Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Impressions of Apple’s Time Capsule

Although I do not have the Time Capsule, it has been something that has been on my wish list since I heard about it. Everything looks and sounds good about it, but it is getting mixed reviews. I think there are a few reasons for this mixed reception in the Mac crowd.


Wireless Sucks

Let’s face it, there has almost never been a solid wireless router made and it always ends up not working at some point. I have had many wireless routers and although the technology sounds great on paper, it has always been a hassle in reality. This is until I got the Airport Express draft n wireless router from Apple. This was the first time that I have not had a problem with wireless connectivity in over a year. The only problems I have had with it are when the power had gone out I had to reset it, but there was no problem with the router and once it rebooted it worked like a charm. Possibly this is because I have very little interference with other wireless routers on the 5GHz network in my neighborhood, or maybe Apple just got it right this time. What ever the reason may be, I have a router that I love for the first time. This is the main reason for my faith in the Time Capsule. I need external storage and it would be great if it was integrated into my network so the Time Capsule is an obvious choice especially for the price.

Not Everyone Has a Mac

Obvious statement I know, but it is true and it has a point. When people buy Apple products for the first time they are often confused because it is too simple. Huh? Well, I know that I was shocked when I got my Mac and started using it for the first time. Everything was so intuitive and easy to use yet still very effective. This was the complete opposite of anything I had ever had with a PC. Apple brought this to the Airport Extreme base station as well with its ease of use and fast set up, but maybe it is not as easy when you have a PC. It took me five minutes to set up with my MacBook Pro, but it took me hours to setup networks in my PC days. They never worked with each other and everything was always different with each piece of hardware. How well did Apple make the Time Capsule work with PCs?

In conclusion it is something that one day I hope to have, but for now the Time Capsule will have to be something that I simply dream about and question. The reviews are mixed as with any product, but I am not surprised being that it is a wireless product. I can only hope that some day everything will be wireless and will just work.