History
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. 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. The hard disk storage space of each model was doubled: capacities were 1 TB 2 TB, while the prices remained unchanged.
In October 2009, several news sites reported that many first generation Time Capsules were failing after 18 months, with some users alleging that this was due to a design failure in the power supplies. 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.
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.
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. 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.
Read more about this topic: Apple Time Capsule
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