Apple Time Capsule 500GB review

Apple's Time Capsule is marketed as a network backup device for Mac users, but it can also be used with Windows computers as a file server like any other network-attached storage (NAS) device.

It also has a built-in gigabit Ethernet and Draft-N wireless router, so you don't need two separate devices. However, if you have ADSL broadband then you'll still need an Ethernet ADSL modem.

Unlike other NAS devices we've seen, the Time Capsule is configured by a dedicated utility instead of a web interface, but it's simple and straightforward to use. Creating user accounts isn't difficult, but security controls are unsophisticated. User folders are open to all or accessible only to the owner with the appropriate password, although the top level of the disk is freely accessible for public file sharing. You can't limit users to a specific amount of disk space, though, which is essential if lots of users are to share files.

Users of Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 can use its Time Machine program for automatic backups, but it isn't available for Windows or older versions of Mac OS. This is a shame, since it's one of the better designed backup programs we've seen. It automatically backs up your data once an hour. Older versions of your files are kept until disk space runs low and are then deleted in favour of new backups. Backed-up files can be browsed either chronologically or through a metadata search, and the contents previewed before restoration.

There's a single USB port for sharing an external disk or printer, but USB hubs can be attached for sharing multiple peripherals. Printer sharing worked flawlessly, but neither FAT32 nor HFS+ formatted disks were recognised. Surprisingly, there's no iTunes server, which is a strange omission as it would be ideal to use with Apple's own AppleTV network media player. There's no built-in FTP server, either.

The built-in router is almost identical to the AirPort Extreme, but it also supports dual-band Draft-N, which can help your devices avoid wireless interference. It's tricky to configure remote access to your files over the internet, though. The DynamicDNS settings are particularly hidden away.

The Time Capsule's performance left us wanting. Using Time Machine on a MacBook, it couldn't back up files faster than 5MB/s, whether over Ethernet or Draft-N wireless. Subsequent backups should be faster, since it will only copy files that have been modified since the last backup. It was much faster when copying files using Windows but, compared to other NAS devices its performance was still only average.

Apple's Time Capsule is very easy to use, but only Mac owners who have upgraded to the latest version of the Mac OS will get the best out of it. It's not great value, either, due to its disappointing performance and relatively high cost per gigabyte of 43p.

Author: Alan Lu