Apple this week updated its official AirPort Utility app. The rare patch should improve security and eliminate issues users were experiencing after upgrading to iOS 13.
Apple discontinued the AirPort line of wireless routers last year but continues to support them, including efforts to keep out hackers. The US government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a statement urging users of networking equipment to install a new firmware patch to block attacks.
Right when Apple has decided to get out of the router business, one of its biggest competitors is ready to jump in.
Amazon revealed today that it reached an agreement to acquire mesh Wi-Fi router maker Eero, giving the online retailer another powerful tool in its effort to dominate the smart home market.
The death of the AirPort is officially here. And your chance to get one of Apple’s routers may have already passed.
Supplies of Apple’s doomed AirPort lineup are starting to twindle across the globe and the company says it has no plans to ever make new ones again.
Apple’s AirPort routers introduced one game-changing new feature to the world: easy backups. Time Machine is Apple’s automatic backup utility, and it made backups easy enough for non-nerds to use regularly.
The easiest way to use it was to buy a Time Capsule, a wireless AirPort router with a hard drive built in. Before Time Capsule, nobody backed up. After Time Capsule, anyone could keep hourly, daily and weekly backups without even thinking about it. But now that Apple has stopped making Time Capsule, and AirPort routers in general, how do you keep using Time Machine?
This week on a very volatile episode of The CultCast: the analysts were all wrong—iPhone X is a massive hit. Plus: the death of 3D Touch starts with 2018 iPhone; the world’s most famous Apple analyst may no longer be reporting on Apple; Apple’s AirPort router lineup is officially dead; and we pitch you our favorite show, movie, and vodka in an all-new Under Review. It’s a juicy one. Hit play and catch the discussion.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.
The biggest tech company in the world is getting out of WiFi. Kind of…
Apple decided to finally put the nail in the coffin for its lineup of AirPort routers that haven’t been updated in years. We’ve known this day has been coming for nearly two years, but Apple just officially gave us the bad news.
Here’s the official statement:
Stick a fork in Apple’s router business. It looks dead.
In another sign that Apple is just too damn busy to update its outdated AirPort line of routers, the company is now selling a new mesh router system made by Linksys.
One of the iOS 11 features you may not know about is that Apple now offers indoor mapping support for a growing number of international airports and malls.
While the number of airports and malls covered is still relatively small — with 34 airports, mostly based in the U.S., and a handful of shopping malls — Apple has published a list of where these are located.
Apple customers using the latest iOS and macOS software can rest a little bit easier about KRACK Wi-Fi attacks.
The internet is losing its mind today in light of news that a serious Wi-Fi vulnerability was recently discovered. But Apple says it already created a fix for most of its platforms.
This week on The CultCast: Why building a Hackintosh can get you the monster Mac you’ve always wanted. Plus: Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reveals iPhone 8’s marquee feature; AirPods ship date is finally revealed; and stick around for our top Apple AirPort router replacement picks!
Our thanks to Casper for supporting this episode. Casper’s American-made mattresses have just the right amount of memory foam and latex, and people everywhere love them. Learn why and save $50 off your order at casper.com/cultcast.
Apple sure seems to be doing routers right. At least according to the more than 3,000 customers polled in J.D. Power’s 2016 Wireless Router Satisfaction Report.
Apple came out as the top-rated router manufacturer in Overall Satisfaction, which would be great news for the AirPort team — if Apple hadn’t just disbanded it.
Apple has disbanded the division dedicated to developing its Airport wireless routers, claims a new report.
The product line — which spawned the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time capsule, which Apple continues to sell — hasn’t been updated since 2013.
Black Friday is still a week away, but that doesn’t mean the savings are: Best Buy is already offering its Black Friday price on a MacBook Air. That, plus iPad keyboards, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro are in this week’s best Apple deals.
Apple has released security patches to fix the Heartbleed bug on AirPort base stations, and SSL-based security updates for Apple TVs and Macs.
You should probably go and update all of them as soon as possible.
Oh man. If you make a product. Then somebody, somewhere, will make a case of a stand for it. This is a rule as fast as death, taxes and death taxes. So, if you were thinking that your AirPort Extreme was doing a pretty crappy job of sitting on your desk, and of not falling over, then the Air Mount is for you.
In more welcome airport-related news than the reports that Apple’s Maps app steers people the wrong way across Fairbanks Airport taxiway, Apple has released an update (version 1.3.3) of its AirPort Utility — the app which allows you to manage your Wi-Fi base stations, including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule, from the comfort of your iOS device.
Looks like Apple’s Maps app is in the spotlight again, as it is directing folks directly across a taxiway where airplanes take off in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaska Dispatch reports that at least two out-of-town drivers relying on Apple’s navigation system for turn-by-turn directions to the Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) were directed across the runway to the airport ramp side of the passenger terminal.
That could be pretty dangerous if a plane was taking off or landing.
According to the denizens of the Internet, the Airport Extreme you have sitting in your hallway or – nerd! – in your bedroom might be experiencing dropout. According to Marco “I just sold [x]” Arment of Instapaper fame, this problem might have something to do with the latest 7.6.3 firmware. The good news? Downgrading is stupidly easy.
At a glance, Apple’s latest MacBook Air notebooks appear identical to their predecessors, but when you take a look under the hood, there are some obvious differences. Not only do they boast Intel’s latest Haswell processors, but they also have larger capacity batteries and smaller solid-state flash drives.
The Apple Store is back online after a five hour downtime, and all of the exciting new products Apple unveiled today are there for sale.
There’s the new MacBook Air, with Haswell processors delivering all-day battery life, starting at $999. The new Haswell processors start at 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, up from the Core i3s of the past generation. These are underclocked to save battery life compared to the previous generation, but it shouldn’t be an issue, due to the upgrade in the speed of the flash internals, which is the real bottleneck these days. Still, you can upgrade the processor to a 1.7GHz Intel Core i7 for just $150 more.
In addition the new AirPort Time Capsule (starts at $299) and AirPort Extreme (starts at $199) are up.
The new Mac Pro doesn’t have a page yet, but you can see a small shot of it in the top navigation bar of the Apple Store Mac section
To work with Apple’s new 802.11ac MacBooks, Apple is releasing totally redesigned AirPort base stations.
Although the new AirPort is tiny, only 4-inches, it packs a lot of functionality, including 3-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi, simultaneous dual-band, a beamforming antenna array and the option of either a 2TB or 3TB hard drive.
Price and release haven’t yet been announced, but these look like great updates.
Our fearless commander-in-chief Leander Kahney is a strange cuckoo. He is, of course, a dashing and famous technology journalist par example, while his family is inexplicably a bunch of Luddites.
So check out what happened when Leander tried to coach someone in his family how to set up an extra Airport Extreme base station over the phone. No matter how many times he explained how to do it, it wouldn’t work… so Leander drove over to see what the problem was. This is what he saw.
What’s the most ridiculous tech support problem you’ve had to solve for a family member? Let us know in the comments.
A TSA agent caught stealing iPads and numerous other electronic devices was arrested this week following a sting operation at New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Sean Henry, 32, joins the growing list of TSA workers who have been accused of stealing from passengers as they pass through airport checkpoints across the United States.
Stories about valuable items going missing at airport TSA checkpoints are worryingly common, but it’s not often you can prove your possessions have indeed been stolen by the people employed to protect you. Fortunately, Apple has made iOS devices easy to track when they go missing, and ABC News recently took advantage of this feature to catch a thieving TSA officer red-handed.
