The history of an Apple product with an intergalactic design.
The AirPort Extreme was introduced in 2003
We know Apple for its famous and iconic products such as iPhone, iPad, Mac after Steve Jobs forged his legend as one of the greatest visionaries in history in the technology industry. But the truth is that the Californian company has greatly diversified its product strategy throughout its history.
In fact, there was a time when Apple presented extremely rare products such as sneakers, watches, toys, umbrellas and even a collection of clothing. But the device that we will show you below takes the cake. It was shaped like a UFO and had the name “airport”. Do you want to know what device it is and what its function was? Keep reading!
We are talking about the first generation of the Apple AirPort, a curious conical-shaped device whose project ended up being canceled…
Apple AirPort Extreme, the Apple UFO that ended up disappearing from the market
Apple launched the AirPort Extreme in January 2003, a Wi-Fi station with support 802.11n y 802.11ac. allowed Data transfer speeds up to 54 Mbps and had a slot to insert AirPort Extreme cards.
In the following video (minute 4:24) you can discover more about this curious Apple device.
Apple’s original AirPort Extreme station had a processor Au1500 AMD Alchemy based on the MIPS architecture. For their part, the AirPort Extreme cards used a Lucent chip with 128 bit encryption.
It was an ideal device for create a wireless network accessible for all Mac computers in a home, office or any location such as a cafe or store. Furthermore, it was also compatible with computers running Windows.
Its configuration was really simple, the AirPort installation wizard took care of all the software configuration work by transferring all the Internet network settings. Unfortunately, Apple ended up discontinuing the device. Today it is nothing more than a mere collector’s item.