Apple has announced that it is going up against Microsoft and its Windows Home Server product with the announcement of a new device called Time Capsule.

The new Hard drive will work with the company's Time Machine application in Leopard.

The drive, which will connect wirelessly to an Apple notebook via the wireless 802.11n protocol will feature an Airport Express base station allowing users to back up content without the need for wires.

The move sees the company enter the storage market for the first time and is likely to send fear into the hearts of companies like Seagate, as this announcement will be seen as yet another Apple move to take over yet another market.

The unit will come in two variants; a 500GB model and a 1TB model priced at $299 and $499 in the US.

Steve Jobs, in his keynote speech to kick off the Macworld conference also confirmed that users will be able to backup multiple Mac computers to the one device allowing a whole home to backup one to device.

So far however, Apple has failed to mention security issues associated with storing all your backup data on a single drive in the home.

The unit will be shipping in the US in February.

We will confirm UK pricing and availability shortly.

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