C|Net UK Previews Apple's Time Capsule

C|net UK previewed the Apple Time Capsule on Monday. Previews donit receive a product rating, however, the preview was positive, and cited the deviceis high bandwidth networking combined with automated backup in a single, tidy package.

The Time Capsule was described as a great way to almost sneak wireless backup into the household. Another solution, such as the HP MediaSmartServer, was described as "too complex for the average home customer" by Rich Brown.

In addition, the overall price for the unit, considering that itis an 802.11b/b/g base station with disk storage built in, was described as fair. The author pointed out that the Time Capsule works with Windows XP and Vista as well.

One downside the author noted was that the Time Capsule is a single drive product -- meaning that it cannot be expanded. It was also unclear to the previewer whether the internal drive is replaceable by the end user. Another problem is that if the drive fails and needs to be returned for repair, the customeris wireless network also goes down.

While professionals and hard core enthusiasts may be turned off by the absence of user upgradability, most mainstream users, however, will appreciate the simplicity of the Time Capsule, Mr. Brown concluded.