Apple Announces Wireless Time Capsule Backup

“Bring Time Capsule home, plug it in, click a few buttons on your Macs and voilà: from then on, the data on every Mac in the house is backed up automatically every hour of every day,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “With Time Capsule and Time Machine, all your irreplaceable photos, films and documents are preserved automatically and are incredibly easy to restore should they ever be lost.”

Time Capsule works with Time Machine to back up data from Macs, recover lost files and restore an entire software installation. If a file is lost, users can browse the wireless backup history to locate deleted files, applications, photos and other media and restore them from a Time Machine backup. If necessary, Leopard can restore an entire system from the backup.

Time Capsule also operates as a full wireless base station using 802.11n technology. Apple states that 802.11n is up to five times faster than 802.11g and offers twice the range. The technology is included in the current iMac and notebook ranges, from MacBook and MacBook Pro to the new MacBook Air. Time Capsule has a compact enclosure with an integrated power supply and a connection for sharing a USB printer wirelessly. It can establish a wireless network for up to 50 users and supports controls such as limiting internet-access times.

Time Capsule is offered in a 500 GB version for €299 including VAT and a 1 TB version for €499 including VAT. It serves as a multi-computer backup solution and as an 802.11n AirPort Extreme base station for wireless networks in homes, schools and offices.

Features include dual-band antennas for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies, three Gigabit LAN ports, one Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, one USB 2.0 port, WPA/WPA2 and 128-bit WEP encryption, and an integrated NAT firewall with NAT-PMP support for functions such as Back to My Mac.

Time Capsule is scheduled to become available in February through the Apple Store, Apple Retail Stores and Apple resellers for €299 including VAT with 500 GB or €499 including VAT with 1 TB.

Time Capsule is based on the draft IEEE 802.11n specification. Actual performance depends on range, connection rate, local conditions, network size and other factors.