Well then I guess you took my post completely wrong then. I never did anything to justify it, just stating my opinion on why apple did it, and to state thats just the way it is.
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Either Intel pushing Apple drop FW, or someone a MORON!
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Well then I guess you took my post completely wrong then. I never did anything to justify it, just stating my opinion on why apple did it, and to state thats just the way it is.
Yes, people howled. And they had good reason to. Writable CDs were a year or so away, so dropping the floppy drive left most people without a removable media backup device. People like to point to this move as an example of how Apple has a history of being ahead of the curve, but it was a decision that had a definite downside.
Writeable CD media had been available since the 80's. By 1995 drives had hit sub $1000 pricing, and within a couple of years you could find a drive for less then $400. If you didn't want to buy a CD-R drive, you could pick up the external floppy drive.
Was it inconvenient? Maybe for people who hadn't adopted email attachments in the workplace, or upgraded to the iMac without considering the cost of losing the floppy drive. However, nobody forced anyone to stop using their floppy equipped Mac. Those who were willing to wait out for a revision that included a built in CD-RW drive.
Now that I've typed that, I wonder if you meant a built in option for CD-RW was a year away... If so, sorry to have misunderstood.
1. Apple is a bunch of evil geniuses when it comes to upselling.
2. I'd be really surprised if the '09 macbook screen is as good as the 13" mbp; apple has a history of skimping on consumer notebook displays. I'll wait to see pictures of the mb's alongside the mbp's.
3. As for losing features, it's another case of AGATA (apple giveth, apple taketh away).
4. If I was wanting a new notebook, I could live with the new feature set. But I'd wait to see what all the people who dashed to the apple store yesterday have to say about it. The first mac commandment is "Thou shalt NOT buy a revision A!".
5. A $100 price drop would probably make these things impossible to keep on the shelves.
2. I'd be really surprised if the '09 macbook screen is as good as the 13" mbp; apple has a history of skimping on consumer notebook displays. I'll wait to see pictures of the mb's alongside the mbp's.
3. As for losing features, it's another case of AGATA (apple giveth, apple taketh away).
4. If I was wanting a new notebook, I could live with the new feature set. But I'd wait to see what all the people who dashed to the apple store yesterday have to say about it. The first mac commandment is "Thou shalt NOT buy a revision A!".
5. A $100 price drop would probably make these things impossible to keep on the shelves.
Macbooks were always the "consumer" line and the Macbook Pro's are the "professional" line. The Firewire is probably the main difference between the 2 lines. If you want firewire, get the 13 inch pro. How many threads are we going to have on this again?
FireWire is consumer, not pro.
Depends on what happens when a potential customer who needs firewire goes to buy a mac. If what happens is most of them change their minds and decide to buy a PC instead, then indeed the person/people who made the decision to drop firewire are indeed morons.
If what happens is that the customer instead decides to get the more expensive MBP, which is what I suspect will happen most of the time, that person/people who made the decision to drop firewire is actually a genius.
Will it make some people unhappy? Yes. Do I think that they will make more profit out of this because many will buy the more expensive MBP instead? Yes. Do I think that the person/persons who made the decision to drop firewire is moron? No, annoying maybe, moron no.
On that note, does anyone know where I can get a cheap 2.5" SATA enclosure that uses just FW800? Incredibly hard to find even with google
I've had this one
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/EB2-S.html
for a few months, and it seems fine (so far). It's not "just FW800" but the other ports don't take up much space. They toss in a nice cable selection, and even a little power supply, which of course isn't necessarily needed.
And, sad to say, it's not cheap (about $90). I was looking hard for FW800 externals about a year ago, and I couldn't find anything below the $80-$90 range, 3.5" or 2.5".
Oh you weren't talking bout apple. I get it now. Sorry I'm obviously having a slow day.
Firewire will be obsolete within 1-2 years. I guarantee it.
With USB 3.0 devices emerging, USB 2.0 will be out the door in no time.
Look at the new consumer and prosumer camcorders: They either 1) connect via USB or 2) save to an SD card. For example, the Canon Vixia HF11 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/576006-REG/Canon_3079B001_VIXIA_HF11_AVCHD_Dual.html) extremely affordable for a good-quailty HD camcorder, saves content to standard SD cards.
Understandably, the MacBook does not have an SD card slot like it's Pro brother, but a USB card reader is cheaper than your meal at McDonalds.
I'm sick of this useless argument about the lack of firewire. I own a MiniDV camera myself which uses Firewire, and I will happily purchase the "Pro" tag to take advantage of it.
Luckily I'm in the market for a new camcorder, so I think a MacBook will suffice for me.
With USB 3.0 devices emerging, USB 2.0 will be out the door in no time.
Look at the new consumer and prosumer camcorders: They either 1) connect via USB or 2) save to an SD card. For example, the Canon Vixia HF11 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/576006-REG/Canon_3079B001_VIXIA_HF11_AVCHD_Dual.html) extremely affordable for a good-quailty HD camcorder, saves content to standard SD cards.
Understandably, the MacBook does not have an SD card slot like it's Pro brother, but a USB card reader is cheaper than your meal at McDonalds.
I'm sick of this useless argument about the lack of firewire. I own a MiniDV camera myself which uses Firewire, and I will happily purchase the "Pro" tag to take advantage of it.
Luckily I'm in the market for a new camcorder, so I think a MacBook will suffice for me.
Sales of Apple laptops GREW STRONGLY since the 13"MBP was introduced (I cannot find that telling graph
And you think this was due to Firewire?
No, FireWire was consumer. As has been pointed out (numerous times in this thread), most consumer products which used firewire in the past have almost completely dropped it. Camcorders, HDD's, personal audio devices, and nearly everything else on the consumer front use USB. If you want something with a FireWire interface, you're either buying a dated camcorder, or you're buying in the pro-sumer/professional range. If you're buying a FW drive, you're paying too much for it (because they are always marketed as the "Mac Edition", i.e. Western Digitals passport and mybook lines).
What's the problem dropping these items?
Serial port - you can get a USB serial port adapter - serial device lives on.
floppy drive - again you can get USB floppy drives - your floppy data is not lost.
Ditto on PS/2 port.
All of these are slower than USB, so USB port works well.
FW400 is effectively faster than USB 2.0
There are no adpaters to my knowledge that allow you to go from a FW camcorder (and other devices) into a PC (Mac or Win).
Perhaps in the future there maybe a fw to USB 3.0 adapter, but not yet.
I think "Pro" & "Consumer" are not valid anymore.
The Macbook is more like "College student budget".
See, here's the thing. You still have a FW option. It may be $200 more, but if you really need FW, you can have it. In the case of the floppy drive, serial to USB, and PS/2 to USB, all of that required you to buy the external device/adaptor/upgrade your old mouse to the new mouse. For a couple hundred bucks, you can buy a new camcorder that probably matches or exceeds the specs of your old one, or you can stick with your old one and buy the more expensive laptop.
There is always an option and always a sub-market who's needs wont be met by a particular product. The MacBook caters to the most likely group of people to buy a $999 laptop. People who need a computer for taking notes in class, sending email, watching youtube videos, managing pictures of their kid, own a Flip Mino/HD or other mass storage video device, and who want to use iTunes to listen to music. Under most circumstances the average student, house-spouse, non-creative professional, or businessman does not need firewire.
Anyone who has a FW camcorder or HDD needs to ask themselves about the cost of upgrading their camcorder vs choosing to spend $200 more on the pro.
I own three Camcorders in the professional range of products. All of them use firewire. These are multi-thousand dollar cameras. It would be a significantly greater cost for me to replace them then to choose to buy the higher end MBP (not that I'd consider the entry level MBP in the first place). I also have a couple dozen FW drives, although they all use USB or eSATA as well. Do I value the speed of FW enough that I would upgrade to a FW ported computer? Yes. It is not an argument about what is a better standard, it is an argument about what makes most sense in a consumer level product.
We all make value choices. Apple made theirs, now the consumers can make their own.
Not again. That is a DV capture device reencoding your data. It's not a protocol adapter.
It is consumer. The existing devices did not just explode because Apple said so.
everyone wants mbp specs in a mb for the mb price....
tell me...would you rather have apple keep the cpu/gpu/ up the hdd the same as the 13 mbp or lower those but keep a port that the MAJORITY of people never use
i know my pick
if you REALLY need fw, just pony up the 200 bucks and get it. its not like it is some humongous price hike. they need some differentiator...do people not realize this? im glad the only differences are a lack of fw, lack of 8 gigs, and plastic and NOT the cpu/gpu and you even get a bigger hdd
tell me...would you rather have apple keep the cpu/gpu/ up the hdd the same as the 13 mbp or lower those but keep a port that the MAJORITY of people never use
i know my pick
if you REALLY need fw, just pony up the 200 bucks and get it. its not like it is some humongous price hike. they need some differentiator...do people not realize this? im glad the only differences are a lack of fw, lack of 8 gigs, and plastic and NOT the cpu/gpu and you even get a bigger hdd
...
had a bunch of uMB logic boards left over from the "collectors edition" alum MB so they are just trying to get rid of them on the Rev A uWB, FW will be back with Rev B
had a bunch of uMB logic boards left over from the "collectors edition" alum MB so they are just trying to get rid of them on the Rev A uWB, FW will be back with Rev Beveryone wants mbp specs in a mb for the mb price....
tell me...would you rather have apple keep the cpu/gpu/ up the hdd the same as the 13 mbp or lower those but keep a port that the MAJORITY of people never use
i know my pick
if you REALLY need fw, just pony up the 200 bucks and get it. its not like it is some humongous price hike. they need some differentiator...do people not realize this? im glad the only differences are a lack of fw, lack of 8 gigs, and plastic and NOT the cpu/gpu and you even get a bigger hdd
THANK YOU!! I couldn't agree with you more!!
everyone wants mbp specs in a mb for the mb price....
tell me...would you rather have apple keep the cpu/gpu/ up the hdd the same as the 13 mbp or lower those but keep a port that the MAJORITY of people never use
Adding FW would cost Apple less than $30. Their stock price just hit an all-time high. I think they could afford it.
This is a stupid differentiator.