Apple launches smallest 11n base station
Teeny weeny wifi meanie
APPLE HAS RELEASED a more powerful 802.11n specced airport express base station today. At a wallet-pleasing $99, the new shiny white box delivers up to five times the performance and twice the range of the previous incarnation.
And measuring up at about the size of a dozen or so beermats stacked on top of each other, the new version is the smallest 11n capable portable base station in the world, according to our fruity friends in Cupertino.
Compatible with both Macs and those other cheap boxes that children and secretaries use, the 188 gram device will allow you to beam music throughout your home or business, share/extend your internet connection and print wirelessly.
And with the power supply built into the body of the unit, this really is a wireless appliance.
Unusually for Apple, the UK and US releases are simultaneous. Usually for Apple, on the other hand, the UK pricing seems to bear little relation to the current exchange rate at a slightly portly £65. µ
Comments
Does it support dd-wrt?
Didn't think so! If you have anything more than a mac and apple tv at your home, don't buy it!!!Go for Linksys WRT54GL--best bang for the buck. Who needs 11n at home anyways?
G for home?
Core2Dud* G is very slow for home usage.For example after switching to N i can stream HD movies from my PC to my MBP, when i lay in my bed 10 feet away.
Also i can use my 30mbit internet tirelessly. G gave me only like 2.2mb/s, now i get 18mb/s its around 144mbit :)
Who needs dd-wrt at home?
Anyone who has one of the now inexpensive NAS cases or a home file server will benefit from inexpensive 802.11n. Doing file transfers over vanilla or even MIMO 802.11g isn't exactly the quickest or most fun way to do this.The same people (techies) who would install DD-WRT are the same people who would have a home file server of some kind, probably with music and movies on it.
I'd have to say that if you have anything less than a Mac and an Apple TV, don't bother buying it since a cheap Linksys router would work just fine ;).