It only happens in movies like “Time Machine,” where scientist Alex Hartdegen moves on to the year 2037, only to find the moon showering the earth with huge chunks of rock.
Time to travel back to the present to Apple’s Time Capsule, which takes people into the future with its advanced technology!
Most computer users face the dread of losing important data. People more often than not forget or put off backing up their data, since it is a cumbersome process of using either CDs, DVDs or even an external hard drive.
Apple was the first to come up with a solution earlier, with the creation of Time Machine, which comes with MAC OS X Leopard. Time Machine makes backing up data easy and painless; however, there is still the requirement of either having an external hard disk connected to the MAC through a USB or cable. This proves to be a problem with MACBook users.
Apple decided to do something about it and created “Time Capsule,” which automatically backs up a computer, offering constant protection – and the best part is that it is wireless.
Time Capsule has been designed to be compatible with Time Machine in MAC OS X Leopard.
Time Capsule comes with a wireless 500GB or 1TB hard drive, which is excellent and has the potential to handle all the backup needs. It provides plenty of room for storing huge amounts of data and there is no issue of running out of space.
Apple says, users of MAC OS X Leopard will have to set the Time Capsule as the backup drive for Time Machine and forget about it. The first time it is used, the time taken may be overnight or a little more, to complete the backup, depending on the size of the data. However, since the next time only involves backing up the updated files, it happens quietly through wireless in the background, without any sort of user intervention whatsoever.
Time Capsule is much more than a wireless hard drive. It is also an 802.11n Wi-Fi base station. It can also be used with more than one MAC, by configuring them to the wireless network.
According to Apple, along with MACs, it is also compatible with PCs that use 802.11a, b, or g technologies, as well as wireless devices such as iPod touch, iPhone and Apple TV.
Although Time Capsule is designed to be used with Time Machine in MAC OS X Leopard, Apple provides the provision for users of Windows Vista, Windows XP and Tiger to access Time Capsule from the wireless network directly, to store or retrieve data, which means for users other than MAC, it will be used like any other normal hard drive.
Time capsule has a USB port that can be configured to share a printer for the entire wireless network, and one centralized printer can be used for all the MACs or PCs connected to the network.
The data storage capacity of 500GB is huge and multiple MACs can be connected and 1TB can be used by those that have much more data needs. However, once it reaches the data storage limit, as it keeps backing up, the Time Capsule deletes the oldest files to make room for the new ones. This should be kept in mind if the space is being used to store videos, audio or digital photographs. One can even have multiple Time Capsules for enormous data storage.
The only issue, if we can call it that, with Time Capsule is that it cannot be opened easily. If for some reason, the hard disk fails, it is not possible to replace it.
The pricing of the Time Capsule is $299 for 500GB and $499 for the 1TB hard disk. For those looking for features such as backing up their single MAC or multiple MACs automatically, Apple’s Time Capsule facilitates it all with a single unit. The next step could be providing a wireless backup option for non-MAC users. Apple certainly has done its bit in alleviating the fear of losing our digital identity.
