The smallest of its kind; available for the same $99 price

Mar 17, 2008 13:52 GMT  ·  By

Following news of European Apple stores being down, Apple Switzerland has recently revealed an upgrade to its simplified AirPort Extreme base station, the AirPort Express. The updated device now uses the latest Wi-Fi standard, which offers much better performance and twice the range of the previous 802.11g SKU.

"Connect to the Internet, print, and share music from iTunes with any room in the house. Everything without wires. Now with 802.11n as standard," said the translated description of what undoubtedly was an update to Apple's mobile base station.

Users of an Airport Extreme base station have less reasons to brag, now that Express routers have been blessed with the 802.11n standard, significantly improving network throughput. In even simpler terms, users will be getting as much as five times the speed of the 802.11g standard, with a range capacity twice as big as 802.11g.

"Apple is leading the way with a broad range of innovative 802.11n base stations for almost any wireless networking need," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "From the small and portable AirPort Express, to AirPort Extreme for workgroups of up to 50 users and the new Time Capsule for automated backups, Apple customers now have more great ways to extend their wireless networks with 802.11n."

Apple now includes 802.11n as the wireless networking standard for all AirPort base stations, as well as its notebooks, iMac, Apple TV and Time Capsule, with the release of the updated AirPort Express.

Using an AirPort Express base station, you can stream your iTunes music library to any connected audio device hanging around the house, share a single broadband Internet connection and USB printer wirelessly, and even create a wireless network on the go.

AirPort Express is the world's smallest 802.11n-based mobile base station and currently costs just $99.

Via AppleInsider