Apple today released a slew of updates. Among these updates were two minor, but necessary updates. Both the Time Capsule and Airport Extreme saw a small minor update to support all of the major wireless standards. 802.11a, and 802.11b/g/n. The update was that now both the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule are dual-band.
The move to add 802.11a seems a bit odd, considering that the prevalence of 802.11b/g/n almost makes the case for 802.11a moot.
There is one major software change that has been added to the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule. The notion of ‘Guest Networking’. This is a simple and easy way to protect your network, yet allow guests to connect to your broadband connection, but not allow them to see any of your files or computers. This makes it much simpler to allow guests to access your network without giving them a password and worrying about your privacy.
The only reason I can think that Apple has decided to include 802.11a would be that they have a new product in the works that may work better on 802.11a since it is a higher frequency. Now, this could just be taking a shot in the dark, but it just befuddles me to why you would add 802.11a to a product that doesn’t really need it.
Prices have not changed for any of the products. The airport extreme is still $179.00, while the 500GB time capsule is $299 and the 1TB time capsule is $499. Currently, Apple has discounted the older generation hardware on the Airport Extreme only. I’m assuming this is only until their stock of the old supply is gone. The Airport Extreme, 2.4GHz only, is $159.
With the hardware updates, there is also a software update for Airport Utility. The version, now up to 5.4.1 allows you to manage the Airport Express, Airport Extreme and Time Capsule. This update is available for both Mac and Windows.
Mac Download.
Windows Download
In addition to the Airport Utility software update, there is also an Airport Client Update 2009-001. This is for Intel-based Macs running 10.5.6 and above. It is available from here or by getting from Software Update.
March 4, 2009
Mac News