Apple debuts 2TB Time Capsule wireless hard drive

Apple has updated their Time Capsule to 2TB.

Back up a lifetime’s worth of memories with the Time Capsule, a wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It’s also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station with simultaneous dual-band support. Now users can choose from 1TB (US$299) and 2TB ($499) models.

Features include:

Automatic backup with Time Machine: Time Capsule works automatically with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard to create the perfect no-hassle backup solution. There are no cables, and you can back up all the computers in your home to a central location.

Server-grade storage: The massive 1TB or 2TB server-grade hard drive gives you all the capacity and safety you need for backing up all your Mac computers.

Easy wireless networking: Connect your DSL or cable modem to Time Capsule, then quickly set it up with the easy-to-use AirPort Utility, which is included for both Mac OS X and Windows. Within minutes, you and up to 50 others can use your Mac computers or PCs to surf the web, stream video, share photos, and more — without wires.

Simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi: For maximum range and compatibility, Time Capsule works simultaneously on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, allowing all the devices on the network to use the most efficient band automatically. And Time Capsule uses the latest 802.11n wireless technology so you can enjoy up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of 802.11g wireless networks.

Guest networking: Now you can set up a separate Wi-Fi network with a separate password for your visitors. Simply enable the new guest networking feature, and your guests can use the Internet but can’t access other parts of your private network, such as your computers, printers, and attached hard drives.

Wireless drive sharing: Time Capsule also works great as a wireless hard drive, whether you have a Mac or a PC. It sets up in a snap, giving you a networked hard drive you can use for storing and sharing all kinds of files. If you’re a MobileMe member using a Mac with Mac OS X Leopard, you can even access the files on the drive over the Internet.5

Print without wires: Print documents, photos, and more from any room in your home or office to a central printer connected to Time Capsule via USB. (See system requirements.)

Strong security and access controls: Protect yourself with the built-in firewall and industry-standard encryption technologies including WPA/WPA2 and 128-bit WEP.

Works with iPhone, Apple TV and more: Time Capsule works with Mac computers, PCs, iPhone, iPod touch, Apple TV, and virtually all 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless devices — all at the same time.

Find out more here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

26 Comments

  1. @rattle:

    Maybe, but it’s not a stretch to suggest that backing up for most people doesn’t even reach the conscience level of a “hobby”, much less of a level to spend a lot of money on a solution like the TC.

  2. Great news!! I love our 1TB Time Capsule

    here is how we use ours

    We have a small business on the 1st floor with 2 Macs and a 500GB external drive (iTune Library), and our network is with an Airport Extreme, we live up stairs and our concern has always been about a robbery down stairs at night. (we have another Mac and an AppleTV upstairs)

    We added a 1TB TC to the Network, and back up all the Macs with Time machine, (except for Entourage iTune library) . Using Apple’s “Back UP” we back up Entourage and our iTune collection daily to the Time Capsule .

    Has been working great, and the comfort of knowing if we were robbed, we would not loose our data, but I have been worried about running out of space, count me in for one!

  3. @HotInPlaya
    You need to consider an off-site backup, especially since you are using your Macs for business purposes. Your upstairs backup won’t protect your data from a fire or natural disaster. It also doesn’t provide complete protection in the case of a robbery – they can go upstairs, too, and robberies do take place when people are at home.

    You can back up over the internet using a service, and/or clone your drives periodically and rotate them to an offsite location.

  4. @KingMel:
    “Does Apple use a higher quality enterprise level drive in the TC? If so, then the price represents an even better value.”

    From the story:
    “Server-grade storage: The massive 1TB or 2TB server-grade hard drive gives …”

    From my own amazing comments above:
    “… note that TC has server-grade hard drive …”

    An Apple Systems Engineer explained to me the rigorous testing those HDs, as well as Xserve HDs, go through before Apple will accept them. It’s well worth the extra money if your data is important.

  5. I’ve thought about off-site backup services but I pull down 100-400MB of podcasts a day (audio as well as some SD and HD video) and I don’t know that it would be able to upload over my DSL before the next download occurred.

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