Customer Reviews
Sounded great - failed after less than a month 
2008-04-13
I purchased the 1TB version of the Time Capsule. I already owned an Airport Extreme and was replacing it with the Time Capsule. A nice setup feature allowed the Time Capsule to see the Older Airport Extreme and import all of the settings. This made setting up the Time Capsule extremely easy - by using the same settings, all of my Macs worked with Time Capsule right away.
Unfortunately, after 4 weeks, my Macs all reported that they could not see the Time Capsule Hard drive. When I looked closely at the Time Capsule - it was making a loud/repetitive clicking noise - hard drive failure. I have 5 macs running in my home. None of them have ever had a hard drive failure - but you never know (which is why I bought the Time Capsule). It's disconcerting to have the very device - that I purchased to ensure my data was backed up - fail.
I took it to the Apple store and the exchanged it - no questions asked. But - it took me a long time to back up all of my Macs (the first backup using Time Machine/Time Capsule takes a very long time for each Mac). Additionally, unlike my initial setup, I could not simply copy the settings from my existing Time Capsule - I had to set it all up from scratch. Also - the Time Capsule that I retuned to the Apple store had all of my personal information on it. Even though it was a failed hard drive - I'm not happy that all of my financial data, keychains, etc were on that hard drive.
Need more patch(es) to make this product work 
2008-04-11
I have been using the time capsule for a few days and can never get this thing to work properly. The first back up of 16 GB takes forever (more than 2 days) and it finally crashed the computer. After updating the new firmware, the time capsule cannot restart properly. Since the update nothing works at all even after several resets. I can no long connect to the time capsule.
In replacement unit works fine for storing regular files and only work after updating the new firmware. However, the time machine can never successfully backup mac book air and eventually crash the operating system despite a few attempt of 1GB of backup data. The successful back up on a regular mac book worked properly for a few days and was unable to mount after that. I need to perform many workarounds to get this thing to work again.
pro:
- wireless backup
- straight forward setup user interface
- high speed file transfer
- nice package design
- good customer support
con:
- no easy way to migrate the old time machine backup data to the time capsule
- unreliable when using it with the time machine
- can freeze the entire operating system when trying to backup the data
- slow time machine backup speed
- need to install apple software on the window PC to enable file and printer sharing function over LAN
- fail to remount the backup drive after a few days of usage
- has computer naming issue
- expensive
Wireless backup is a very good idea if Apple can make it works more than 95% of the time. I do not recommend this product to anyone at this point until Apple release a newer stable version. This current time capsule has proven to be unreliable and you will spend more time fixing it than enjoy using it.
THIS THING IS FREAKING COOL!!!! 
2008-03-23
Alright. I hardly ever write a review but I had to write one for the Time Capsule.
This device is really cool because:
1. Automatically Backs-Up all my Hard Drives without having to think about backing them up. Every Hour. Every Day. Behind the Scenes.
2. What else is really cool... is that I am able to HAVE ALL MY HARD DRIVES WIRELESS. I am able to plug in a USB port and have all my hard drives accessed wirelessly. This is great because I have a laptop and now I no longer have to sit where the hard drives are located in my house.. I can now roam... Store minimal stuff on my laptop HD's and access the files wirelessly. It's a feature that really sold me.
3. Yeah the initial Bkup took a minute, but the daily happens so face u dont even know it.
4. It's great to print wireless too.
5. You dont need to connect it to an Ethernet/DSL line for it to work... it works on it's own without any internet service necessary.
6. Its pretty quiet too
7. It's a huge break through.. imagine all your files now acessed wirelessly... this is a beautiful thing and I no so happy I dont have to be stuck to area of the house when I want to be connect to my music HD's and the rest of my media.
8. Go Get it... atleast the 500GB is definitely worth it... you can always hook up larger HD's to the 500GB one..
I am still yet to experience the full capabilities of this device. I am wondering if it could be accesed from outside the local network for example if I go travelling I am assuming this product may let me access all my files from another location. I am not sure yet.. But I have a feeling it will.
Does What It Says, But... 
2008-03-16
It's easy, wireless backup of all your Macs running Leopard. Yep. My only complaints are with speed - you may be able to convince me this is because it's taking it's time making sure the backup is done properly. Whatever. Anyway, I would certainly recommend this to people running multiple Macs. The good and bad:
Pros:
EASY - I followed the default settings from the setup assistant and was up and running in 5 minutes.
Syncing with my Apple TV and copying files via "n" wireless is great, about 9MB/sec. My "g" router was about 2.6MB/sec.
Cons:
Some Speed issues -
File copying via gigabit Ethernet was slow too - 12MB/sec through Time Capsule vs 25MB/sec when my MacBook was directly connected to my Mac Pro.
Backups via gigabit Ethernet were slow to - about 5 MB/sec. Maybe the Time Capsule was doing other things to ensure my backup was properly done, don't know.
Wireless backups from laptops do work except I was disappointed to discover it only backs up when the laptop is plugged in. Not a deal breaker, but a disappointment.
Apple recommends you let the first backup run uninterrupted. Something hard for me to do because I like to fiddle with it as it's running. But it did work as expected, just slower than expected.
It's still the easiest and best backup tool out there. Just do it.
Another winner from Apple 2008-03-13
Time Capsule is absolutely worth its price tag. It has a great design, which we always expect from Apple. Setting it up is a breeze. With 1TB of space, it serves both as a great backup hard disk (wireless backups without you ever realizing you are backing up) and external hard disk for extra storage. I haven't compared its Wireless networking speeds with Linksys routers, but is working perfectly with great speed.
Perhaps the best feature is to store all your data on it and be able to run things wirelessly i.e. you can see pictures, play music, movies all from Time Capsule's hard disk. I have exported my entire music collection to Time Capsule now, and Itunes plays it without any delay over the wireless network.
Every computer (windows or MAC) can access the Time Capsule, which makes home networking and file exchange between computers very easy. Printer can be attached to it, and any computer on Time Capsule network can use the network.
All in all, a GREAT product by Apple. Its sold out at most Apple stores, which speaks for its high demand too.
Apple Time Capsule 2008-07-10
Little hard to set up, but once it is going it does the job well
Awesome product 2008-07-02
I does what it needs to do... and yes, the first backup takes forever. I took me almost 5 days in a row to complete the first backup of 297GB (that's why is 4 stars) After that you don't even need to look at it... I also have it as a router and it works fine. I have a USB hub since it only has 1 port (also 4 stars for that) and there I connect my other external disks which are now share within my network (and you have the option of prompting for a password to open the disk) I only wish my stupid printer Lexmark X1270 was compatible with Mac.
A cop out for prior Airport Extreme with external Drives 2008-07-01
What a cop out to not support Time Machine backups to Airport Extremes with external drives.
I for instance have the newer Airport Extreme (draft-n) with a 1 TB drive on it that I can send files to and stream from.
But I cannot use it for backups.
Apple's solution: junk it and buy the Time Capsule with "internal" 1 TB hard drive.
just like a pretty woman . . . hot, makes you wait & looks > function 2008-06-24
have been using the 1T version for awhile with the firmware update with both Leopard & Vista, here is my impression:
(+) cool design. no power brick. run silent.
(+) works well with Time Machine, wireless data streaming with "n", network printer.
(+) works very well with VISTA.
(-) can run very hot, especially if copying files & running continuously. gets hotter the longer it runs.
(-) TM back up is slow both wire & wireless. first back-up of 30G took literally more than one day. took it to Genius bar --> nothing wrong . . . . incremental back-ups are faster.
(-) TM back-up utility is questionable because: (1) slower than normal copying, (2) takes up more space, (3) who needs hourly back-up, (4) no catastrophic corruption with Leopard (or Vista for that matter).
(-) throttles internet speed.
*** because of the (-) and my network-enabled printer, i now mainly use it as a wireless back-up hard drive and for streaming video/music and only turn it on when need to.
i used Winclone & SuperDuper to back-up my newly installed Leopard & Vista partitions, transferred them to TC, then use TC as my wireless data back-up hard drive.
i know i haven't used TC's full potential. but Apple needs to maximize TC's full potential with either firmware or software upgrades.
A life-saver 2008-05-09
Last week I thought I was deleting tracks from several playlists in iTunes; turns out I wasnt paying attention & actually deleted from the library hundreds of songs, about 1 gig worth ( & emptied the Trash before I realized what Id done.) It couldnt have been easier to enter TC & restore everything in less than ten minutes tops. Hourly backups can drag the system a little, but I'll never complain again!
