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Closer Look Photo of Thunderbolt (Light Peak) Port

fswmacguy said:
I'm calling fake on this one.

There are zero LightPeak-compatible devices, this port will benefit no one.
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iPad 2 next week. ;)

LightPeak compatible devices are worthless with nothing to plug into as well, but one of them (either the port or the device) still has to show up first. A 10 Gbps port that will likely be standard on all future Intel based motherboards will get device support.
 
the specs on the box don't seem to be fake.

slidetomac (an Italian blog) has just published pics of the -likely- new macbook (13") pro's box.

macbookpro2_slidetomac.jpg


macbookpro_slidetomac.jpg


It is the exact translation of the specs posted by fscklog and others.
 
andrewbytes said:
IMHO - You'll have ONLY LightPeak ports no USB, no Mini-display port, nothing but Lightpeak - it's fast enough to do it all, no?
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Rumors say it is fast enough. But if they launch something that is ONLY Lightpeak, all your existing peripherals can't connect to it. And I'm not aware of any Lightpeak peripherals available (at all) yet. Whatever comes out probably has to have USB ports for the next few years, unless there are LightPeak to USB converters (probably exclusively from Apple at Apple prices).
 
I was really hoping for a USB-compatible light-peak connector...
I really hope that Thunderbolt doesn't end up like Mini DisplayPort: not compatible with anything, not even 2.5 years after its introduction, and you have to use adapters that cost at least £20 each to use it with anything.
 
puppyflightclub said:
you guys are actually pretty funny. i need to start coming to the macrumors news thread more often.
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I used to read Macrumors just for the humour not for the rumour. Unintentional humour aside this site has had some of the wittiest contributors of almost any site I have seen. :)
 
madzr said:
the specs on the box don't seem to be fake.

slidetomac (an Italian blog) has just published pics of the -likely- new macbook (13") pro's box.

macbookpro2_slidetomac.jpg


macbookpro_slidetomac.jpg


It is the exact translation of the specs posted by fscklog and others.
Click to expand...

i take italian, i have a 80 average wooooooooo
i can translate 6 words, witch is probably the ones easy enough to figure out on your own.
 
eah2119 said:
Cool. They'll probably have the next gen iPhones, iPods, and iPads using light peak. I've really never heard of this new technology until now. I searched it on wikipedia and it says it has a high bandwidth of 10 Gbit/s. Is this true? I can't imagine syncing all my music to my phone in 30 seconds.
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The iPhone/iPad CPU isnt even capable of file transfers in the 1Gbit range. I dont even think it can max out USB 2.0 tbh, considering many NAS devices with a 800Mhz CPU cant reach speeds of over 50MB/s.
Also small file writes are slower, you can only reach those speeds on large writes/reads.
 
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nylon said:
So you can either use an external display or you can use lightpeak. Doesn't sound like a great implementation.
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Yeah but how often do you really need a display for a laptop?
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Rumors say it is fast enough. But if they launch something that is ONLY Lightpeak, all your existing peripherals can't connect to it. And I'm not aware of any Lightpeak peripherals available (at all) yet. Whatever comes out probably has to have USB ports for the next few years, unless there are LightPeak to USB converters (probably exclusively from Apple at Apple prices).
Click to expand...

Yes, and a LightPeak to USB converter has to convert light into electric signals... for which it would require external power... Which means that such an adapter would be bulky and very expensive.
 
Lesser Evets said:
So true.

Also, this could become another Apple mediocrity like FireWire. Who still uses FireWire? If I didn't have an ancient iSight plugged in, I'd have NO reason for FW, ever. It's been an antiquity for 3 years now.
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Video Editing??? along with many other things. I use my firewire ports daily. USB 2.0 may be faster in copying something to a hard drive but firewire can communicate. USB is basically a one way street while firewire allows traffic both ways.
 
randfee2 said:
Ehm... funny. You really think they'll offer both (USB and TB=thunderbolt) ports via the dock-connector and then one day drop USB-support with all PC users and users of older Macs not being able to connect their phone?

Hardly believeable!
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Why is it so believable to think both a USB cord and a Thunderbolt cord could be offered? Intel designed this technology, it'll land on PCs soon.
 
Come on guys. How is there any doubt that this is fake. This picture is identical to my 15" MBP with the exception that the display port icon has been replaced by a thunderbolt thinggy. Proportionally, this can't be a 13 inch.

So they added thunderbolt and removed the display port? No way. A combined display and i/o port? That's just a stupid idea and if they do that, Apple deserves a good flogging. Perhaps LP is backward compatible with USB and uses the same form factor, but that does not change the fact that this photo is fake.
 
Putting lightpeak into the mini DP may not be such a bad idea when you think about it.

It's not about peripherals, it's about making it more attractive to buy a Cinema Display. With one connector you get video and full USB 2 (or 3, possibly) speeds for every port on the monitor.

Apple or third part companies could also make a hub that would allow multiple USB/eSATA/Firewire ports, and could in theory put multiple display connectors onto the hub as well. This would allow people to have a fully functional docking station that would have enough bandwidth to handle all of their peripherals. Just plug/unplug one cable and go.

But I think the main thing here is that mini DP just got a whole lot more powerful and interesting. Putting LP into a USB port would require peripherals to use it, but putting it into DP makes it (more) useful today, and makes the Cinema Display look a lot better as an external monitor.
 
baryon said:
Yes, and a LightPeak to USB converter has to convert light into electric signals... for which it would require external power... Which means that such an adapter would be bulky and very expensive.
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It's copper right now not fiber. Much easier to convert.
 
allamoureux07 said:
This technology isn't even applicable to current peripherals - it will take at least a year for it to become "somewhat mainstream."
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Just like Apple made USB and FireWire mainstream and adopt EFI, while being the first to ditch the Serial Port and Floppy Disk.

Get on with the time, the revolution has to start somewhere.


Lesser Evets said:
So true.

Also, this could become another Apple mediocrity like FireWire. Who still uses FireWire? If I didn't have an ancient iSight plugged in, I'd have NO reason for FW, ever. It's been an antiquity for 3 years now.
Click to expand...

FireWire is actually widely used by musicians, camcorders and many professional add-on devices because of its low delay and higher throughout than USB 2., not to mention it delivers more power and can be daisy-chained.
 
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baryon said:
I was really hoping for a USB-compatible light-peak connector...
I really hope that Thunderbolt doesn't end up like Mini DisplayPort: not compatible with anything, not even 2.5 years after its introduction, and you have to use adapters that cost at least £20 each to use it with anything.
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indeed
 
Mysterio116 said:
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Yeah but how often do you really need a display for a laptop?
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Several of us use a laptop connected to an external display as our everyday computers. I'm now using a 17 uMBP connected to an Apple Cinema Display.

Its a very common use case.
 
notabadname said:
Too many I/O choices for manufacturers. So which one will be fully supported and the "standard" in the long run?
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Even if this isnt the port I'd assume they'd chose light peak as it's supported natively by intel as apoossed to USB 3 which isn't .
 
Whats with all the "But there arent ANY LightPeak compatible devices"
Apple will just offer a Thunderbolt -> USB3.0/whatever you need adapter/converter
 
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