All Apple All Day

We watched BIRDMAN on our AppleTV last week. The movie was great. The experience was awful. In fact our AppleTV has been doing a terrible job with streaming movies for a while. Maybe wiring the entire house for ethernet will help?

One of our primary projects at AAAD is to add a home server to our system - for backup of existing digital files, and for storing and playing media, like my iTunes library. I'd previously looked into a number of NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions, but I'm really looking for something as Apple-centric as possible. The reports I've seen about people going full-Apple and using Mountain Lion Server aren't exactly glowing - at least not for what I'd want to use it for.  I want to get my iTunes library off of my iMac!  And I want to get my DVD collection out of my media cabinet - and onto a server. Based on a review last night at 9to5 Mac , a Synology Diskstation really seems to be what I'm looking for. I'm sold. Count me in. Specifically, for the 4-drive box pictured above.

I used to have a first-generation 500 GB Time Capsule.  I still have it. Except now, it's a 1 TB Time Capsule.  Maybe your original Time Capsule disk failed, like mine did - or maybe you just want some more breathing room on your TC disk... either way, replacing and upgrading your Time Capsule hard drive is a simple, cost-effective fix.  But don't expect the Geniuses at the Apple Store to fix it. 

Apple's AirPort networking products have a few built-in advantages.  First off, they're high quality - both in terms of functionality and in terms of build quality.  Secondly, they're simple. Very simple. With the AirPort Utility on a Mac doing most of the heavy lifting, they're basically plug-and-play. In my experience, that is somewhat unusual.  We've been very happy with our wireless network, which has a Time Capsule as the primary router, and multiple A1264 AirPort Express devices extending the network.  So why am I updating my AirPort networking components? Why rock the boat?