Apple Time Capsule MB277LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 1 TB Storage)

by Apple

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches ; 3.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0012JHY7K
• Item model number: MB277LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,087 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 29, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

A Leap Forward for Backup
Introducing Time Capsule. Automatic wireless backup for your Mac. Available in 500GB and 1TB models.

One Click. Continuous Backup.
Backing up is something we all know we should do, but often don’t. And while disaster is a great motivator, now it doesn’t have to be. Because with Time Capsule, the nagging need to back up has been replaced by automatic, constant protection. And even better, it all happens wirelessly, saving everything important, including your sanity.

Built for Time Machine. Time Capsule includes a wireless 500GB or 1TB hard drive designed to work with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. Just set Time Capsule as the designated backup drive for Time Machine, and that’s it. Depending on how much data you have, your initial backup with Time Capsule could take overnight or longer. After it completes, only changed files are backed up--automatically, wirelessly, and in the background. So you never have to worry about backing up again.

Backup for everyone. Have multiple Macs in your house? Time Capsule can back up and store files for each Leopard-based Mac on your wireless network. No longer do you have to attach an external drive to each Mac every time you want to back up. Time Capsule spares you the work.

Room for it all. Time Capsule is your one place for backing up everything. Its massive 500GB or 1TB server-grade hard drive gives you all the capacity and safety you need. So whether you have 250 songs or 250,000 songs to back up, room is the last thing you’ll run out of. And considering all that storage and protection come packaged in a high-speed Wi-Fi base station starting at $299, data isn’t the only thing you’re saving.

The Ultimate Wireless Base Station More than just a wireless hard drive, Time Capsule is also a full-featured AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n technology. Experience a high-speed wireless network and a breakthrough way to back up all the Mac computers on your network. All in one device.

Fits your Wi-Fi lifestyle. Time Capsule uses the 802.11n draft 2.0 specification, so you can rest assured that it works with certified 802.11n draft 2.0 products. And it’s compatible with Macs and PCs that use 802.11a, b, or g technologies, as well as wireless devices such as iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV.

Print command central. The included USB port is great for sharing a printer throughout your wireless network. Time Capsule and the Bonjour networking technology let everyone in the house or office — Mac and PC users alike — take advantage of one centrally located printer. And if you want to share both a printer and an additional hard drive, you can. Just connect a USB hub to Time Capsule. Whatever the combination, Time Capsule divides and conquers.

Works with Mac and PC.
Time Capsule with Time Machine in Leopard is the ideal backup solution. But that doesn’t mean Tiger, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users can’t enjoy the benefits of Time Capsule, too. Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily.

Product Description

Introducing Time Capsule. Automatic wireless backup for your Mac. Time Capsule is a revolutionary backup device that works wirelessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It automatically backs up everything, so you no longer have to worry about losing your digital life. Time Capsule is also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station. Every computer in your house can work off a wireless network at blazing speeds. And they can back up wirelessly to the same Time Capsule.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An easy to setup, great product!, March 7, 2008

By 

J. McWhirter (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple Time Capsule MB277LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 1 TB Storage) (Personal Computers)

I purchased the 1 TB Time Capsule to replace my Linksys Router and an external Lacie 500 GB HDD. Setup took about 2 minutes - and I was up and running. It was extremely simple - insert the disk into a drive, install version 5.3 of the AirPort Utility, answer a few questions, and you are up and running - easy as pie.

That said, I have a warning for power users who want more security than a disk password - IE; you use user accounts for file sharing, etc. Instead of following the 'easy' path, you will want to use 'manual setup'. If you initially use the 'easy' setup and want to go back and change from a disk password for security to account security, you will lose any data you have transferred to the disk - that is correct, you will lose any data you have transferred to your disk - for me that was a 7 hour, 350 GB transfer - lesson learned.

I backup two computers via time machine on the Time Capsule - a Mac Mini, and a MacBook Air. They both averaged 25 GB on the first time machine backup, which took about 2.5 hours each via Ethernet - which is another point - you will want to use Ethernet instead of WiFi for your first backup - as the Time Capsule will truncate the transfer rate to allow others to keep using the AirPort.

That said, I am using the 802.11n (5Ghz) setting on the time capsule - and when I am surfing or downloading files via the internet on my MacBook Air, I honestly can't tell the difference between that and a direct Ethernet connection - when connected to the internet via cable Modem. It is absolutely incredible. To give you an example of the 802.11n transfer rate - I am sharing a single library stored on the Time Capsule for both my iTunes and iPhoto programs between the two computers - it used to take 45 to 60 seconds for the iPhoto library to come up when accessing via 802.11g (Linksys) on the MacBook Air - accessing the iPhoto library now via the 802.11n connection on the MacBook Air takes 5 seconds or less.

As you can guess from the previous statement, in addition to backup - I am also using the Time Capsule as an External HDD - I have about 350 GB of music and 100 GB of video stored on it. And so far so good!

Overall I am extremely pleased with this product and would recommend it to anyone!

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked my 500gig model so well i got the 1TB model as a shared drive, March 4, 2008

By 

Jeffrey Heaton "Jeff Heaton" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Apple Time Capsule MB277LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 1 TB Storage) (Personal Computers)

I've been using Time Machine since I upgraded to Leopard. While Time Machine is great for backing up my iMac, its a pain to have to hook up my Mac Book Pro and new Mac Book Air to an external hard drive. The Time Capsule is great for that. So long as my laptop is open and running, a backup can happen.

Make sure you remember to do your first backup using ethernet. Otherwise it is going to be slow. Apple does not want to bog down your network with backups, so when you are backing up wirelessly, it will intentionally throttle the connection sped.

This device also functions as a wireless router. I was able to remove my pervious Air Port Extreme from the network. The terabyte model is nice because you are able to share one large drive and backup several smaller computers My iMac and two laptops all backup just fine.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor performance and not worth the expense, July 24, 2008

By 

Apple Fan "Apple Fan" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple Time Capsule MB277LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 1 TB Storage) (Personal Computers)

Like most of you I buy Apple products because of the simple reason that they just work. No hassle. No fuss. Just plug and play. I use them in my office, at home, and always recommend Apple products to my friends, family, and clients.

Therefore, I don't take it lightly when I recommend that you DONT purchase Time Capsule. Unlike Apple's other wireless devices, Time Capsule just doesn't work the way it was intended. Yes, it will back up your computer; and yes it will provide wireless coverage in your house. However, when the device is backing up, it makes browsing the web or downloading email nearly impossible. There is "hang time" in which the browser or Mail will time out. I can't begin to tell you how frustrated you will become when in the middle of doing research or need to get to your email that you will be thwarted by that little clock in the menu bar going in reverse.

Life becomes even more complicated if you own a non-apple wireless device, such as the Logitech Squeezebox. The two just don't play well together, and what should be a great music enhancing device gets "sabotaged" by Time Capsule's inability to sync properly.

As much as I love Apple, this is one product I recommend you think twice about (I have never actually wanted to throw something against the wall before I used this device). If you are in need of wireless connectivity, buy the Airport Extreme--it works incredibly well, never cuts out, and supports third party devices.

Hope this helps.