Apple tweaks Airport Extreme, Time Capsule hardware, too
In addition to rolling significant upgrades in its consumer iMac, MacBook and Mac mini product lines, the mothership delivered more subtle, under-the-hood updates for its pricey and popular, plug-n-play wireless hub and wireless storage solutions.
In March of this year, Apple upgraded the Airport Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule with the addition of dual-band support, which allows slower 802.11g (i.e. iPod touch, iBook, etc.) devices to connect at their fastest native speed without slowing down more modern 802.11n equipped Macs. Yesterday, alongside major iMac, MacBook and Mac mini upgrades, our favorite fruit company also tweaked the hardware specs of these wireless solutions.
Apple’s “new” yet outwardly the same Airport Base Station includes a third antenna and thereby more robust data transmission under the hood.
Although one could be forgiven for not catching it — Apple’s only notification is a small blurb in the advertised specs (See -> Simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi) — the Airport Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule base stations now offer improved 802.11n speed and range with the addition of a third antenna. Previously, these devices used a 2×2 MIMO (multiple in, multiple out) design, but now feature a more robust 3×3 setup that allows for spatial division multiplexing (SDM) — a method for subdividing chunks of data for faster transmission and reliability.
Having been to Best Buy and seen other company’s 802.11n hubs — I leave the house at least once a year — the three antenna look has apparently been the standard configuration for just about everyone but Apple up until now. Have the rest of us been paying more for less (shudder) or were other brand hubs just over compensating (they have three little phallic thingies instead of just two) for a lack of Apple’s girthy logo?
Inquiring minds want to know…
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