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iT4c0 · Feb 9, 2003, 09:45 PM

alright, MacNN messed up the article...
but here, i will type it again

I went around and check all the retailers in San Diego for the regular airport card. They did not have any of them!! 3 guys from CompUSA in different location told me that there will be a new airport card come out that will have the new firmware update to make the regular airport card compitable with the airport extreme base. Can anyone find the news or anything that confirm this? I just bought the AEB and I could not get any regular airport card. According to those 3 guys in CompUSA that the new one will be aviliable next week.
so....anyone heard about this?

-Q- · Feb 11, 2003, 03:08 PM

Sounds like BS. I don't think Airport Extreme will be available for older macs--the interface that was designed for the original airport can't pass that much data through it, so making an AE card for older macs doesn't make sense. They won't see much/any benefit (read that in one of the Macworld summaries, I think).

As for new firmware, some people have 802.11g basestations and the b cards work fine w/out any update at all...

iT4c0 · Feb 11, 2003, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by -Q-:
Sounds like BS. I don't think Airport Extreme will be available for older macs--the interface that was designed for the original airport can't pass that much data through it, so making an AE card for older macs doesn't make sense. They won't see much/any benefit (read that in one of the Macworld summaries, I think).

As for new firmware, some people have 802.11g basestations and the b cards work fine w/out any update at all...

I know there is no way to put extreme in the old imac but the update i am talking about is the firmware update that makes the extreme and regular airport more compitable. it is still running "b" speed but i guess the update make the problem less.

Camelot · Feb 11, 2003, 07:17 PM

Originally posted by iT4c0:
3 guys from CompUSA in different location told me...

There's your answer right there.

Never, ever trust something that a CompUSA employee tells you. In fact, in my experience you should listen to what they say and DO THE OPPOSITE.

schalliol · Feb 11, 2003, 11:58 PM

While I appreciate your experience. It is really insane to make such blanket statements. I've known plenty of people at CompUSAs who really know a lot (though maybe this was more the case when employees couldn't go to an Apple Store).

That said, CompUSA employees are only going to be able to tell people what inventory is listed in their computers, as Apple is NOT going to tell them about upcoming firmware that hasn't been announced.

iT4c0 · Feb 12, 2003, 01:55 AM

The odd thing was that in the same day, i checked apple store, and crywolf. They were out of the regular airport card too. It was like no airport card in any of the store in San Diego.

schalliol · Feb 12, 2003, 02:04 AM

Very interesting.

Is the PC Card slot that the AirPort uses a CardBus slot or not? If it is, I would imagine that it could handle the 54Mbit 802.11g, as there are FireWire cards. If not, I wonder why Apple went with a card form factor. Why not integrate it on the motherboard. It would certainly drop costs by the increase in volume, though could slightly raise the cost if you didn't want that technology (i.e. why would one put gigabit ethernet on every computer?).

wulf · Feb 13, 2003, 05:01 AM

The situation has been the same in the UK. Regular Airport cards have been in short supply or unavailable, with the Apple Store listing them as 'build time 2-4 weeks', same as the AE products.

This has just changed though, they are now all listed as 1-2 days, which means my new card & basestation should be coming soon