Wow! Thanks ever so much for the information!!! I'm livin' under a rock here in Manhattan and have NEVER even considered such a new-fangled gizmo to solve my problems!!!
OK...Sarcasm OFF!!!
Look...unless you missed my earlier points about my specific issues and why an uninterrupted Firewire chain is important, one more time...with a high-end, $30,000 digital capture back like a Leaf Aptus or Phase One P45, any breaks in the data transfer chain can and regularly do cause problems. All I'm asking for is a dedicated Firewire 400 port!!! I've tried hubs, boosters and hanging dead chickens over my doorway on the first night of a Full Moon...All I need is that stinking dedicated 400 port!!! What is it with Apple apologists like you who wanna look at the 'bright side' all of the time and give Jobs a pass when the company makes a boneheaded move like this?!! It's OK to say they effed up from time to time...I've already gotten over the fact that this is 'progress' and I'm gonna hafta buy the damned thing, but I certainly don't hafta march lockstep to the Apple Corporate Music!
BT in NYC
I have posted on this lack of FW port many times since the announcement and I like many others am very disappointed in Apple's decision to leave a FW port off the MacBook
Apple says the MacBook is its most popular model, and yet leaves FW off the MacBook. I will say it one more time, this does NOT mean that FW is becoming less the standard in the audio video world, in fact it is the de facto standard in that world.
What this means is that Apple very clearly feels that Apple does not want us the Mac user choosing a 13.3" MacBook as their Mac to do audio video.
Notice the MacBook Pro does have a FW 800 port (and stop with with the lack of the 400 port, FW 800 does FW 400, and you do not need 2 FW ports, transfer your data to the internal be and be done with it, you shouldn't be capturing to FW drive in the first place)
So Apple is very clearly taking the FW off the MacBook and using it as leverage to make audio video users pay the extra $700 plus dollars to buy a MacBook Pro. (Notice I do not say pro audio video users, since I know very well many consumer and prosumers have many investments in FW, DV, etc devices).
In Apple's mind the FW port being only on the MPB is what differentiates the MB and MBP and perhaps the everyday user and the pro user, notice I say in Apple's mind (not our minds).
Now I think, as probably most do, that this is rather lame and completely crazy thinking on Apple's part, but this is Apple being a type of bully and forcing people to the more expensive MBP.
Apple make tons of money on Macs and that they would even think that they need to do something like this in order to make the up sell to the MBP is a head scratcher, but this is Apple and over the last few years, it's apparent that it is all about the money.
This is entirely about Apple getting more money period on the MBP and "forcing" people (who need FW) to make that MBP purchase.
We would like to think Apple is this "democratic" company that gives us what we want, but that is surely not the case here.
For the audio video user pro or consumer who is invested in and dependent on FW devices, Apple is saying very clearly, "There will be no small footprint 13.3" MacBook 'Pro' for you, period"
Because lets face it, with the FW port on the MB, one only wanting the 13.3" size what is the difference (backlit keyboard and more powerful graphics aside). Nothing really. So in Apple's mind, they just lost $700 on a MBP sale.
Of course, Apple may not be considering the $1300 to $1600 MacBook sale they are going to totally lose, because that customer is not going to buy the $2000 MBP.
But this customer completely going to a Wintel laptop (let's not go overboard here). There is no FCP, Logic, DP6, etc. on Windows for a reason, they are Mac OS X only, and then one would have to deal with XP or Vista world, yikes).
And do no forget Snow Leopard's power of Open CL, using this nVidia power for audio and video DSP and encoding, this will be huge, since these chips can do trillions of calcs / sec versus billions / sec, Windows does not have this.
Will this affect me, no, although I am probably in a minority in terms of purchase. I will just get my work to now buy me a 15" MBP, and since I am the guy who makes tech recommendations, I will just tell people to buy the 15" MBP now if they must have FW.
If it were me making the purchase with my own money however, I would be ticked that I am now forced to spend the extra 700 bucks on the MBP.
Does the Wintel world even make a 13.3" notebook with FW 400 or 800 built in, perhaps FW 400 4 pin for video, but I don't ever recall seeing a full 6 pin 400, much less 9 pin 800.
Oh yeah, and who is believing SJ's spin on the "USB devices, disk based devices becoming more common...etc." what a crock, then why is a FW port on the 15" MBP, because if Apple left it off the MBP, Apple would lose a ton of sales, period.
Apple does respond however to money, ie, sales or lack thereof, and if it looks like after a few months that because of the lack of the FW port on the MB is costing them sales, perhaps they will add it back in the next rev.
Vote with your wallet, but if many of these customers are now buying the more expensive MBP, they did just vote with their wallet, more money for Apple.
