Apple sexes up Time Capsule

Apple has updated its Time Capsule and Airport Extreme Router products with an improved antenna leading to a 60 per cent performance boost with Snow Leopard. No news about improved capacitors though. The improvements surfaced on the US Apple Store website on October 20; there has been no press release. The Airport Extreme now …

[Psymon]

sounds about right

Apple will have used this 'upgrade' to hide the fact that they are fixing a fundamental flaw in their hardware.

[Sebastian Brosig]

Time capsule death? User error not design fault.

Just re-wind time (hint: it's a farking time machine, doh!) after 6 months, so capacitors never really age.

That's how ingenious Apple engineering is, if users don't do that, of course the devices will fail, since the thermal design only allows the capacitors to live for 18 months (that's the typical 3x engineering safety margin).

Maybe they should make that clearer in the manual. I'm sure in OSX 10.6 (Iced Tiger) it will be automatic.

[Bob Holtzmann]

Time Capsule needs a big cool down

My 10 month old Time Capsule has been worrying me greatly, after walking through the Dead Time Capsule Cemetery ( http://www.timecapsuledead.org/ ).

I don't have Apple Care for my computer -- if I did, all I have to do is wait for it to die, and Apple will replace it. Instead, I am now keeping it raised on 1" wooden blocks on the corners. And to better cool it, I pulled off the rubber base -- whereupon I got some thermal burns on the ends of my fingers from the metal base plate. Now I am considering the next step -- cutting a hole in the base and putting in a fan.

[DZ-Jay]

Re: Time Capsule needs a big cool down

At this point we do not have any real confirmation on the actual number of failed devices; that is, unless you take at face value what you read off blogs and other Internet sites.

I don't doubt that there may be an issue with some devices, but it could very well be an exaggeration by some over-eager bloggers, compounded by much gossip going around, like when iPhones supposedly exploding enmasse all over the globe.

-dZ.

[Blain Hamon]

Well of course!

It's for use with Time Machine, right? So of course you have to keep an eye on those flux capacitors!

Mine's the one that has '88 MPH' written on the label.

[gollux]

Would you like ketchup...

with your fried data? Apple Time Capsule Fahrenheit 451, we don't burn books anymore!

[Anonymous Coward]

Time Machine

To be honest it as the single selling point of Leopard and since the data wiping bug has shown it's potential is certainly needed.

[bex]

no solid capacitors then

Better quality components called for then

[Anonymous Coward]

@Sebastian Brosig

It is not "ingenious" when you are only making proprietary software and hardware.

[James O'Brien]

@DZ-Jay

First of all I will say this about the poster above you, i smell a troll. What with the burning of fingers and what not while its on.

But your comments always make you seem like your not just a cultist but a preacher in the church of Jobs. Look at how fast they are failing for people and the fact that Apple is pulling their usual act with removing pages and posts from the forums about this. Get real and once you pull your head out of the clouds you might be able to see that Apple only cares about one thing....green.

"Hi, I'm am Mac, erm, PC sorry forgot what I had inside me."

[Adrian Esdaile]

If the wooden blocks aren't Apple-approved

you'll void your waranty.

Remember to only use Apple-approved rainforest Mahogany wooden blocks, carved by blind monks blessed by the daily llama and fed only on Kapok-poo coffee.

" I am now keeping it raised on 1" wooden blocks on the corners"

[Antti Roppola]

RTFM?

This isn't the first time. I once fixed a dead airport base station. There were bulging caps around the voltage controller. Out of curiousity, I looked at the controller's datasheet and the recommended caps were quite a bit bigger. It worked a treat with the recommended caps, though I wasn't able to put the lid back on and had to drill holes in the RF shield to let the bigger caps poke through.

[Jonathan Hogg]

Deja vu

My god, it's the "puffy caps" problem all over again. I had the same thing happen to my original Apple "UFO" AirPort base station. It was a common problem at the time, but Apple acknowledged it I think and started replacing them.

In the end, I just replaced the capacitors in mine with a couple of el cheapo ones from Maplin and it worked away for another year or so before I upgraded it.

[Matt Bieneman]

Puffy caps deja vu

Yes, Jonathan Hogg is correct; the problem was that in the original "UFO" AirPort Base Station Apple was using capacitors rated at 80 degrees C rather than the very slightly more expensive 100 degree C capacitors. All three of my original AirPort Base Stations eventually died from this; I opened them up and replace the puffed-up capacitors with 100 degree C ones and everything was fine for years afterward. I would not be surprised if they have done the same thing again. I eventually replaced my first-generation AirPort Base Stations with the white third-generation ones. They work fine, but I still make sure that I have some spacers underneath them for cooling.

Steve Jobs devil because the pressure to use smaller capacitors and no air vents probably comes from the top.