I know it’s taken me quite a while to get around to writing up my review of Apple’s Time Capsule, the combo external storage device and wireless router that looks like a slightly larger, slightly flatter version of the Mac Mini. But I wanted to have enough time really using the thing in order to give a fully qualified opinion.

It’s been a bit over two months now since I hooked it up, and it has been hard at work backing up both of my Macs on an hourly basis, without fail, since I installed it. I have to say I really do like this nifty contraption, and I sleep much easier at night now.

I went for the 1TB model since I have two computers to back up, and for various reasons I don’t use the Wireless feature, instead I use Time Capsule as a “bridge” (hub) to which I have connected my two Macs and a PC via the ethernet ports on the back of the Time Capsule, and the Time Capsule is, of course, connected via ethernet to my firewall/router from which I get my internet connection. This means that my backups are performed at the highest possible speed, and don’t interfere at all with my normal use of my Macs as I’m working. A lot has been written about the (very good) suggestion to connect via ethernet for your first backup when you set it up - since it can take quite a bit of time to make an initial, full system backup (some users have reported that when creating their initial backup via Wireless it took overnight). Using the ethernet connection my PowerBook (with approximately 45GB of data) took just under ninety minutes for its first backup, and my PowerMac (with nearly 120GB of data) took roughly 4 hours to backup the first time. Now both run their hourly backups in only a couple of minutes.

Another nice feature is the USB port that can support either a printer (effectively making it a network printer if you have multiple computers that need to share a printer) or a second external storage drive, which would increase the storage capacity of the Time Capsule, allowing Time Machine to keep additional backup sets before overwriting the oldest ones.

For Mac users who also happen to be computer novices, or for any Mac user who just doesn’t want to fuss with tech stuff, it doesn’t get any easier than plugging in the Time Capsule. In my case, given that the Time Capsule also acts as my hub, I think it was well worth the $499 price tag. Not everyone will take advantage of it’s full wireless, router, or hub capabilities, so if you’re only looking for an external drive to back up to, and won’t use it wirelessly, you should factor that into your decision before buying one, as external storage drives can be had for less, and as long as they are directly attached to your computer, they’ll work as well with Time Machine.

If you’re interested, you can read my review of Time Machine here.

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Lately there’s been a lot of noise in the media about what experts are calling “vampire power” - that is, the amount of electrical energy being consumed while our electronics are “on” even when we’re not using them. In some cases, even when they are turned off, but still plugged in. One of my favorite tech writers, David Pogue, did a good column on it for his Personal Tech Blog at the NYTimes.com website.

So I’ve been thinking about it a lot, because I work in a small office environment in my home - we have around nine or ten computers, most with multiple monitors, along with a variety of peripherals - printers, routers, hubs, phone systems, etc. A couple of these do need to stay on at night as they run application 24×7, but most are just left on for convenience sake. On occasion I get up at night, and it’s astonishing just how much ambient light is put out by the various LED power indicators that are on. We don’t need night-lights.

In David’s column, he mentions a couple of nifty gadgets to help with this - the SurgeArrest Essential from APC (about $28) that has outlets that can be turned off by a Master switch, leaving some on for those items that can’t be powered down, while cutting power to those that can. He also mentions the PowerKey Pro USB for Mac users that does that and more using software along with it’s power strip, letting you control things with a few key strokes. It’s quite a bit more expensive ($199 for the lesser expensive of two models, $299 for the other), but it could be a good choice if your priority is convenience and features.

I took stock of everything that’s plugged in here, to see what could be unplugged at night with little inconvenience (such as monitors, printers, paper shredder, etc). Even my Time Capsule can be shut down at night, since it backs up every hour, and if I’m not changing files on my computer at night, there’s nothing new to be backed up anyway. There’s enough to shave a few dollars off our monthly electric bill and reduce our energy cost, possibly even enough to pay for one or two of the APC SurgeArrests over the course of a year. For me personally, it’s less about reducing our energy consumption and more about helping the environment - my significant other and I are passionate about trying to reduce our carbon footprint - so I don’t mind the extra cost of the PowerKey Pro USB and would use the extra software features.

I’ll keep you posted on which one we go with (who knows, maybe we’ll try both), and I’ll keep track of our energy savings as well so I can let you know in a few months what impact it’s having on our bills.

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