News

posted on 14 February 2008 11:38

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The latest update to Leopard, Apple's MacOS, does not add wireless support to Time Machine users.

Time Machine provides a near-continuous backup facility to Apple users with a USB or Firewire-connected hard drive as the target. Apple announced Time Capsule at MacWorld last month. It is basically an AirPort Extreme base station plus a 500GB or 1TB drive. Mac users can backup their files wirelessly to it.

However, dashing hopes raised in Apple rumour and blog sites, the latest version of Leopard, the MacOS, does not add the capability of backing uo their fules wirelessly to a hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme base station bought as components and not in Time Capsule form. The ime Machine backup facility simply diesn't see the disk attached to the AirPort Extreme unit.

Users don't know if it is a techncal problem or if Apple is simply not provided what appears to be simple additional functionality, such as, for example, firmware updates for the AuirPort Extreme product. Before MacWorld Apple sources had indicated that Time Machine would recognise and use such Airport Extreme and drive combinations, which pleased existing Airport Extreme users.

Time Capsule should become available this month for $299 and $499, varying with the drive capacity. The latest Leopard update has added a menubar facility to Time Machine and increased its usability.