I am a huge proponent of Target Disk Mode and have used it for years. I have a pair of FW800 drives hooked up to my iMac. And I have used TDM to connect PowerBooks and Mac Minis to various Macs for data transfer. I also own a DV camcorder.
I can understand the camcorder issue.
However, most hard drive cases worth anything usually have USB as well on them, so you can hook up an external drive. And as far as Mac to Mac data transfers, you should still be able to use a crossover cable and ethernet jacks to accomplish this if wireless N isn't quite fast enough for the amount of data.
Given that, outside of camcorders, I can see no real problem with not having Firewire on a MacBook. Added to which, now that they sport the Aluminum body, Backlit KB on the higher end model, and the nice glass look, this is truly a very nice Consumer Grade notebook. For everything you are now getting, giving up FW is a decent trade off.
If you really need it, go Pro or get a desktop for it.
I can understand the camcorder issue.
However, most hard drive cases worth anything usually have USB as well on them, so you can hook up an external drive. And as far as Mac to Mac data transfers, you should still be able to use a crossover cable and ethernet jacks to accomplish this if wireless N isn't quite fast enough for the amount of data.
Given that, outside of camcorders, I can see no real problem with not having Firewire on a MacBook. Added to which, now that they sport the Aluminum body, Backlit KB on the higher end model, and the nice glass look, this is truly a very nice Consumer Grade notebook. For everything you are now getting, giving up FW is a decent trade off.
If you really need it, go Pro or get a desktop for it.
