A great technology, with limitations.
This product is indeed dated. It was the best technology that Apple could provide to it's clients with a backup solution that was also a combined network gateway. And it worked. The 2 TB drive is enough to keep all but the most adventurous photo and movie guy happy, and for most users it is easily the best of show. But it is dated technology, and we need to realize that. Some of the weaknesses are:
1. USB 2.0 for both drives and other devices (Printers). Now this isn't too bad when NAS drives are coming down, but for those who have better peripherals, this is a serious limitation.
2. Wireless is 2.4 and 5.0 GHZ. There is no upgrade path to other bandwidths .
3. EOL This product is End Of Support / End of Life with apple. Which means that support (Your drive dies) is the User Problem. Fortunately the 2 TB drive is a Enterprise Class drive (Meaning it has a higher Mean Time Between Failure) then normal, but.. It is a bit of a hassle to replace if it does die. Drive Replacement is not for the feint of heart.
4. Backups are intended for 1 machine only. Experimentation with multiple machines in backup usually yields in corrupted pieces of files. Not a good thing.
5. Use of this to access a peripheral drive via USB is a little painful. It is slow if you are transferring large files. PITA.
The good things about this application platform is that it does what it does silently and with no issues. Time Machine Backups are concise, reliable and complete for a single computer. (Even Wirelessly).
Why did Apple discontinue this? Simple. They bought into the Cloud and want to sell you 50 and 100 Gig pieces of storage in the cloud. Which is recurring revenue to iCloud subscribers. Why compete with yourself?
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