Time Capsule

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

The device includes a full AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n wireless (now with Dual Band Support), an Ethernet WAN port, three Ethernet LAN ports, and one USB port. There is also a "Server grade" hard drive inside the casing. Time Capsule was introduced atMacworld 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.

The USB port can be used for an external hard drive or a printer to be shared over the network.

In early 2009, Apple released a newer model offering simultaneous 802.11n dual-band operation to allow older devices to use the slower wireless speeds without affecting the overall performance of devices that can use the higher 802.11n speeds.^[2]

Also released in this new version is Guest Networking which allows guests to sign on with a different password to ensure your private network is kept private.^[2]

In July 2009, Apple doubled the hard-disk storage space that comes with each model. The $299 Time Capsule now holds 1TB (instead of 500GB) and the $499 configuration holds 2TB (instead of 1TB)^[3]. Also by reconfiguring the internal wireless antenna Apple reported 50% better performance and 25% better wireless range on the fourth generation model.^[4]