AirPort

Apple ranks highest in customer satisfaction survey for its soon-to-be discontinued wireless routers

Call it awkward, or call it ironic, but a recent J.D. Power wireless router satisfaction report put Apple at the top, with a score of 876, followed by ASUS (860), D-Link (856) and TP-Link (854). This report obviously comes at an interesting time as the company was rumored this month to be disbanding its router unit and stop developing AirPort wireless routers. 

Apple, routers, external displays, and spreadsheets

For a while now I’ve had this sentiment that there is a growing lack of focus or care at Apple, which has led me to feel pretty concerned about some of the company’s decisions. Yet one thing is helping alleviate these concerns and it’s Apple’s recent decisions to discontinue two major product categories: its family of AirPort routers, and its Thunderbolt display business.

Bloomberg: Apple disbands its router unit, stops developing AirPort wireless appliances

Apple has quietly “disbanded” its router hardware division and reassigned employees to work on more lucrative products that account for the vast majority of the company's revenue, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported Monday citing people familiar with the matter. The company last updated the AirPort-branded Wi-Fi accessories back in 2013 with support for the speedy 802.11ac wireless standard.

AirPort base stations are now back in stock

Following a brief period during which both the AirPort Extreme wireless base station and the AirPort Time Capsule wireless appliance were unavailable for purchase from Apple’s retail stores in the United States, the devices are now back in stock at most retail locations and are once again available for Personal Pickup, MacRumors discovered.

How to fix IP address conflicts on your Wi-Fi network

Every so often, you might end up with two devices on your Wi-Fi network that have the same IP address. This conflict can cause a plethora of problems with trying to use the internet on any of the devices affected.

Fortunately, there's a really easy to way reset your IP addresses on your iOS devices or Macs, and in this tutorial, we're going to show you how!

Apple updates AirPort routers with big security fix

If you have Apple's 2013 AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule wireless routers, you may want to grab the big firmware 7.7.3 security bug fix that has been released.

Apple says in a posting on its support website the update fixes an SSL/TLS security bug:

Rumor: next-gen Apple TV has gaming functionality, TV tuner, built-in AirPort router

Piggy-backing on a report last week by iLounge which heard from sources that the next Apple TV set-top box will support wireless game controllers and possibly an app store for games, another reliable blogger has chimed in with additional tidbits.

Long story short, a much improved Apple TV hardware refresh is thought to include an 802.11ac wireless router functionality by way of AirPort Express integration. It should also come with a built-in TV tuner to control your existing cable boxes and TV stations and include gaming functionality.

Some hobby, eh?

Apple updates AirPort Utility app with 64-bit support

In addition to Remote, Apple has posted an update for its AirPort Utility app this afternoon. The app is used to help users manage their Wi-Fi network and AirPort base stations, including Express, Extreme and Time Capsule.

For those unfamiliar with AirPort Utility, it offers a number of administration features like the ability to change network settings and security modes. The update isn't a big one, but it's worth note for people who use the app...

The new AirPort Extreme can house SATA hard drive, teardown reveals

Apple at Monday’s WWDC 2013 keynote briefly mentioned its refreshed AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule wireless appliances which now support Gigabit Wi-Fi, also known as 802.11ac, for three times throughput of 802.11an. In unveiling the sixth-generation AirPort Extreme, Apple's marketing honcho Phil Schiller somewhat cryptically alluded that the redesigned base station might accept internal storage.

“There’s also room in there for a hard drive,” he quipped. Sure enough, teardown wizards over at iFixit bought a brand spanking new unit and tore it apart, finding 3.5 inches of empty space inside...

Apple updates AirPort Utility with 802.11ac support

As you know, Apple alongside a host of software-focused announcements today also refreshed its AirPort wireless appliances with compatibility for the latest 802.11ac standard, also known as Gigabit Ethernet. As a result, the updated AirPort Express and Time Capsule base stations can now transfer data up to three times faster, and more reliably too. And to go along with the hardware refresh, the company has pushed new versions of AirPort Utility for iOS and Mac...

Apple updates Airport Utility for iOS with new features and improvements

Good news this afternoon for those of you who own AirPort base stations—that includes the AirPort Express, Extreme, and Time Capsule—Apple has released updates for both the Mac and iOS versions of its AirPort Utility.

The app allows you to set up and manage all of your AirPort devices, and today it gets some much needed improvements and a few new features including the ability to add WPS-capable Wi-Fi printers to your network...