Apple quietly released an updated version of the Airport Extreme wireless router on their website last week. I think there was another product announced last week as well, not ready for shipment, only announced. Well, the Airport Extreme was not announced but it is ready for shipment. Maybe that’s how they balance each other out, the airport extreme and the iPhone.
One update is the appearance of 802.11n, the same wireless technology to appear in the upcoming Apple TV product. This will allow faster wireless internet transmissions, and supposedly over longer distances. I say supposedly because when it comes to wireless network range, there are many variables which come into play, such as walls, different floors, other wireless devices causing interference, the list continues.
Another update, and far more interesting to me, is the ability to share. No, I’m not talking about sharing your internet with your neighbours. This is about sharing an external USB hard drive. Wait a minute, what was that? Sharing a hard drive over your home network? Is this almost like, what’s the product Microsoft announced last week, ahh yes a home server? That’s right, this router gives the ability to share any and all files on an external USB hard drive with anyone on your network. Setup involves plugging in the hard drive to the back of the wireless router, and then using the Airport Disk Utility software to configure the access, with password protect options and read only access to certain files, if you so desire.
If you don’t have an external hard drive, you can use the USB port to share a printer wirelessly. Better yet, if you have both, get a USB hub and share everything!
Tech Spinning 