Why the hell would I make your money for you? You are complaing about a technology beyond your reach. I'm a pro. I pay for products that help me make money. My clients pay me to be efficient as I'm one of the fastest and most accurate and efficient editors in my market according to them. They are happy to offset my costs to make me MORE efficient. I'm sorry your consumer-based mentality (who likely doesn't really NEED a $400 docking device) can't grasp that.
When you decided to tell me that those who can't justify paying for an overpriced device connection that was included in a device I bought, you brought money into it. Then you said those of you who can afford buying an overpriced item and that you are making the purchased item cheaper for us "poor" people, you decided that I don't have a say in a consumer device because I'm too poor to have an opinion. Again, when you make my money for me, then you can tell me what opinion to have. Until then, stop trying to tell me what opinions I can have based off my income and how I can spend it.
I don't have an
explicit need for a device like this, but my MacBook has the capability of using it while not having the capability of using devices that hook up to ports that are much faster (USB 3)(again). Apple favored one super fast port over having other ports that are faster for a much more popular market segment, USB. The devices that use TB are massively overpriced and shut out a lot of people that do need faster connections but can't justify getting them because the market offerings are way way too overpriced. I can most definitely buy this if I wanted to spend the money but Apple decided to push a spec that isn't as useful to the majority of their customer base.
I don't have a problem with the fact that you can afford it and it's part of your job, congrats because I don't care, butI do have a problem with people like you telling me I have no right to have an opinion on a consumer device (it IS a consumer device since Apple decided to include it on consumer priced machines) because I'm not wealthy enough to purchase it. You're an elitist and I have no
explicit need for this particular device, but I
do have a need for faster ports to plug my devices into my MacBook. Trying to find a reasonably priced FW drive enclosure or an external hard drive very difficult because they are neither cheap or plentiful. USB3 and eSata drives and enclosures are both. Mom and Pop use those devices every day, those specs should have already been on Macs. This is a ridiculous price for this kind of add on. There is no other way to put it. TB is great, but when the vast majority of your user base doesn't take full advantage, or can't justify it simply because there is no need for it, then don't include it while leaving out other specs they can use. Make it an option rather than standard for those who do need it, like SSDs. I have an OWC SSD in my MBP because I do need the speed. It's an overpriced option from Apple much like RAM is, but I have an alternative to their offerings and they are industry standard parts.
I have more than enough money to purchase this, I'm typing this on a $3000 Macbook Pro so that's not the issue. What I don't have is the money to spend on a device that shouldn't be this expensive while other devices that are worth the asking price aren't supported. If they are going to push a standard on everyone, make sure that it's useful without ignoring others.
You don't get it, do you?
Monster Cable has already proven you can dupe people into buying overpriced crap that works half as good as dollar-mart specials.
I do get it. It's you that doesn't get it. Monster Cable charges criminal prices for their products
but there are cheap and plentiful alternatives to what they sell. I never said that there weren't stupid people out there buying overpriced electronics, what I said was TB will get killed in the general market because it's too expensive, not enough people need the extra bandwidth, and the alternatives exist for the common person yet aren't included in the current and possible future lineup of Macs. TB prices will not drop anytime soon (most likely not even the next 18 months) and the vast majority of Mac users will never use a TB add on device while they will use devices that can and do take advantage of faster common ports like USB3 and eSata.
It won't.
USB3 is limited to 4.8Gbps max, in most cases you can't even get 4.8Gbps actual speeds due to the same overhead issues that plagued USB2 at 480Mbps. Meanwhile TB - itself an external version of the PCIe bus - can get upgrades to its current 10Gbps speeds.
You cannot convert USB3 to FW800, never mind PCIe x4 for hooking up external GPUs and whatnot. You can with TB.
You cannot daisy-chain USB3 and eSATA devices. FW and TB can be daisy'ed.
All of that is true and I've not said anything contradictory to that. Out of the entire Mac user base, how many of them know all of that? A very small percentage and yet TB will continue to trickle into every mac made and go unused. USB 3 might/might not come to the Mac and when/if it does the vast majority of Mac owners get a Mac with USB3 on it, TB will continue to be unused and not make nearly the sales that USB3 devices will. It's simply not used by most people and will continue to be prohibitively expensive. Which is a shame because it has awesome potential. FW is already a rare thing as it is, specifically because it's so expensive compared to USB 2 devices and USB 3 will only make it more rare. External GPUs are nice, but that's a very niche product as well. I'd be willing to bet that market never gets off the ground. Daisy chaining is a pointless metric as well. You can get USB3 hubs that have 7-10 ports for less than $70. You won't realistically need to daisy chain them.
How do you think PC desktops and laptops got USB3 before Ivy Bridge? They have to use separate chips for those ports, just like how all the first-generation LTE smartphones require two-chip setups. Apple wants everything under one chip whenever possible.
I know that and I don't disagree with the logic. I just hope that Apple gives us alternatives to a spec that will go pretty much unused by a big portion of it's user base.
eSATA can only be used for storage. Firewire? From camcorders of yesteryear to pro audio interfaces. Which is more useless, huh? Cheap and useless, yup that sums up eSATA nicely.
You do realize, a TB port without a TB cable is really a mini-DisplayPort?
Tell me exactly how many camcorders use FW and how many use memory cards these days?
Here's a list of them on Amazon. With DSLRs making huge waves in home video and the fact that they are also damn good still cameras the market for that is small and shrinking every day. Video professionals will go for those cameras, but how many people do you know that would drop potentially thousands of dollars on a camera that does only video? DSLRs are going to overtake that market for your average Joe very quickly if they haven't already. They don't use FW, they use big flash cards and most people use a card reader to get their photos off it. USB is fast enough for the average person to transfer files off that card and onto their machine. FW is fast, but it's a rare thing to see and getting more rare every day.
Hell, most people I know use their smart phone for video because it's that damn good. I haven't owned a P&S camera in easily 5 years because the quality was about the same on the first iPhone as a $200 point and shoot. Why spend the money on one of those, or a more expensive camera I didn't really need when my multiple device replacing iPhone did it just as well. The 4S has very, very good video capabilities as it sits and I plan on taking it to the Petit Le Mans later this year for that specific reason. I don't need to have a dedicated camera because my phone is just as good if not better. I'd imagine that I'm not the only one that feels this way and that's one more nail in the coffin of P&S cameras and those that use FW. Those devices are being replaced with comparable alternatives that do more for less money.
I know what is in a TB cable and I know what the spec is capable of. eSata is perfectly fine for what it does, using the same device on TB will net me no advantage if the devices that are sold are too expensive. To even make TB justifiable for storage you'd need an SSD to take full advantage of that and those are way too expensive for adequate storage. My 240GB SSD cost me almost $600 when I bought it and there's no way in hell I'm paying $400 for a dock, $50 for a cable and then another $4-600 for storage to get the speeds TB is capable of. I will however pay $3-400 for an eSata or USB3 drive that gets faster speeds than I do now because it's more than fast enough and I can get terabyte sized drives for less than half of what a TB setup I would cost. I'd bet most people are in the same boat. There needs to be an alternative for those that don't use that spec because there isn't a high demand for it in the majority of their user base. Maybe not eSata, but we need USB 3. Desperately.
Great *cough*feeble*cough* attempt at character association, kid. A cult? HA HA.
My current computer is a PC. The last Mac I used was a first-generation iBook G4 (with USB2 ports appearing on that line for the first time!) a decade ago. I went from a lowish Moto E1 a.k.a. "first iTunes-enabled phone" to a Nokia 5800XM, before moving to a 64GB 4S on launch day. Oh, and I should mention: I'm buying a MBP this year as my primary computer.
What cult? In your dreams, perhaps. I certainly do not subscribe to said 'cult', but I can pretend to be in one. This is an Apple-centric forum, surprised?
Do you know anything about the Apple fanbase? Apple could make the most godawful **** and they'd defend it to the death. OS X Lion and it's Mission Control feature where it ****s up multi-monitor use is prime example. It's easily the worst idea I've ever seen Apple come out with, it's absolutely ****ing awful and broken, yet every time it's brought up there's not a single thing said bad about it. OS X is easily 5 years behind Windows now in multi-monitor support and yet if you bring this up you're insulted and told to leave and don't come back. Can't have any constructive criticism of Apple, that's just blasphemy. The iPhone and it's many problems early on get swept under the rug and if you bring it up you get shouted out and called names on forums everywhere. It's no different that Reagans "never speak ill of another Republican" line. Say something bad about Apple and you're told to GTFO. That's a pretty clear indicator of a cult to me. I love my Apple products, but I won't refrain from speaking ill about the bad and stupid things they do too. When I complained you told me to leave and I won't be missed, that's typical Apple cult talk. It's fine you can pretend to be in one, but when you talk like you are in one then don't be surprised when you get treated like it.
