So long AirPort, been nice knowing you
AirPort products have not seen an update since 2012 & the Time Capsule has not had an update since 2013, In 2016 news sites had started to report Apple had moved its developers that were assigned to AirPort to other products signalling the coming of the end.
Apple released a press statement to signal the end of AirPort development this week.
“We’re discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station products. They will be available through Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last,”
The Apple Store online has been selling routers since January from Linksys and still has AirPort devices available until current stock has been exhausted, Apple is promising a further 5 years of support for discontinued AirPort devices.
The built-in Time Machine backup support offered by Time Capsule will be sadly missed as will some of the AirPlay features.
Apple created a support document guiding user’s choice of alternative routers compatible with Apple’s ecosystem:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208753
The article recommends routers that offer the following features:
- IEEE 802.11ac, which is the latest wireless-networking standard
- Simultaneous dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), which allows the router to transmit over both frequencies at the same time, so no matter which band your wireless devices use, they automatically connect to the best available band for the fastest possible performance
- WPA2 Personal (AES) encryption, which is currently the strongest form of security available in a Wi-Fi router
- MIMO or MU-MIMO, which can offer improved performance when many devices use your Wifi network simultaneously, you want to take full advantage of a high-speed Internet connection, or you need Wi-Fi coverage over a larger area
