Talk:AirPort Time Capsule

Standard?
What protocol does the device use for backup? Will we see other platforms (e.g., Linux) supporting it? —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 01:24, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, Time machine just writes to a disk like any other app. Until Time Capsule, Time machine has been disabled from writing to any network disks, so it's likely they've enabled that feature now - who knows if it's only going to be for time capsule or for any network attached disk. The current Airport Extreme N allows you to plug in USB disks, and I would imagine the new Time Capsule will work the same way, except with an internal disk. I don't know enough about the Airport Extreme, but I believe it exposes the drive as an AFS and Samba share, so if your operating system can connect to either of those, then you should be able to use it to backup with your own back up software.--Danbrice (talk) 21:28, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Regular NAS?
So, can users also transfer files to/from this device like with a regular NAS? Evanturner (talk) 07:11, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The current Airport Extreme N allows you to plug in USB disks, and I would imagine the new Time Capsule will work the same way, except with an internal disk.--Danbrice (talk) 21:28, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * According to the Apple website, you can: "And they can back up wirelessly to the same Time Capsule."--MrHefnner (talk) 15:57, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * According to it does not support NAS.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.189.244.82 (talk) 16:57, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
 * With current updates, NAS is supported via AFP and SMB. --d235j

Can external disks plugged into Time Capsule be used with Time Machine?
The tech spec page for Time Capsule makes it clear that "an" extra hard drive can be added via the USB port. But can that extra drive be used for Time Machine also?--Danbrice (talk) 21:28, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Looks like I found an answer. It reports that an apple rep said that external disk will be supported by time machine. Probably remains to be proven after it's released, but this is hopeful. --Danbrice (talk) 20:35, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

I thought the Time Capsule itself could be used as an external hard drive. The Apple site says that the time capsule is a back-up device in addition to a wireless base stations and wireless external hard drive. Both Mac and Windows-based computers are capable of using all these features. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.237.10.162 (talk) 05:25, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Time Machine can be used with an externally attached USB hard drive connected to the Time Capsule. This functionality became available with the last firmware update 7.3.1. This, however, is not available for the Airport Extreme, as some rumors have led onto. Not certain how to fit this in, if someone could do that. --Donjio
 * The latest firmware updates add this functionality to the Airport Extreme. link. --d235j

Price information
Is it necessary to have the prices mentioned? This is likely to change in the future and highly dependable upon third party reseller pricing strategies. It also gives the article a promotional feeling.--MrHefnner (talk) 16:00, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Apple doesn't let resellers change prices. The prices are a useful part of the article, and can change when Apple changes them (and that will not be any time soon). Charles 19:59, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Wireless N
How can this product be said to be wireless N when the standard is still in draft (draft 3.0 being signed off on in November 2007). Will this be compatible with Draft N products, or will linux, windows, and mac's be tied to "apple N" products exclusively. Do we have assurances that the only changes needed for N will be software?  TimFgo  15:40, 26 January 2008 (UTC-6)

http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/specs.html - they say that it complies with draft N. Wsanders (talk) 17:31, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect Tone for Wikipedia
As the author of this article, I was surprised to find that it has been flagged as of an inappropriate tone for Wikipedia. I wonder if someone might update this talk with the exact nature of this complaint so I can fix it? As it stands, saying it is of an inappropriate tone without any feedback is completely useless to anyone intending to fix it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sdjmchattie (talk • contribs) 16:21, 29 February 2008 (UTC)


 * What is tonally incorrect about this article? Some people are getting real anal about Wiki articles. It looks simply factual to me. Disclaimer: I just looked at the article today, I do not know any other poster here.Jdlyall (talk)


 * I've also just viewed this page for the first time, and I find nothing obviously wrong with the tone of the article. The description of the device may be inferred a tad on the promotional side, but there is also criticism of the device as well.  Hazardous   Matt   21:15, 12 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I personally don't see a problem with the tone of this article, but then again I'm not familiar with the guide to writing better articles. I'm fine with the    tag being removed, as well as the    tag.  It doesn't make sense to me to add these notices to an article with the only base for adding them being a generic guideline/howto.  Gh5046 (talk) 21:49, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Removing barring further objections.  Hazardous   Matt   21:52, 18 March 2008 (UTC)


 * "Time Capsule is a wireless network-attached storage device combined with a wireless residential gateway router made by Apple Inc..."
 * I don't know why the person complained but I'd guess that it was the slightly too techy tone. What does the TC do? Is it a hard-drive? A wi-fi thingy? It's not clear to me from the intro what exactly it does, and I'm reasonably tech-savvy:)
 * "Time Capsule is a wireless storage device made by Apple Inc, that can back-up data from one or more computers linked to it in a network. It also includes a wireless residential gateway router..." - would be a clearer way of explaining it for instance (though I don't know what the hell a 'gateway' router is...). Malick78 (talk) 17:18, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

server-grade hard drives
'' Apple states that the same Hitachi DeskStar drives are found in their line of Apple Xserve servers and meet or exceed the 1 million hour Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) recommended for server-grade hard drives. ''

Erm, I never saw them explicitly state that, in that much detail. The only marketing copy I've seen references "Server-grade hard drives". I think this needs a source if its going to stay in. – ɜɿøɾɪɹℲ ( тɐʟк • ¢ ʘ и†ʀ¡ β s ) 20:45, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Got a source, and I rewrote the section (it seemed slanted towards emphasizing Hitachi's labeling of the product). nneonneo talk 22:25, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
 * If the drive in the 1TB Time Capsule is a Deskstar E7K1000, it is considered enterprise-class..
 * The drive in the 500GB Time Capsule is a Seagate Barracuda ST3500630NS, an enterprise-class drive. . --[User:d235j:d235j]

"Failures" section outdated
The information in the "Failures" section would appear to be out of date. I had just such a failure on a G1 Time Capsule yesterday. I took it to my local Apple Store, and, even though the thing was out of warranty, they looked up the serial number and said it was in a range of devices with known defects in the power supply. They offered me a free identical G1 as a replacement, but accepted my counterproposal of a discount on a new G4. They also said they could recover the data, though I declined, since I rely on it only for disaster backups -- history backups I manage separately. John W. Kennedy (talk) 13:27, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Generation differences?
What are the actual differences between generations of Time Capsules, especially between G2 to G3 and even more especially G3 to G4? Nothing in the article explains this at all, never mind in any detail. All I know is that G3 doubled the storage at same price (is that it?), but G4 has the same storage at the same price, so what got updated then? Jimthing (talk) 00:40, 12 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Agreed. the only difference I could see on the chart was that the later generations don't have a cpu, but that doesn't even make sense so I'm wondering if it is a formatting error in the table. 70.79.145.68 (talk) 00:37, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

Not sure where to ask this, so I'm putting it here. The most common 5th Gen Airport Time Capsule 2TB model number is ME177LL/A, as listed in the table. I am also seeing a 5th Gen Airport Time Capsule 2TB with model number ME177AM/A. Is this a different product or, since I mostly see it on Canadian sites, is it the Canadian version (presumably with a Canadian Communications Licensing tag?)? Does anybody know?Spartan26 (talk) 23:29, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Competing products?
Does anyone know of one or more similar and/or competing product(s)? That seems like a relevant tidbit to add in. I was expecting to find that when I looked at the article. LP-mn (talk) 23:20, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * AFAIK, there are NO competing products. The only other popular Time Machine backup method, from my reading, is to use an Extreme with any kind of USB-attached external hard drive. Sometimes users may use a RAID implementation for that external drive too; perhaps for increased overall storage capacity and speed (RAID 0) or additional redundancy (RAID 1), or both (RAID 10). Jimthing (talk) 10:46, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Error in Generation Section?
I have a 2TB time capsule, bought today (Friday 24 June 2011), with model number MD032X/A (A1409). According to the Apple Support site this is a GEN4. This wiki page claims MD032 is GEN5. Possibly Apple has slipped me an old GEN4 and slapped a new sticker on the box, but that seems unlikely. More likely the wiki page is in error?! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.45.222.37 (talk) 09:34, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * What I know for sure: (a) I bought the top-spec 2Gen 1TB TC in Mar 2009 with a new MBP — defo 2Gen cause I read-up on it having Dual-Band 2.4 & 5GHz features not on the 1Gen's; (b) due to heavy work commitments I didn't get around to setting it up on my home network until Sep/Oct 2009, and I was slightly annoyed because Apple had just released the identical 3Gen 1 & 2TB TC's, so I could have got the 2TB version for same cash(!); (c) a 4Gen with better antenna was then released sometime in 2010; (d) so this update to 2 & 3TB TC's must surely be the 5Gen (?). ...Anyone with any other ideas on this, please comment. Jimthing (talk) 06:00, 29 June 2011 (UTC)
 * As of my edit today (2011-07-20), I think this is now the correct generation info and release dates. Jimthing (talk) 10:39, 20 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I see a problem with the 3G dates. I have an 1TB 3G (A1355) it was ordered early Dec 2009 and delivered early Jan 2010, some time before the stated date of March 2010 in the table. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.248.130 (talk) 14:02, 16 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree. Checked with the Mactracker app and did a Google search, found cite with the announcement date (one of many that could have been added, so confirmed), hence I changed this to October 20, 2009 accordingly. Oh, and thanks Apple for releasing THREE new models in a single year! (lucky they seem to be 99% the same, I suppose). Roll-on 802.11ac/ad...sometime. Jimthing (talk) 06:03, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

4TB Time Capsule?
Some sites list a 4TB time capsule (new product) but not the official Mac store. Is this an existing product, an (soon) upcoming/new product, ... or a fake? 81.62.104.117 (talk) 18:20, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
 * e.g. http://www.appleladen.ch/store/apple-computer/airport-time-capsule/apple-time-capsule-4-tb.html 81.62.104.117 (talk) 18:20, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Only Apple would know. 62.203.22.43 (talk) 17:21, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Nothing to do with Apple. The models are 2TB and 3TB as of February 2013. This is just an error on that site. Jimthing (talk) 16:23, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

"Network / transport protocol" wrong?
According to Apple's "Technical Specifications" kb articles, the 2G to 4G models of TC have exactly the same specs, so shouldn't these be the same in the "Network / transport protocol" section of the table?? (2G: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP508 vs. 4G: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP627 [+other specs: http://support.apple.com/specs/#airport ]). Jimthing (talk) 06:19, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Mac Time Capsule
Mac time Capsule is an application developed by Weisoft Limited. The application enable mac built-in time machine back up mac to a windows based PC. The application is running on the PC. After mac time capsule installed on a PC, it will create a share file folder for mac time machine automatically.

• System Requirements 1. Mac time capsule can run on WINDOWS XP SP3 and later, 512MB RAM, 1GHz CPU; disk space, depending on the Mac system backup size. 2. Mac 10.9 iMac and later of, Mac Air, Mac Book Pro, Mac mini; — Preceding unsigned comment added by MactimeCapsule (talk • contribs) 21:06, 15 September 2014 (UTC)