Wirelessnorth.ca

This Macworld not only disappointed, but angered me. What is with this Time Capsule joke product? The latest generation Airport Extreme Base Station supports an external USB drive. Why combine the two? And why is Time Machine supported on Time Capsule but not AEBS + USB HD? Argh… What angers me most is that for just before Leopard shipped Apple.com had mistakenly stated that group backup to “AirPort Disk” was supported. I went out and got Leopard, the AEBS and drive only to find out it’s not.

I’m disappointed with this announcement too, but hsdpa/evdo integration isn’t a priority for me. How many hsdpa subscribers are there in Canada? How many even in the US? Apple doesn’t release region-specific hardware (that I can think of?), so until those kinds of services are available more widely, I wouldn’t expect them to include it. Yes, other manufacturers have included it, but typically only in one (fringe) model of laptop which is only being marketed in countries where hsdpa is (relatively) commonplace.

Frankly, a built-in pstn modem would be more useful to me.

The introduction of the AIR, in tandem with introduction of movie rentals, signals Apple’s move to circumvent optical drive media distribution. As for the machine’s limitations, not all users will buy in, of course. Plenty of users will buy as its light weight and compact size makes the Air great as a road machine, especially in and around air travel. Personally, I don’t expect my MacBook to be my MacPro–I use them for different purposes.

Sure it would be good to have direct connectivity to any wireless and/or cell network in the world. But then, I wouldn’t need an iPhone.

As for disappointments, to borrow the phrase: One more thing–no iPhone in Canada. That simply sucks.