Gear

1 TB Apple Time Capsule - Gear Review

August 25, 2008

Setting up your home network used to be something you called your buddy from the IT help desk to do. Network storage appliances used to be configured by PhD's. Apple has changed that. I recently purchased the 1 TB Apple Time Capsule and like a lot of Apple's products it does something so nicely you just forget (or choose to overlook) the short comings. Bottom line is that I think this device is well worth the money at $500 for 1 TB of storage. I initially set this up with my Mac Mini on Leopard as the de facto Time Machine, but shortly realized that it was a waste of 1 terabyte (TB) of network storage capacity. I backup everything I have with a second hard drive and keep it outside the house anyway. I don't need a back up system for the few files I actually keep on my desktop. Time Machine might be great for the conspiracy theorists who worry about the end of time and all that, but it just wasn't for me. I found some articles in chat rooms describing how to partition the drive for network storage and the typical Time Machine usage, but I chose just to keep it all as storage and turn the backup feature off. Below I break down the pros and cons but I just have to say this thing just works like a champ and couldn't be easier to set up. My only real gripe, that I wish I had a way to address, is that I use this as my storage for all my music files. When it streams a song longer than say 4 minutes it falls into sleep mode and can sometimes delay the start of the next song or stop serving up its buffer all together. I wish I had a way with the Air Port Utility to change this sleep time duration but I don't. This happens so infrequently that it doesn't bother me that much. More importantly, I suspect this devise should last me a good four years and hold all the MP3s, digital video, and photos I can produce. Pros: Great range (8o2.11N) Very reliable Simple Fast Cons: Limited Flexibility Sometimes sleeps when streaming music via iTunes "I" personally don't like Time Machine backup software

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