Apple launches new AirPort Extremes, pushes 802.11ac wireless standard

One of the announcements at this week's WWDC in San Francisco was an updated line of AirPort Extreme base stations supporting the 802.11ac WiFi standard that's coming to the new MacBook Airs as well as the Mac Pro. Capable of 1.3 Gbps streams, or 3X the current limit of WiFi streaming, the new base stations also offer double the channel bandwidth, with 80MHz-wide channels providing more room for more data to flow faster than ever. A new Beamforming feature, helps assign more bandwidth as needed to devices instead of spreading the signal evenly.  Capable of supporting up to 50 users, the new base stations offer three Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and one WAN port plus USB 2.0. The new AirPort Extremes are also smaller at around 6-inche high, they have a new rectangular form factor. AirPort Extreme costs $199.

Apple updates Airport Express base station

It looks like the Mac Pro wasn't the only item left out of yesterday's WWDC announcements. The Airport Express, Apple's portable WiFi base station. Now in a new form factor that's very similar to the AppleTV but in white, the Airport Express brings improved connectivity and an Ethernet port. The new Airport Express costs $99.00.