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Time Capsule

Developer	Apple Inc.
Type	Backup drive, Airport Extreme base station
Release date	January 15, 2008
Introductory price	2 TB US$299, 3 TB US$499
Website	Apple - Time Capsule

The Time Capsule is a wireless network device sold by Apple Inc., featuring network-attached storage (NAS) and a residential gateway router. It is described as a "Backup Appliance", designed to work in tandem with the Time Machine backup software utility introduced in Mac OS X 10.5.^[1]

Introduced on January 15, 2008 and released on February 29, 2008, the device includes a full AirPort Extreme Base Station which features 802.11n wireless, one Ethernet WAN port, three Ethernet LAN ports, and one USB port. The USB port can be used for external peripheral devices to be shared over the network, such as external hard drives or printers. The NAS functionality utilizes a built-in "server grade" hard drive.

History [edit]

The Time Capsule was introduced at Macworld Conference & Expo on January 15, 2008 and released on February 29, 2008, with pricing announced at US$299 (£199) for the 500 GB version and US$499 (£329) for the 1 TB version. It was the first wireless network-attached storage device combined with a wireless gateway router made by Apple.

The first generation Time Capsule included a full AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n wireless, an Ethernet WAN port, three Ethernet LAN ports, and one USB port. The USB port can be used for an external hard drive or a printer to be shared over the network, or both, by using a third-party USB hub.

In early 2009, Apple released the second generation Time Capsule. It offered simultaneous 802.11n dual-band operation, which allows older devices to use slower wireless speeds, without affecting the overall performance of devices that can use higher 802.11n speeds.^[2] The second generation model also included the addition of Guest Networking, a feature which allows creation of a separate wireless network for guests. The guest network uses different authentication credentials, ensuring the security of the primary network.^[2] The hard disk storage space of each model was doubled: capacities were 1 TB 2 TB, while the prices remained unchanged.^[3]

In October 2009, several news sites reported that many first generation Time Capsules were failing after 18 months,^[4] with some users alleging that this was due to a design failure in the power supplies.^[5] Apple confirmed that certain Time Capsules sold between February 2008 and June 2008 do not power on, or may unexpectedly turn off. Apple offered free repair or replacement to affected units.^[6]

The third generation Time Capsule was released in October 2009. The only change was a reconfiguration of the internal wireless antenna, resulting in an Apple-reported 50% increase in wireless performance and 25% increase in wireless range when compared to previous models.^[7]

The fourth generation Time Capsule, released in June 2011, increased the range of WiFi signals. The internal WiFi card was changed from a Marvell WiFi chip, to a better-performing Broadcom BCM4331 chip.^[8] Apple again increased the storage space in each model as the hard drive sizes were increased to 2 and 3 TB.

Fourth generation Time Capsules, 2 TB and 3 TB models, still are at the $299 and $499 price points.^[3]

Features [edit]

The currently available, fourth generation Time Capsule includes a fully featured, 802.11n, Wi-Fi access point^[9] including simultaneous dual-band operation. All clients sharing a single WiFi band must operate at the speed of the slowest client. Dual-band access points such as the Time Capsule allow segregation of clients in to two separate, but simultaneously operating, WiFi bands. One band is restricted to 802.11n clients, while clients using lower-speed standards such as 802.11g are placed on the second band. As the first band is exclusive to 802.11n clients, the presence of clients using slower standards does not impact the 802.11n clients. The Time Capsule supports the Sleep Proxy Service,^[10] a technology that allows clients to partially shutdown to conserve energy, yet still be responsive to network traffic.

Hardware interfaces on the Time Capsule include four Gigabit Ethernet ports (3 LAN ports, and 1 WAN port), and a USB interface for external peripheral device sharing. Commonly connected peripherals include printers and external hard drives.^[11] A built-in fileserver that supports both AFP and SMB provides network access to files stored on the built-in hard drive. The 7.6.1 Time Capsule firmware enables remote access of the harddisk with an iCloud account. In the past, users needed a MobileMe account to remotely access data. Fourth generation models are available with 2 TB and 3 TB of built-in storage.

One of the key features of Time Capsule, is the ability to back up a system and files wirelessly and automatically, eliminating the need to attach an external backup drive. This feature requires OS X 10.5.2 Leopard or greater on the client computers. The backup software is Apple's Time Machine, which, by default, makes hourly images of the files that are being changed, and condenses backup images as they become older, to save space. Even when using an 802.11n wireless or Gigabit Ethernet connection, the initial backup of any Mac to the drive requires significant time; Apple suggests that the first backup will take "overnight or longer".^[12] Subsequent backups are incremental, thus will typically be quicker, as they only include changed files. Clients using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, can perform the initial backup twice as fast as Leopard clients. The backup disk can also be used by Windows-based computers, and the files on it can be managed by another OS such as Windows.

The hard drive typically found in a Time Capsule is the Hitachi Deskstar, which is sold by Hitachi as a consumer-grade product—the Hitachi Ultrastar is the enterprise version.^[13] Apple labeled the drive as a server-grade drive in promotional material for Time Capsule, and also used this type of drive in its discontinued Xserve servers. Apple states that the Hitachi Deskstar meets or exceeds the 1 million hour mean time between failures (MTBF) recommendation for server-grade hard drives.^[14]

The 500 GB, first generation Time Capsule shipped with a Seagate Barracuda ES-series drive.^[15] More recently, other hard drives such as the Western Digital Caviar Green series,^[16] and the Samsung EcoGreen series have been reported.

The Time Capsule measures 7.7 inches (20 cm) square, and 1.4 inches (3.6 cm) high,^[9] slightly larger than the AirPort Extreme Base Station and close to the first generation Apple TV in volume. Its size is partly due to the inclusion of an internal power supply, which eliminates the requirement for a separate external power supply, enabling a direct connection between the household power outlet and the back of the Time Capsule.

Product numbers [edit]

Apple Time Capsule SKU are constructed with the 5 first characters identifying the "product version" and the remaining ones indicating the localization, such as country-specific power supply.

As of the fourth generation, all generations have had two models; one with a smaller capacity hard drive, and one with a larger capacity hard drive, with them always being priced at US$299 and US$499 respectively.

See also [edit]

• AirPlay
• Time Machine

Apple portal

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website

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