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Ethernet
- Thread starter bobbyslice
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So the thickness of the ENTIRE laptop is reduced 25% and your take-away is that an adapter that a small subset of customers will use is clunky?
I speak on my own behalf. Lightweight is kind of nice, but I'll admit the whole thickness obsession is lost on me.
I recognize this is a reasonable move on Apple's behalf, since they're recognizing they're a consumer electronics company, not a company with serious ambitions in the Enterprise.
But for folks who position adapters as a painless substitute for ports are wrong, IMO.
Using your logic, everything sold nowadays should still have parallel and serial ports.
Just as with those ports, in order to make computers slimmer, there had to be adapters.
I think the industry is now to the point where big legacy ports like VGA, Firewire, and Ethernet, etc are the size equivalents of parallel and serial ports from years ago, and there will be adapters until new technology phases in to replace their use.
They did keep a thicker one. It's the non-retina/classic MacBook Pro.
Thin-ness isn't everything.
I can see it being an issue for people who are consultants, traveling between companies. Would be easy to lose if you are using it all the time in different places.
But for most people at a normal desk job...just buy the adapter and attach it to your ethernet connection at work. Leave it there, use your home wireless at home. Problem solved.
As for me, I use ethernet occasionally, but I never just carry my laptop around on its own (MBA), it is always either in a sleeve or bag. Both of which have pockets that fit a power brick. Fitting an ethernet adapter is no problem. Then I have ethernet where ever my laptop is!
And if you only use it occasionally, you can get a $6 USB 2.0 -> ethernet from monoprice. Doesn't get Gigabit speeds but it is tiny and works for those times when you need to use hotel ethernet (Which usually isn't gigabit anyways.)
But for most people at a normal desk job...just buy the adapter and attach it to your ethernet connection at work. Leave it there, use your home wireless at home. Problem solved.
As for me, I use ethernet occasionally, but I never just carry my laptop around on its own (MBA), it is always either in a sleeve or bag. Both of which have pockets that fit a power brick. Fitting an ethernet adapter is no problem. Then I have ethernet where ever my laptop is!
And if you only use it occasionally, you can get a $6 USB 2.0 -> ethernet from monoprice. Doesn't get Gigabit speeds but it is tiny and works for those times when you need to use hotel ethernet (Which usually isn't gigabit anyways.)
That would be true if there was still a healthy presence of devices using those ports.
Feel free to extrapolate wildly about my position, but I'm just saying that Enterprise Computing relies predominantly on Ethernet connectivity for secure, high-speed networking. You may argue that's old school, but that's the way it is for now and for at least the next couple years.
Apple clearly doesn't envision its MacBooks in the enterprise, so dropping the Ethernet ports in favor of the arguable benefits of slimness makes imminent business sense.
just curious, but aren't MB airs thinner and they use the old style magsafe? I don't have one, so Im not sure...
The new airs use the new magsafe 2, but yeah the old ones used the old magsafe because surprisingly, the side of the air at the thick end is thicker than the side of the new pros.
I'm trying to vote with mine but they're really hard to find
I gave up after visiting one store in person and phoning two others. I've ordered online.
Dispatched: 3 - 4 Weeks Delivers 12 Jul, 2012 - 18 Jul, 2012
It's funny -- some of these same arguments were made when the first MBP didn't have a modem. That was 2006. Six years later a modem seems so antiquated. Modems were just as pervasive in '06 as Ethernet is today -- OK maybe a bit less so but there were still a lot of hotels, esp non-U.S. that didn't offer Internet service.
I think there is a parallel here. It takes guts for a company to finally kill off a still used, but dying tech. Customers are bound to get annoyed or worse. But the beautiful thing about tech is that it dies b/c something better is out there to replace it. It's just a matter of weaning people off the old b/c people hate change, even when it's good.
I think there is a parallel here. It takes guts for a company to finally kill off a still used, but dying tech. Customers are bound to get annoyed or worse. But the beautiful thing about tech is that it dies b/c something better is out there to replace it. It's just a matter of weaning people off the old b/c people hate change, even when it's good.
As one of the ethernet removal objectors, I'll admit here that I'm fairly satisfied with the thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet adapter. It's not pleasant to carry the adapter, but it's available immediately (not waiting on some third party to do it) and inexpensive.
Here's the thing. There is NOT a better replacement available yet. Wireless, while better than it once was, is still unreliable, slow, and latency prone. 802.11ac will get wireless closer (or close enough) to eclipsing gigabit ethernet with regards to speed, but it's not on these laptops and doesn't fix the problem performance and reliability sensitive applications have with wireless.
Except that there are plans to bring 10 Gigabit and 40 Gigabit Ethernet to consumers in the near future, which are already being extensively utilised in the enterprise The people behind the standard have realised that it's time to move it forward for Joe HomeUser.
Excellent point. I was mostly talking about the value proposition between current wireless and gigabit. Wired networking isn't dead or dying tech as Chupa seemed to indicate.
Oh, it's definitely not and wireless is seemingly just catching up to Gigabit Ethernet which has been out since 1998.
It will be nice to see the higher standards starting to make their way into consumer devices. Gigabit Ethernet is no longer enough for today's consumers, especially when you consider all the cool "connected home" stuff you can do with it, like home automation and HDMI over Ethernet.
For the record, I'm not saying Ethernet is either dying or useless, just that it's no longer vital to a majority of users on a portable machine. If Apple removed Ethernet from a desktop, esp. a pro desktop I'd say they were batty.
But Ethernet on a laptop IS fast becoming a niche connector mostly used by those in ultra high security sensitive work or consumers to hook up a cable o or FiOS modem. But most legal and CPA firms allow employees to use Wi-Fi on the road via VPN. Of course that's not as secure as Ethernet, but it's secure enough. And for those who absolutely positively must have Eth. on the road there is the dongle. It's not like Apple is completely leaving users in the lurch.
Already thread on this.
I agree.
And a Dongle is a bad alternate for a number of reasons.
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Ethernet is a dominant and still growing port.
Our company abandoned USB to use Gigabit Ethernet for our custom boards.
At the time the smaller USB port started replacing the bulkier parallel/serial ports on laptops, there was a healthy presence of devices that used parallel/serial ports.
So what's the difference between that transition of ports then, vs the R-MBPs transition of today's equiv. of bulky ports (Firewire, ethernet, DVI/VGA, etc) now that there is finally a smaller port capable of replacing them (Thunderbolt).
I'm in IT mgmt at a Fortune 500 company whose enterprise-class network is primarily ethernet based, so you're preaching the choir.
I'm just saying that replacement of bulkier ethernet, FW, VGA/DVI ports with smaller ports is inevitable. End result will be adapters that downsize the bulkier ports to smaller ports, not necessarily the end of the bulkier technology. We still use plenty of serial devices where I work, despite the fact that none of the laptops that we purchase have come with a serial port in the last god-knows-how-long.
Theres a thunderbolt adapter.. i mean seriously can people relax already? not like this adapter weighs 10 pounds, it can fit in your wallet.. if ethernet is really that important, then i can't really see the problem in a adapter, i don't want a thicker Retina MacBook because people can't carry a 3 Cm cable with them.. ethernet is a long cable too.
Just have your ethernet cable connected to your adapter at home.
Just have your ethernet cable connected to your adapter at home.
Using your logic, everything sold nowadays should still have parallel and serial ports.
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Just as with those ports, in order to make computers slimmer, there had to be adapters.
I think the industry is now to the point where big legacy ports like VGA, Firewire, and Ethernet, etc are the size equivalents of parallel and serial ports from years ago, and there will be adapters until new technology phases in to replace their use.
That's a bad example. We get countless problems at work with USB-Parallel/Serial adaptors not working correctly with the devices.
Stick a PCIe card in from a recognised brand (e.g. StarTech) and they're just fine.
I'm sure the Apple TB Ethernet/FW800 adaptors will be just fine as the technology is proven in the 27" Display, but the cheap Chinese no-name stuff will be causing more trouble than the saving is worth...
As someone who works for an AV company I can answer this. Projectors. Most data projectors use VGA as their primary interface, since laptops are designed by companies in the world of business where presentations to groups of people are the norm, this is what drives VGA to still be around.
Here's an idea for a mac accessory maker, a clip you can stick on to your MBP power brick(adhesive or whatever) that allows you to clip the ethernet adaptor to it so you don't have to carry it separately when traveling.