Apple TV Delayed as Some Anticipated

Music Setting in New Airport Utility

I discovered a setting under "manual setup" in the new Airport Utility that came with my Airport Extreme Base Station, named "Music". It is grayed out so I wasn't able to see what the setting is all about. I'm not sure if it is an upcoming feature that has something to do with the Apple TV or it is a setting that is activated if you have an Airport Express attached to your network. I've never owned an Airport Express and am therefore unfamiliar with how that device works with your network. I guess if this setting was for Apple TV it would say something more general than "music". Perhaps when the Apple TV comes out, there will be an update to the Airport Utility or maybe Apple TV is strictly configured through iTunes. Either way, I wish they would hurry up and send my Apple TV. 3 days left according to the order status page on Apple's website.

The Shipment I've Been Waiting For......NOT

I was thoroughly excited when I saw a shipment email from Apple this evening, but it was only the optical digital audio wire I bought to go along with the Apple TV. The wire has had the same shipment date as the Apple TV since making the order the day of the Mac World keynote. Hopefully this is a sign that the Apple TV is going to be released soon. I wasn't really sure why they were taking pre-orders for a wire that's existed for probably 10 years, but I just figured they wanted to ship it at the same time as the Apple TV. Any day now, I can feel it.

Apple Has Made An Extreme Difference

The Airport Extreme Base Station, pictured above, arrived on Tuesday and was a breeze to setup after installing the Airport Utility program from the enclosed CD. My prior setup had a D-Link 802.11b+ router sharing my internet access between my Mac Pro, my wife's iMacG5 and a Mac Mini G4. The Mac Pro and the iMac were wired to the router while the Mini received it's signal wirelessly. This being said, I was fearful that I would not see a significant speed boost in the wired MACs and thought I might just have bought this for the sole purpose of connecting to the Apple TV when it arrives. I was very excited to see that first web page came up quicker than I had ever seen since switching to a MAC, 2 years ago. I'm not sure why, but this router does a much better job sending the signal out through the ethernet jacks than the D-Link does.

The D-Link was originally setup with a Windows PC about 5 or 6 years ago and when I switched to MAC I never installed any software to configure it for the MAC. Maybe that was the problem? I'm not sure, but WOW, what a difference. At this time, my wife's iMAC is receiving a wireless signal and her internet speed is significantly faster than when she was wired to the D-Link directly. In the past, I noticed when I had to troubleshoot my internet connection and plugged the cable modem directly into the Mac Pro, the speed increased. Basically the D-Link was just not parsing out the signal effectively and the new Airport Extreme Base Station works beautifully. Of course, the wireless signal going to the Mac Mini one floor up, has shown significant improvements as well.

Another great feature is that we no longer have to worry about my wife's iMAC being awake for someone else on the network to print, since I have the HP Photosmart 850 plugged into the Airport Extreme's USB slot. I have not tried to print from my work laptop, which is running Windows 2000, but all the MACs print to it just fine. I believe it was $179 well spent and has improved the speed of our network tremendously.

Airport Extreme Ships, Round 2

The second round of shipments for the Airport Extreme Base Station started on February 4th from Shanghai, China. I am lucky enough to be in that second round and will be receiving my Airport Extreme today. Two days from China. I love Fedex. Check back for the unboxing!

Airport Extreme Shipping Update from Apple Inc.

I received this today from Apple. Does this mean that I could go to the store this weekend and pick up the Airport Extreme before they plan on shipping it to me. It's nice of them to update me on the status, but I wonder what they mean when they say shipping began today? Who are the lucky ones? I'll be stopping by the Apple Store this weekend for sure.

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Apple today began shipping our new AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11n). We are delighted to tell you that we plan to ship your AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11n) two weeks earlier than we had anticipated. We now plan to ship your product on or before Wednesday, February 14. No action on your part is required.

Once your order is shipped, you will receive an email notification that will contain tracking information. For the latest information on your order, please visit our online self-service site:

www.apple.com/orderstatus.

Thank you for choosing Apple!

Sincerely,

Apple Store Customer Support