Reports have been surfacing about Apple retail stores running out of stock of Time Capsules and AirPort base stations. That's usually an indicator that a hardware revision is coming soon, and it appears Apple may make its updated Time Capsules far more useful for Mac OS X and iOS users.
According to sources speaking to 9to5 Mac, Apple has been internally testing using Time Capsules as an intermediary cache for software updates for Mac OS X and iOS. The Time Capsule can recognize what devices connect to it, and then download and store updates for those devices on its integrated storage.
Since the Time Capsule also serves as a router, it can redirect requests from connected Macs or iPhones for software updates to its local store, potentially shaving a significant amount of time off the update process.
9to5 Mac's sources said that iOS updates were still done via a Mac, but it could conceivably be used as one way to enable wireless iOS updates, even if rumored OTA updates surface in iOS 5. Additional logic in iOS could let a Time Capsule know which iOS apps are installed, allowing it to cache updates for those as well.
Along the same lines, a Mac could also keep a Time Capsule abreast of which apps are installed via the Mac App Store, again caching those updates for the next time you click "update all."
Apple may also integrate iCloud services with an updated Time Capsule. It could cache iCloud streaming files, for instance, or the device could sync recent Time Machine backups to iCloud storage (a backup for your backup). Additionally, if Time Machine backups are synced with iCloud, it could be possible to restore files remotely while on-the-go without having to connect to your Time Capsule remotely (which likely has a tiny upstream connecting to the Internet).
The source didn't mention any new functionality for Apple's AirPort Extreme base station, but it is possible to connect an external USB drive to those devices, which then function similarly to a Time Capsule. It seems likely that Apple could enable updated AirPort Extremes to do similar caching when an external drive is connected.
Our own source tells Ars that the revised hardware is believed to be built around Apple's own A4 or A5 processor, and will run iOS much like the most recent Apple TV model.
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