Time Capsule - Anyone received theirs yet?

[Hartmann]

Has anyone received their Time Capsule yet?

I have been holding out till I have a chance to really pick an Apple employee's brain. My main question is whether or not it will be possible to use the free space on the machine's harddrive as a repository for music, pictures, etc. Apple.com reads as though this is the case but I want to make sure.

It would be nice to put mine and my significant other's music on this and allow our iPods to sync up.

Just wondering if anyone had bought one and received it.

[houltmac]

I haven't got one yet, but I can confirm that this should work without issue. I would however be aware that it will obviously decrease the space available for Time Machine backups.

[kungfueats]

I'll be going on a gadget buying streak soon and after I pick up my MBA I'll get Time Capsule, I desperately need the space.

[notabadname]

I finally have my 1 Tb Time Capsule up and running. This thing is really awesome! Elegantly simple to get up and running in minutes. I have one of those homes that is "smart wired", with my cable feed coming into the basement and directly entering my cable modem in a service box in the basement. In that box, the modem plugs into an 8 port router (not wireless) which feeds a single ethernet cable to every room of the house, and 2 cables to my home theater for X-Box Live and a blu-ray "live" 2.0 player or media center. My office/desk is on the second floor, with a single ethernet cable supplying it. That plugged into a 2.0 Dual G5. Now that I have a new MBP, I needed Wi-Fi and a Time Machine disk for the MBP (the G5 has a 2nd hard drive for its Time Machine). I also wanted disk space for saving finished Movie files I will create on my MBP in HD (these eat up disk space like no other file can - 20 Gb is not unusual for a finished product, and that is separate from source materials one may save). Finally, I wanted to share my USB connected Laser Printer.

The Time Capsule does this perfectly. I connected the ethernet cable in the office directly to the Gigabit ethernet port. Then I plugged the G5 into one of the three remaining ethernet ports. I plugged my Laser printer into the USB port on the Time Capsule. I downloaded the latest version of Airport Utility from the Apple site instead of using the supplied disc, which was one update behind. Plug in the Time Capsule and launch the utility. It quickly finds the Time Capsule and starts you into the setup. Things are clearly explained in plain text for each selection. After naming your network, one of the main choices in setting up your network is whether you are connecting the TC directly to a modem, or if like I did, you are connection to a router (bridging). I selected the bridge option, and after setting the security level (On-high, or Off -anyone may connect - only two choices) and a password, you are almost done. The only other thing really is to select Auto-Using DHCP, as most people will, for the IP address info. It is really very simple, and asks very few of the questions that the uninitiated may be confused or intimidated by, that you do see when setting up most of the wireless networks I have seen. After accepting your final selections, the TC spends a few minutes restarting, during which time you will see the single light on its clean shinny white front change from green to yellow for a few minutes, back to green briefly, then yellow for another minute, and finally green. I was immediately able to get back on the internet after getting the green light.

The manual supplied clearly tells how to get a USB recognized again for printing. If you had it plugged directly to your Mac before, you will need to go to System Prefs> Print & Fax> then select the "+" button to relocate/add the printer. It will show up on your new Time Capsule. You can delete the original version if you want while you are there, since it is no longer "on" your Mac.

As for using the TC as a hard drive for typical saves in addition to Time Machine, I can confirm it works great. There is one thing that needs to be done (well - can be done, to make use as a typical external hard drive more intuitive). The TC will not appear on your desktop, unlike other USB/firewire external hard drives. If you change nothing, from the install default, you will need to locate the drive by opening the "Finder", and looking under "SHARED". It is beneath "DEVICES", which lists your internal hard drives, as well as other external hard drives - just not Time Capsule. To make your Time Capsule, and its nice drive icon appear on your Desktop; make sure you are in the "Finder". Click on "Finder"> Preferences. In the Finder Preferences window, check the "Connected servers" box. This will display the Time Capsule on your desktop whenever you are connected, this would include wireless connected computers/laptops. Oddly, this tidbit is not in instructions, or "Help" search.

Overall: Great product for me. I give it a 4.5 of 5 for being another Apple product that "Just Works". Plus it is a router that actually looks good on your desktop (a first I think). Great flexibility for sharing tons of USB devices through "Hubbing", easy backup, massive storage for a very fair price. Just price out a 500 Gb or 1 Tb HD an "N" router, and you will see Apple is being very reasonable for a very elegant and well integrated network solution. My only ding on it is for slightly lacking documentation.