franusic ]

New WTC Transport Hub: One Part Memorial, One Part Stegosaurus From Space

John Herrman — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:52:49 EDT

The Port Authority has released renderings of the plan for the World Trade Center Transport hub, and they look fantastic. With an arched, spiny roof and striking curves, the hub — though it will only serve as a train station and vestibule to the new WTC — has more in common with Bilbao's beautiful international airport than with Grand Central Terminal (they have the same designer, after all).

It's hard to believe that this extravagant plan is actually more conservative than the original, but prohibitive steel costs nixed an even more bizarre structure with almost no support beams and way more skylights. It's always safe to be pessimistic about these kinds of things, but the target date for completion is 2012. [Yanko]

Biggest Airplane Model in the World Eaten by Biggest Cargo Aircraft

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EDT

This is an Airbus A380—the largest passenger aircraft in the world—eaten alive by an Antonov AN-124—the largest mass-produced cargo airplane in the world (which I filmed inside at Dubai's airport). Before you exclaim "Photoshop!", this is a real photo by Dmitry Avdeev. However, it's not a real A380: it's a 1/3 scale model, which makes it the biggest aircraft replica in the world. So big, in fact, that its 87-feet wingspan is 3 feet and 4 inches wider than a real Concorde. Seeing it completely built in video gives you an idea of its gigantic scale.

The Emirates A380 model has been placed at the Heathrow Airport roundabout previously known as the Concorde Roundabout—because it had a replica of that plane. It's not made of Lego bricks, but given the fact that it is bigger than my apartment, I won't mind living in one. [Emirates]

Optimus Prime T-Shirt Transforms into Arrest Threat at Airport

Kit Eaton — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:40:00 EDT

We love Transformers here at Giz, but it looks like the UK's already slightly-crazed authorities don't. A guy called Brad Jayakody was recently barred from boarding a flight at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 because his T-shirt had a picture of Optimus Prime brandishing a gun.

Yup, you got it: a cartoon robot with a stylized cartoon laser gun pissed off an airport guard so much that Jake had to swap it before flying. He even asked to speak to a security supervisor, who supported the guard and warned Brad not to put the shirt back on or he could be arrested.

A spokesman for the British Airports Authority said "If a T-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it," and that sounds pretty fair. But this was a cartoon giant gun-toting robot... on a T-shirt, not a detailed photo recreation of a Glock that might be mistaken for the real deal at a quick glance.

Looks like Britain's safe from cartoon robot gun attacks, at least. [The Sun]

World's Biggest Airport Opens in Beijing

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:37:36 EDT

The world's biggest airport is now finished and ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The $3.5 billion gigantic dragon terminal, which is the centerpiece of the 501-square-mile complex capable of allowing 50 million passengers per year, looks even more impressive in the amazing, almost unreal photos.

The new Terminal 3 has been designed to be energy efficient, allowing for natural lightning—whenever it is possible and the city smog allows, I guess—and packing all the facilities into a single structure, rather than fragmenting them in separate buildings, the building is 17% bigger than London Heathrow T1, T2, T3, T4 and the new T5 put together.

With a total of five floors—two underground— the dragon terminal is divided into three parts: the 3C is the domestic hall, and the main passenger terminal, 3D is the Olympics hall, used for charter flights during the celebrations, and 3E is the international hall. [Archdaily]

Jack Bauer Really Does Save Us From Terrorists

matt buchanan — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:00:00 EDT

As far fetched as some of the tech the spy community plays with is, you'd think they were getting it from spy movies and stuff. Well, they're definitely watching. The Department of Homeland Security's latest idea to protect airports, a laser equipped drone that'll detect and blind missiles with a low-power laser (rather than a megadoom one) is named for Chloe on 24, because they apparently both track down bad guys. We're assuming project Jack kills them. And if they ever reveal one codenamed Solid Snake, all evildoers worldwide should simultaneously piss their pants and seek a career in handicrafts. [Danger Room]

Why: Heathrow Airport Terminal 5's High Tech Failings

Brian Lam — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:00:55 EDT

London Heathrow airport's latest building, Terminal 5, launched last month after almost two decades of planning, $8.5 billion dollars in cost, and 100 million hours in manpower. It is a glass and concrete and steel marvel, the largest free standing building in the UK, with over 10 miles in suitcase moving belts, and was supposed to be a cure for the Airport's famous congestion by way of massive automation. But on its opening day it just did not work right. This week, British Airways' plans to move its long haul operations from the crowded main terminal to the new terminal were pushed back til June. Much of the press was quick to say that tech was the source of the failings in parking, luggage handling and check in, but here are the details I can find on what exactly caused endless lines and delay for so many passengers of Terminal 5.

Parking
Road signs pointing to garages were said to be misleading, and some signs inside the garages were inaccurate. Furthermore, there were complaints about problems paying for parking and exiting the structures.
Check In
On day one, check in counters were not open at 4am, meaning some ticketholders had to start lining up, causing a backlog that certainly didn't help the launch. By noon, 20 flights had been canceled because of baggage handling problems.

Baggage
Here's the heart of the issue at Terminal 5's launch. The luggage system was designed to be streamlined as a checkpoint for travelers, on the way to the plane.

BAA also enthuses about technology like the baggage drop, which hoists suitcases to an underfloor belt, enabling passengers to walk forward to departures rather than turning around. "It's on the way, not in the way," quips Ms. Kearney.

The 10 miles of belts are capable of handling 12,000 items of luggage in an hour. But on day one, workers, presumably understaffed, were unable to clear incoming luggage fast enough, causing +2 hour delays at baggage claim. On the other side of things, the system reported to handlers that flights that were awaiting luggage had already left. Instead of loading suitcases on planes, they took them back to the terminal for the next flight. So, a few planes took off with empty cargo holds.

Exaggerating all of this, the belt system jammed at one point. Sometime on day one, the airlines had no choice but to only check in those without baggage.

To add insult to injury, the Terminal 5 system has also lost the luggage of a passenger who died traveling back from Hong Kong, who is a son of an ex British Airways employee. He said, "To lose the luggage of a dead person is unforgivable."

In the end, British Airways has claimed responsibility for 15,000 bags were stranded at Heathrow. There is speculation that this number may have been has high as 20,000.

Flight Control
Not much went wrong here. Thank god. Last I checked, there were weather related delays, but that's not something you can plan to avoid. But the problems with check ins, resulting from lines and baggage problems, did result in 34 flights being canceled on day one.

Security
"Twenty security lanes promise speedier passage, though domestic travelers will now be fingerprinted."
Since people couldn't get through check in and baggage handling issues, security was probably not taxed.

Testing

Being nerds, you'd be right to suspect that all of this could have been caught by beta testing. Thorough runs of all systems, from the "toilets to check in and seating" took place over 6 months before opening, including 4 full scale runs, using 16,000 volunteers from September 2007 to March 2008. That leaves not much time at all to deal with major issues, since it launched that month.

In truth, they'll get this stuff ironed out. Eventually.

Terminal 5, by the numbers:

Cost: £4.3bn
Construction: September 2002 to March 2008
Number of passengers annually: 30 million

Phase 1: opening 2008 Terminal 5A and B
50 aircraft stands (total)

Phase 2: opening 2010 Terminal 5C
60 aircraft stands (total)

Terminal 5A dimensions: 396m long x 176m wide x 40m high
Levels above ground: 4

Terminal 5B dimensions: 442m long x 52m wide x 19.5m high
Levels above ground: 3

Multi-storey car park: 3,800 spaces
Sofitel London Heathrow Hotel: 605 rooms (opens June)

Rail links: Heathrow Express
London Underground Piccadilly Line

Check-in self service kiosks: 96
Check-in fast bag drops: over 90
Check-in standard desks: 54

Security zones: 2 (north and south)
Security lanes: 20
Baggage reclaim belts: 11
Length of bag conveyers: 17 km
No of bags processed per hour: 12,000

Number of lifts: 192
Number of escalators: 105
Number of seats: 9,140 (excluding catering outlets)
Number of toilet blocks: 112
Number of toilets: 800
Number of baby change facilities: 32
Childrens' play areas: 3 (for toddlers to 7 year olds)
Number of retail facilities: 112 (including 25 food and drink outlets)

[CS Monitor, Forbes, NYTimes, NYTimes, BBC, Airport-Technology, BAA]

New Airport Screening Procedure for MacBook Air (No, Really)

matt buchanan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:00:20 EDT

You might recall a couple of weeks ago, a dude got hassled by airport security because they couldn't make sense of his MacBook Air. Turns out, it actually does look "very different" than 99 percent of the notebooks they're used to seeing under the scanner, in a way that would "pique some interest" of security personnel, according to the TSA's Blogger Bob.

The culprit? Its solid state drive. Which means any notebook with a SSD could've gotten your ass busted by the Feds. Helpfully, they've since distributed photos of what SSD notebooks look like to security personnel, reducing your chances of a friendly cavity search. [TSA Blog via TUAW]

Dealzmodo: 500GB Western Digital Hard Drive for $100, a Sign of Things to Come?

Benny Goldman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:16:18 EDT

Buy.com has the 500GB Western Digital Elements external hard drive for $100 shipped, marked down from $140. (Around the web, this drive sells for $115-$140.) Now that Time Machine is compatible with any hard drive networked to an Airport Extreme, some of you might be interested in picking up something. This is the best deal that we could find, but we're sure you've seen better. See any deals?? [Dealhack]

Apple Time Machine Now Works With AirPort Disk

Adrian Covert — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:34:45 EDT

Apple issued a firmware update for the Airport Extreme today that allows any USB hard drive connected to the router to function with Time Machine. It's nice for those with MacBooks and external HDDs who find it troublesome to have to plug and unplug their drive everytime they take their lappy on the go. [TUAW]

Official: Apple Updates $99 AirPort Express to Wireless N

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:33:22 EDT

We first caught wind of this baby on Saturday, an AirPort Express based on 802.11n. This makes Apple's whole networking family N-capable, though this upgrade doesn't entirely solve the fact that AirTunes is not the best way to stream music in the home. Jump for press release.

Apple Introduces New AirPort Express With 802.11n
All AirPort Base Stations Now Run Fastest Wireless Standard

CUPERTINO, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today updated its AirPort Express(R) mobile base station with 802.11n to deliver up to five times the performance and twice the range of the previous model*. Priced at just $99, AirPort Express is the world's smallest 802.11n-based mobile base station. It can be plugged directly into the wall for wireless Internet connectivity and USB printing at home or easily brought on the road for wireless freedom wherever there is an Internet connection. AirPort Express features AirTunes(TM), which works seamlessly with iTunes(R) to give users a simple and inexpensive way to wirelessly stream iTunes music from a PC or Mac(R) to any room in the house.

"Apple is leading the way with a broad range of innovative 802.11n base stations for almost any wireless networking need," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "From the small and portable AirPort Express, to AirPort Extreme for workgroups of up to 50 users and the new Time Capsule for automated backups, Apple customers now have more great ways to extend their wireless networks with 802.11n."

AirPort Express features a single-piece, compact design weighing just 6.7 ounces, providing maximum portability. AirPort Express offers both PC and Mac users the ability to share a single DSL or cable broadband connection with up to 10 simultaneous users. Users can also share a printer wirelessly that is connected to the USB port. Apple's AirPort Utility software provides easy step-by-step instructions for setting up and configuring AirPort Express; and with its advanced security features, AirPort Express safeguards data on networked computers with support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2),

128-bit WEP encryption and a built-in firewall. Apple now includes 802.11n as standard in its entire line of AirPort base stations and Mac notebooks as well as iMac(R), Apple TV(R) and Time Capsule(TM).

AirPort Express includes a built-in combination digital and analog audio connector allowing users to connect to a home stereo or powered speakers. iTunes automatically detects remote speakers and displays them in a simple pop-up list for the user to select. Once the remote speakers are selected, AirTunes wirelessly streams iTunes music from the computer to the AirPort Express base station. Multiple AirPort Express base stations can be set up around a home, each connected to a set of powered speakers for a whole-home music experience. AirPort Express can also extend the range of an existing AirPort Extreme(R) wireless network.

Pricing & Availability

AirPort Express is available immediately through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $99 (US).

*AirPort Express is based on an IEEE 802.11n draft specification. Actual performance will vary based on range, connection rate, site conditions, size of network and other factors.

Apple Time Capsule Server for Wireless Time Machine Backups

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:03:27 EST

At Macworld 2008, Apple just announced Time Capsule, a full Airport Extreme base station with 802.11n wireless and four Ethernet ports, plus server grade hard drives to back up all of the Leopard Macs in the house. Did we call this or what? OK, minus the leopard spots, that is. Yes, all signs suggested that something like this would happen, but little did we know it would come with such a reasonable price tag: 500GB for $300; 1TB for $500. Click here for our Time Capsule hands-on at Macworld, or jump for details, plus the official press release:

The Bare Facts:
• After setup, all Macs on network are automatically backed up wirelessly and constantly.
• USB port is so it can act as print server; no word on whether you can attach addional USB disks.
• No hidden bricks: The sleek design includes a built-in power supply.
• Full three-port Gigabit Ethernet router (fourth port is for WAN); 802.11n network supports up to 50 users.

Official Press Release:

Apple Announces Time Capsule
Wireless Backup for all Your Macs

MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 15, 2008—Apple® today introduced Time Capsule, a backup appliance that automatically and wirelessly backs up everything on one or more Macs running Leopard™, the latest release of Apple's Mac OS® X operating system including the amazing Time Machine™ automatic backup software. Time Capsule combines an 802.11n base station with a server grade hard disk in one small package. Simply plug it in, then easily set up automatic wireless backup for every Mac® in your house to a single Time Capsule with just a few clicks. Time Capsule offers the benefits of a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station, and comes in two models: a 500 gigabyte model for just $299 and a 1 terabyte model for just $499.

"Bring Time Capsule home, plug it in, click a few buttons on your Macs and voila—all the Macs in your house are being backed up automatically, every hour of every day," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "With Time Capsule and Time Machine, all your irreplaceable photos, movies and documents are automatically protected and incredibly easy to retrieve if they are ever lost."

Built to work seamlessly with Time Machine, Time Capsule lets users wirelessly back up all of the data on their Macs, find lost files and even restore all of their software. In the event a file is lost, users can wirelessly search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file. If it's ever necessary, Leopard can also easily restore an entire system from the Time Machine backup on Time Capsule.

In addition to being the best way to back up a Mac, Time Capsule is also a full-featured Wi-Fi base station with the latest 802.11n technology. Delivering up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g, 802.11n* is built in to Apple's iMac® desktop and the entire Mac notebook line up, including MacBook®, MacBook Pro and the new MacBook Air. Time Capsule features a sleek design with a built-in power supply and connections to print wirelessly to a USB printer. With Time Capsule, it's very easy for users to create a secure, wireless network for up to 50 users and set security restrictions such as Internet access limits for children's computers.

At $299 for a 500GB model and $499 for a 1TB model and a fully integrated 802.11n AirPort Extreme® Base Station, Time Capsule can serve as a backup solution for multiple computers as well as the backbone for a high-speed, 802.11n wireless network, making it effortless and affordable for everyone at home, school or work to protect their digital files.

Additional Time Capsule features include:

dual-band antennas for 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies;
three Gigabit LAN ports;
one Gigabit Ethernet WAN port;
one USB 2.0 port;
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA-2), 128-bit WEP encryption; and
a built-in NAT firewall supporting NAT-PMP for features like Back to My Mac.
Pricing & Availability
Time Capsule will be available in February through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US) for a 500GB hard drive and $499 (US) for a 1TB hard drive.

*Time Capsule is based on an IEEE 802.11n draft specification. Actual performance will vary based on range, connection rate, site conditions, size of network and other factors.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

[Macworld Keynote 2008]

Apple Hasn't Given Up on Time Machine AirPort Disk Support

Sean Fallon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:20:50 EDT

If you kept up with our Mac OSX Leopard Liveblog, you might have heard that Apple pulled wireless Time Machine back-ups with AirPort disks at the last minute. If you were irritated by this development, good news may be on the horizon. According to an Appleinsider source, Apple is classifying the AirPort disk issue as a known issue. So if the rumors are true, engineers are looking into it and an upcoming maintenance update resolving the problem may be well on its way. [Appleinsider]

Intelligent Coconuts Working to Stop Airport Noise

msparkes — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:29:40 EDT

Intelligent coconuts are the latest invention to come out of the MIT Media Lab, designed to combat excessive airport noise. They have built-in noise sensors, and will be hung on trees surrounding San Jose International Airport. When they detect a jet coming in louder than it should they use their built-in cellphone to call the airport complaint hotline and leave one of four pre-recorded messages. Check out the clips after the jump.

Sample complaint 1
Sample complaint 2
Sample complaint 3
Sample complaint 4

I can imagine that having to delete hundreds of these every morning from your answerphone could be almost as annoying as living on the flight path of a major international airport. [TripWire]

Apple AirPort Utility Guided Tour

Jason Chen — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:20:05 EST

Unlike regular routers, Apple requires you to use its own AirPort Utility in order to manage and change settings on the AirPort Extreme. If you're still curious as to what features Apple's newest router does and doesn't have, take a look at our illustrated walkthrough of just about the entire AirPort Utility.

This is the last thing we'll post about the AirPort today, we promise. – Jason Chen

The Things Other Apple Airport Extreme Reviews Don't Tell You

Jason Chen — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:30:58 EST

You're all familiar with the specs of the Extreme, so let's just skip to how it performed—later moving on to the problems we had.

On the performance side, 802.11n really does work a lot faster than our old 802.11g D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming Router. When transferring a 700MB Batman Begins file over 802.11n, 5GHz, WPA2 encryption, we got sustained speeds of 7.3 MB/s to a 100Mbps ethernet-connected machine and 6.0 MB/s to another MacBook connected on N. As a benchmark, we got 9.3 MB/s when we ran it ethernet to ethernet (both 100Mbps).

Compared to our 802.11g router, which got 2.77 MB/s from to an ethernet-connected machine and 1.34 MB/s going g to g (on the same MacBook), it's quite an improvement. So yes, our speed gains aren't quite as much as the 5x Apple's touting (we got between 2.6x and 4.4x), but it's well within the margin of error, also accounting for file transfer overhead.

And we got reception in our office whereas our old G signal died somewhere on the road to the bathroom, about 20 feet away, through two walls. (I am writing this review from the toilet.) Each apartment is different, but my 1000-square foot, 2-bedroom abode was easily blanketed, despite 10 other APs in the area causing interference. YMMV, but the Airport's range lives up to the hype. Through outer walls, pacing out onto my lawn, I hit 100 feet of range, but others have reported 350 feet, line of sight.

Then the issues.

Our old Lexmark printer didn't work with the AirPort Extreme because the USB drivers for it didn't work over the network, and we couldn't find any network-capable drivers for it. This is something you should research in advance if you're looking forward to networking your printer through this thing. Lots of people online had no problems with their printers, presumably ones that they didn't buy for $10. It's Lexmark's fault for not having the drivers, and our fault for having a lousy $10 printer.

And there's no Gigabit Ethernet, which we found a little disappointing since even the Macbook Pros and Mac Pro towers have 1000 base T connections. We talked to one of Apple's engineers on the project as well, and he explained to us the lack of Gigabit Ethernet was because most home users aren't going to be using more than 90Mbps on their N connections to reach the net, and that was good enough for surfing. True, but we're not concerned with surfing limitations as much as we are with files transfers between various machines on our home network. So we don't see ourselves giving up our current Gigabit Ethernet setup any time soon. You may be in this camp as well.

Performance degradation from using G and N machines simultaneously were negligible when just browsing the internet, and our Apple guy said it only affects N machines only for the duration that the G machines are sending data. Not a huge deal unless you're using both to stream files simultaneously, in which case we'd recommend you plug in to Ethernet anyway.

Another possible problem with the AE was the inability to change its MAC address, which means people with ISPs that lock on to a particular MAC address will have to call up their provider. But if they already have a wireless router, AirPort Extreme has the ability to be set on "bridge" mode by just clicking a dropdown, and it totally just got out of the way of all DHCP, DNS, and routing. Everything was passed up to the D-Link. Usually doing this on other manufacturer's routers takes tens of minutes of configuration and rebooting, something we're glad to have skipped this time.

Although seemingly pricey at first glance, the AirPort Extreme 802.11n base station falls within the range of similar draft-N routers on the market now. Routers from D-Link, Linksys and Netgear all fall within the $100 to $200 range, and with the exception of Netgear's offerings—which are actually quite stylish—all look like equipment Drew Barrymore's childhood buddy uses to phone home. Not a huge deal since routers are meant to be admired once, placed in a corner, and forgotten about like your college diploma or your surround sound system, but going the extra mile for design like Apple and Netgear counts for something.

So would we recommend this as an N-router? Yes, but with caveats. Its N performance was great—but the lack of Gigabit Ethernet, Xbox 360/VPN issues, and inability to change the MAC address of their router to get online rules this out for certain people. Yet another caveat when buying any draft-N networking equipment, not just Apple's Airport Extreme: When we asked whether this draft-N firmware was going to be upgradeable to the final N spec, Apple said they tried to make it as upgradeable as possible but it was impossible to say until the final draft is released.

Should you buy it? Look at our lousy Venn Diagram below (fixed to make it more clear). If you fall in the middle, then you should be satisfied with Apple's latest release. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Apple]

Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n Gallery: It's Like You Bought It

Jason Chen — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:00:06 EST

Want to see what the Apple AirPort Extreme looks like? UP CLOSE? Check out the gallery and you'll feel like you spent $200 and purchased one yourself. Only now you have $200 you can spend on ~~booze~~ a late V-Day present consisting of flowers and ~~booze~~ ~~booze~~ ok booze.

– Jason Chen

Airport Extreme [Gizmodo]

Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Has VPN Issues

Jason Chen — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:15:07 EST

For those of you who regularly VPN into work and are planning on purchasing an Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n, check this out. According to the Apple Support forms, VPN users have been having trouble with VPN pass through because there aren't any options to configure the pass through.

There is a workaround, however, to use in the meantime while Apple releases a patch. The workaround has you setting the default host and pointing that to your machine you need to VPN from, but it's less than idea if you need to get more than one computer to VPN. Take a look at the support forums for more info. – Jason Chen

VPN and Airport Extreme [Apple via Slashdot]

Microsoft's Xbox 360 Incompatible with Apple's Airport Extreme 802.11n

Jason Chen — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:54:36 EST

Two can play the incompatibility game. It looks like Microsoft's getting back at Apple's "don't get Vista if you want to use iTunes" by telling Xbox 360 users not to get the new Airport Extreme because it's incompatible with their game console.

Apparently the 360's having trouble either with WPA/WPA2 security or routers with N-support, as a few Linksys and D-Link users are also reporting compatibility problems. Microsoft says they may update this in the Spring Dashboard update, but that won't be out for a couple months. For now either stay away from Apple's Extreme if you've got an Xbox 360 or hook it up via Ethernet. – Jason Chen

Apple Support [Apple via TUAW]

Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Dissected, Benchmarked

Jason Chen — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 17:05:26 EST

The sadists over at iFixit have taken apart an Airport Extreme 802.11n to see what's going on on the inside. What is on the inside? Well, just a board, some wires, and Ethernet ports. No little 802.11n Gremlin like you would have thought.

Their benchmarks, however, show that the claims of 5x performance and 2x range are actually low! iFixit found a 10x performance increase and a 3x usable range increase using the 802.11n over 802.11g. If you're looking for an unboxing, check that out here as well. – Jason Chen

Airport Extreme 802.11n Disassembly [iFixIt]

Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n Naked, Maybe Shamed

Matt Buchanan — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 10:30:51 EST

The guys at AppleInsider thought they would beat the system by pre-ordering the new AirPort Extreme with its supersonic N and other goodness the day of MacWorld. Turns out, it was quicker to just walk to an Apple Store and snag it in person than to wait for the mail guy. However, shipments to the stores have been sporadic so you might want to call around first. Unboxing pr0n highlights post-jump.

Definitely not shaped like a boob anymore. – Matt Buchanan

High-quality Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n unboxing photos [AppleInsider]

Apple Airport Extreme Shipping Today: Free 802.11n Updater, More Details

Brian Lam — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:43:07 EST

In case you didn't notice, there's a little $2 bonus included with the new, non-conehead, draft 802.11n, 5x faster, 2x ranged, Airport Extreme. The highly controversial update that cost 499 pennies at first, then 199 pennies, then falsely zero pennies, then back to 199 pennies, is free if you buy the whole Setup. That's a little bit of trivia for you following the somehow thrilling story.

Beyond that, there's actually a bit more going on with the Airport Extreme that I just learned today in terms of its USB drive capabilities.

It'll have that USB port for turning storage into networked drive, but did you know that drive can be set to automount upon connection to the network? It can also be locked down with specific user accounts. These features are part of the brave new world of Mac gadgets. One that supports PCs as well as Macs. Does this mean this works with Vista? The USB ports also work with Printers.

The rest of the Airport Extreme's features, like encryption, and security, are standard fare.

The Airport Extreme's unlocking software will work on Mac Pros from august 06. Here's the total list of machines that already have the DNA for going Extreme.

MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo
MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo
Mac Pro with Intel Xeon and AirPort Extreme
iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except iMac 17-inch, 1.83GHz)

One wish: Since my cable modem is near my livingroom setup, wouldn't it be nice if there was a super AppleTV box that had both Airport Extreme and AppleTV in one? And if it came in the same colors as the Shuffle? No? Never mind.–Brian Lam

[Gizmodo]

Rumor Smashed: Apple has NOT Released The 802.11n Update For Free

Jason Chen — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:15:06 EST

Remember how Apple was going to charge $1.99 for the 802.11n AirPort enabler in Intel macs? Well, Apple released an Airport Extreme firmware update for all Intel-based Macs yesterday, and already sites are claiming Apple's gone and lowered $1.99 to $0.00. Not quite.

An Apple contact confirmed for us that the update is not the AirPort Extreme enabler, and just updates Intel Macs for compatibility with AirPort Extreme base stations. A bit of wishful thinking never hurt anyone, but let's not jump to conclusions unless you have that cool mat from Office Space. – Jason Chen

Firmware Update [Apple]

Accountants Say Apple's $1.99 802.11n Tax is Bogus

Jason Chen — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:15:39 EST

Remember Apple's $1.99 charge to update current laptops to 802.11n? Well, according to Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission, "[generally accepted accounting principles] doesn't require you to charge squat."

She adds, "You charge whatever you want. GAAP doesn't even remotely address whether or not you charge for a significant functionality change. GAAP establishes what the proper accounting is, based on what you did or didn't charge for it."

Despite this, Apple still maintains that if they gave away the 802.11n patch for free, their auditors would have required a revenue restatement, which may in turn cause...*yawn* sorry, we just fell asleep writing this sentence. Suffice it to say, Apple still thinks charging you two bones to activate 802.11n is a good idea, even if top tier accountants say they're not obligated to. – Jason Chen

Apple Gets a Bruise by Blaming A $1.99 Fee on Accounting Rules [WSJ - Thanks Kelly]

Update: Apple To Charge $1.99 To Activate 802.11n

Jason Chen — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:27:24 EST

Remember that post about Apple charging $5 for current Mac users to activate 802.11n on their machines? Turns out it's only $1.99, and it'll be available for purchase on Apple's website.

Apple said it is required under generally accepted accounting principles to charge customers for the software upgrade. "The nominal distribution fee for the 802.11n software is required in order for Apple to comply with generally accepted accounting principles for revenue recognition, which generally require that we charge for significant feature enhancements, such as 802.11n, when added to previously purchased products," Fox said in a statement.

If it really were just a nominal fee, why not charge $0.99? Or $0.01? – Jason Chen

Apple wants two bucks for faster Wi-Fi [News.com]

New Airport Extreme Tomorrow?

blongo3 — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:38:38 EST

If you go over to Macworld.com you'll find a section on PI: Advanced Wireless. It's just promoting a speaker series at Macworld on wireless networking. But if you scan through the article it references Aiport Extreme X2 & X4 several times. And with the iTV on the horizon it seems like tomorrow would be as good of a day to release a new Airport as ever.– Brian Lam

Airport Extreme X2 and X4? [MacRumors]

Video-Enabled Airport Express Coming Sept. 12?

Jason Chen — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 17:20:25 EDT

Rumor has it that the Apple September 12 Media Event is going to give us a whole bunch of video and video related products. One of these is the Video-Enabled Airport Express. Basically an upgrade of the current AE, which streams iTunes music over 802.11b. An upgraded version that supports video will no doubt be 802.11b/g to support the added bandwidth usage.

The rumor also says Apple's making this Airport Express act as a wireless router and print hub (it kind of is already) as well as a video streaming device. Will these features help Apple break into the living room market? Will this even be an actual product? We'll find out next week. – Jason Chen

Update: The current Airport Express is already 802.11g, apparently. I must have missed that when browsing through the site. Chalk it up to too much glue sniffing.

Apple to roll-out iTunes movies and 'one more thing' [Apple Insider via MacRumors]

Real-Time Airport Plane Visualization

Jason Chen — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 17:32:38 EDT

Reader Michael sent in this link to some web-based Java airport monitoring app. Just go to the site, pick an airport, and see a real-time display on planes flying in and out of your local hub. So far only major airports like Boston Logan International, LaGuardia, LAX, and my local San Jose International airport have plane tracking up. Pretty sweet app nonetheless. – Jason Chen

AirportMonitor [Java.com - Thanks Mike!]

Making Your AirPort Card, Nintendo DS Love Each Other

Travis Hudson — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:10:34 EDT

Believe it or not, some folks don't actually have a wireless network set up in their household. No Wi-Fi network can be a real buzzkill for DS owners. Luckily the folks at Mac OS X Hints have written up a semi-complicated method to get a little Wi-Fi connection using an AirPort card. Basically you need a computer that is connect directly to the internet via Ethernet preferably and a AirPort card ready for some Ad Hoc'ing.

The OS X Hints guys managed to explain this process in four steps. I don't know, I am still kind of weary about that. I tried to set up Ad-Hoc between a laptop and my PSP one time. Two hours later I was still internet-less on the PSP and my brain had melted into a puddle of goo. (Note that I was trying to do this on Windows.) Oh well. Good luck and happy DS'ing—if you can get it to work. – Travis Hudson

How to share a wireless connection with a Nintendo DS [Via Kotaku]

AirPort Express Stations Frying

johnb — Wed, 24 May 2006 13:24:19 EDT

Over 200 AirPort Express stations have suddenly burned out, enough to make us—and others—think there might be a bit of a problem. While most of the latest Airports are impervious to this problem, it seems that if your AirPort has any of these identifiers, then you can expect a visit from the smoky electronics fairy some time soon:

- as we originally suspected, it predominantly affects users living in 220/230V-based countries (98% of the reports). - all defective APX have been manufactured by Foxconn during S2 2004 - as a result, all defective APX have a serial number starting with HS42, HS43 or HS44. - most of the defective APX have a product number either A1084 or A1088.

More info as we get it.

Issues with Airport Express Station: an Update [HardMac]