More airports are canceled, but does Apple work on a new router?

Apple took a number of once popular models from the Airport WLAN router series from support last week. In the list so -called obsoleter products are now the second generation of the compact base station Airport Express, which contain Airport-Time Capsule models with 2 and 3 TB and the WLAN router Airport Extreme with 802.11ac.

No more help from Apple

“Obsolet” means that Apple no longer provides any support – not even against money and good words. Neither Apple itself nor its authorized service provider (ASPS) contain or can order spare parts. In addition, there are no more repairs. The exception are some MacBooks in which at least the battery can be replaced.

With the update of the list, all the latest Airport products have now fallen out of support-strangely, however, the first generation of the Airport Express with 802.11n is currently still “vintage”, so it is still being waited if spare parts are present. The reason there is initially unclear. All Airport products now placed on “Obsolet” were taken off the market by Apple in spring 2018. Since then there has been a lively trade in the products on used exchanges, because the hardware itself is considered popular and durable.

Security gaps – and the question of the successor

However, it is currently no longer advisable to use the airport products. The reason is massive security gaps in the AirPlay protocol of the devices that Apple no longer wants to stuff-even though this demands users. Researchers had found that devices can be fully taken over via AirPlay. However, older hardware no longer gets updates, while Apple has long since patched iPhone & Co.

Meanwhile, the rumor mill has long suspected that Apple is interested in new WLAN devices-or at least integrates a router functionality into new models such as the planned “home hub”. The manufacturer has been planning its own combination chip of Bluetooth and WLAN for a long time, which could then also be used as an access point, at least theoretically. It remains unclear whether there will also be full-fledged routers in the style of the airport devices.