While most Mac users have be driven by the release of new iMacs and Mac mini, one should not forget the other announced products, and among them the new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule models. Those products remain compatible with 802.11n and Dual Band. NEvertheless, they evolve.
Previous models were using MIMO 2x2 (Multiple Input Multiple Output), in other words 2 channels for input and 2 channels for output. they now support 3 channels for both direction. According to Apple, the performance gain is huge. Transfer speed could increase up to 50% while the active range should grow around 25%. We will check those figures as soon as we receive our units. One should not forget that performance of wireless network is massively impacted by your environment and materials used to build the house or room around you.
Last but not least, according to Apple, back up on time Capsule could be up to 75% faster with the new model and Snow leopard. Again it remains difficult to define its such improvement is linked to the hardware update or rather to a better action from Snow Leopard. Especially if one considers that we already noticed how SL speeded up back up on previous Time Capsule models. AS we mentioned it before, we will test those claims as soon as we get the purchased units in our hands.
