Apple Time Capsule

So a friend of mine asked me about the Apple Time Capsule. He wanted to know a few things about it specifically using it as a wireless router and a print server.

Well just so happens that I actually own one of these things and I will give my thoughts. Also I have the first generation Time Capsule, the new Time Capsule has a few added features I'll discuss them below as well.

First set up is a snap especially if you have an Mac, you just plug it in then you run the Apple Airport express utility and go though the wizard. Pretty easy. Although I will have to say the Time Capsule forces you to use WPA security and won't allow WEP. While WPA is more secure I sometimes find that some devices have a difficult time maintaining a connection. However all Apple products such as Apple TV, iPod Touch, iPhone, Macbooks and the like all have no problem and it just works.

The range on the Airport Express is pretty amazing it's has very long range and it should be more than enough to cover your home. My house is 2300 sq feet and I find that I have no dead spots, throughput is very good and range is great.

Now if you have a Mac computer it's even sweeter because since Time Capsule has a built in hard drive, it automatically wireless backs up your computer via Time Machine. It's a very nice feature and it just runs in the background you won't notice it too much. The first time you set it up depending on how much data you have it will take quite a bit for the first back up, but after that back ups are fairly quick unless you've installed large programs or added tons of photos since your last back up. Overall it's a useful feature and you'll never have to worry about losing your data and if you want to upgrade your HD or do a fresh install restoring is a snap and your Mac will be exactly as you last backed it up. I will say that the speed of the back up can be a big sluggish sometimes so if I've got a ton of files to back up I usually just do it overnight.

Now I have the 500 GB version and that should be enough for everyone in the house hold to back up their macs and store files and pictures. I don't think I would spring for the 1TB because you can actually drop in a larger HD in the future if you need or just add an external HD via the USB port. I would probably save the extra $200 and just get the 500 GB version.

Now it does have a USB port so you can actually add another external HD for expanded storage or add a USB printer. Adding both is pretty easy and painless just run the Airport extreme utility and follow the instructions.

Either on a Mac or PC you can mount the Time Capsule drive and you'll see it as if it was a local HD and you can drag and drop files. And since the Time Capsule uses the N wireless standard transfer times are extremely fast. I tried dropping large files from a few hundred MB to a few GB and it seemed to churn the data pretty quickly.

The cool thing about the updated Time Capsule is that it actually has dual radio antennas so it broadcasts on the 2.4 ghz and 5.0 ghz spectrum simultaneously so incase your air space is already crowded with cordless phones, baby monitors or neighbor's wireless access points, this will help keep your network more consistent with less interruption from other wireless devices.

Also on the new Time Capsule you can enable Guest Wireless Networking which will allow you to create a totally separate WiFi network with a guest password so they'll be able to get onto the Internet but they won't be able to see network resources such as drives, or printers unless you give them permission. But it's a neat feature if you want to keep your data for your eyes only.

Overall it's a good device however there are some caveats you'll want to consider:

Works great with Apple stuff, but sometimes it can be a bit shotty with other devices

Only has 3 ports on the back for hard wired devices if you need more you'll need a switch

It doesn't have the ability stream content to other computers or devices like a media server, but I guess that's what Apple TV is for. The Time Capsule can be picky about what kind of printers it will play nice with so you may want to do some homework on what kind of printer you have and it's compatibility to the Time Capsule despite the claims for any USB printer.

Buying advice? Well if you have a Mac environment I would definitely say yes, it's made for Mac, automatic back ups, a networked hard drive with management capabilities, dual band N and a expandable port for more storage or print server.

If you have more of a PC environment it's a maybe you might be better off with a Linksys or Belkin. I have a mixed environment and it seems to work well for me.

Well if you have any other questions email me:

richmlee@gmail.com

Kindle + iPhone = Awesomeness

I know I haven't posted in a while but, it's no secrete that I love technology and how it "enhances" our daily lives. Let me give you an example:

Yesterday I was listening to the radio on my way to work and Dennis Miller was doing his show at the Ronald Regan Library and they were talking about Regan's Diaries and read some excerpts and it was really intriguing. For those of you who don't know Regan everyday for all 8 years in office wrote entries in his diary about what had happened during his Presidency. With the exception of when he got shot and one other occasion. But it is a pretty remarkable accomplishment to date only a few US Presidents have ever kept a daily diary for their entire term as President. This included George Washington, John Q. Adams, James Polk, and Rutherford Hayes.

As I said before I was intrigued by this and I wanted to buy and read Regan's Diary. Well I forgot to buy it during lunch while I was at the Mall and I forgot about it after work and didn't remember until 8pm last night. Well I wanted to see if I could find a digital copy which I couldn't. Then I thought this would be a cool time to have a Kindle where I could D/L books on demand.

Then I remembered I have an iPhone and there is a Kindle App for the iPhone. The App is free so I downloaded it browsed for Regan's book and there it was. The digital copy was $15.99 and it was available for instant download. You can download via WiFi, Edge or 3G. The whole purchase process was so easy and next thing I knew I had the entire book ready for me to read. Amazing!

Well your next question will be well what's it like to read on an iPhone? Well for me I found it to be easy the text is big and you can change the size of the text if you want. This may not be ideal for some people as they may like the presentation of the text, but again I thought it was very easy to read. Each page usually contains about 15 to 20 lines which makes it easy to read. You just swipe your finger to go to the next page. The table of contents is cool as well as it has links you can touch and take you directly to chapters. It also has a book mark button where you can book mark certain pages and then it creates a very nice listing of all your book marks for easy reference.

Overall I give the Amazon Kindle reader a very high recommendation for anyone who wants to read on your iPhone. Plus you have the entire Amazon book store at your finger tips instantly!

And so far I really like Regan's diaries, he was an amazing Man and his short entries are very impactful and meaningful. Also it's a neat little History lesson in each entry. From the inauguration to Regan getting shot. I'm not finished yet but so far it's a very good and quick read.

I'd recommend both the Amazon Kindle reader for the iPhone and the Regan Diaries.

Questions email me: richmlee@gmail.com