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MacBook and MacBook Pro Port Speculation

Magsafe on the right?

I don't have the patience to search the 1400+ original thread nor this 180-post thread, but has anyone considered that the Magsafe port on the new MacBook might be on the right? (The power connector on iBooks was on the right, next to the optical drive, for as long as they were white, anyway). That would leave room for the port next to Ethernet on the left to be FireWire 400. We just haven't yet seen the right side of the MacBook; I think only the MacBook Pro.
 
I personally would hate to see no firewire on Apple consumer laptops. Being a mac service technician, we frequently use firewire to boot from external service drives to diagnose problems or backup or transfer data. I can still do with USB 2.0 drives but Firewire is still faster. I can understand how this would piss a lot of people off. Many people who need Firewire, can't afford the higher price pro laptops and instead get MacBooks. Macbook sans Firewire means they'll have to buy a pro laptop instead. Keep in mind we don't know full story yet so maybe we should just calm down until an official announcement tomorrow.
 
I just (knowingly) bought a MB two weeks ago.
If they are eliminating FW, I'm glad to skip that model. Same reason I looked over the MBA (other than the core shutdowns, lol)
 
I said it in the other thread. I'll say it here again... Regarding the "mysterious port" that seems to have spawned so much non-news.

Look CAREFULLY. See the vertical slits? It's a vent. The only reason it's covered is not to "hide" something from us (why would one port be hidden in a leaked photo that was unauthorized to begin with, while all other ports are visible?)... but rather I think it's covered so that during assembly, dust and other particles do not enter into the vent.
 
earthsaver said:
I don't have the patience to search the 1400+ original thread nor this 180-post thread, but has anyone considered that the Magsafe port on the new MacBook might be on the right? (The power connector on iBooks was on the right, next to the optical drive, for as long as they were white, anyway). That would leave room for the port next to Ethernet on the left to be FireWire 400. We just haven't yet seen the right side of the MacBook; I think only the MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

Nope the Firewire is definitely gone from the Macbook.

http://9to5mac.com/files/image/161918.jpg
 
They'd be fools to get rid of firewire on their macbooks, what about all the musicians and sound folk who use FW interfaces day in and day out. USB audio interfaces just don't cut it the same way that FW does, in fact they can suck some serious monkey ba**s from time to time.

Hell Apple partnered up with Apogee to release a fantastic FW audio interface.

No FW will hurt the laptop musician, especially when they don't necessarily need the extra special goodness that the MBP has, sometimes all they need is a laptop (read MB), a good FW interface, (anything by MOTU will do), a decent controller, and some good software (Logic, Mainstage, Live whatever floats your boat).

When I bought my current MB (santa rosa 2.0) I'd have been sickened if I'd have had to shell out an extra £500 or so just to have a FW port, in fact I don't know if I would have had the finances to get one. Well I would have done, but it would have meant scrimping out on a cheap and dodgy audio interface rather than the tasty MOTU 828 Mk3.

Hackintosh laptop anyone ? ;)
 
I'm a college student in audio/sound Tech. All our computers at my college are Mac and use firewire audio interfaces. All my hard drives (needed for saving our work on Pro Tools) are firewire. All my Video cameras are firewire. All my own person audio stuff is firewire. Even my Mackie mixer is firewire. Now that I'm in college, I can't afford to be shelling out extra $$$ for a firewire port.

To not put firewire on the new Macbook would hurt Apple a little. Not a lot, but a little. You forget these costumers would most likely stay apple, possibly buy apple software (final cut, logic, etc) , apple accessories, etc. It won 't kill Apple because of their Iphone/Ipod. It's just a step in the wrong direction. I personally won't buy an old used mac just to get a firewire port. Espically when the new Macbook is all I would need, but I don't get firewire only because the company wants more $$$$. I will go P.C before I do that.

It's kind of sad because Apple's whole marketing deal was that Apple is different and for creative person. The artist. Way back when before the Iphone/Ipod and when Apple was almost dead in the water, it was the creative artist that kept Apple afloat. Instead of spending an extra 10 cents to put a firewire in a laptop, they'd rather try to get an extra $1000 out of us all. Like one dude said before me, they better change their ads on TV.
 
emotion said:
No firewire, no sale. There's a lot of musicians (that aren't necessarily pro) that would agree too.

We'll see, I'm thinking those cases are some of the prototypes. The lack of agreement between the cases and the confusion over the MBP/MB dividing line is keeping my hopes up.
Click to expand...

I'm with ya!
I've never even considered using the "express port" so I'm not up to speed but what this be a solution? Express Port FireWire? ...or is it going to be one of those cases where its not "native" firewire so its slower & runs into compatibility issues w/ certain devices.
Then there's the issue of putting your MBP in its case, sleeve or bag (when they've been form-fitted for your model...and you've got this thing hanging out...are you supposed to remove it everytime you use the thing?
Concerned...:(
 
I think they didn't eliminate Firewire, they eliminated Ethernet.

Plus that dock, looks cool and may work well in concept, but I can imagine how scratched up the computer would get from all those insertions.
 
steamed.hams said:
I know many, many musicians at all levels (from amateurs to stadium touring acts) who use Mac notebooks with firewire-only interfaces. I don't pretend to know what apple is doing, but I know that they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they alienate the firewire-dependent musicians in their customer base.
Click to expand...

Out of all my friends, most have PCs, and out of the ones that have macs all but 1 are musicians! Musicians (pro, semi-pro, and amateur) seem to have a high ratio of Mac usage. A lot of those musicians have firewire audio interfaces. Also a lot of them use firewire HDDs too, as you can easily run out of USB ports anyway if you have a MIDI keyboard, a multi-output MIDI interface and a few other USB devices (ipod, camera, iphone, etc.).

I just blew £600ish (about $1k) on a decent pro firewire interface. This is based on the thinking that Firewire is the future for audio interfaces since I can use the same expensive interface on multiple machines (unlike PCIe where you install it in one and that's where it stays) and it doesn't have some of the interrupt issues that some USB interfaces have (most pluggable more-expensive pro-end interfaces tend to come as FW, not USB these days).

I personally am gonna get the highest spec macbook pro as it's basically a desktop replacement for me, but for many others I know they want 1 decent FW audio interface they can use with their desktop, then plug in their lower range laptop for live use. None of them will be pleased if they suddenly need a higher spec machine when replacing their macbook, and have to worry about taking a far more expensive machine on the road with them. Or buying a 2nd expensive non-FW audio interface.

Therefore I think it remains to be seen whether Apple, after years of encouraging firewire, still has them planned and we're all getting overzealous here, or if they'll be stupid/naive and screw up a lot of poor musicians on their next laptop upgrade.

There may be clever "elegant" ways of still having all the ports. Personally I don't see lots of dongles, adapters, and breakout cables as being remotely elegant though... :confused:
 
MowingDevil said:
I'm with ya!
I've never even considered using the "express port" so I'm not up to speed but what this be a solution? Express Port FireWire? ...or is it going to be one of those cases where its not "native" firewire so its slower & runs into compatibility issues w/ certain devices.
Then there's the issue of putting your MBP in its case, sleeve or bag (when they've been form-fitted for your model...and you've got this thing hanging out...are you supposed to remove it everytime you use the thing?
Concerned...:(
Click to expand...

Well I'm confused by this post, using the express port means you've got a MBP, if you've got a MBP then you have firewire, it's the possible lack of firewire on MBs that everyone is worried about
 
First port is hdmi not magsafe. Small port is mini firewire like on Dell and Sonys. The tape is covering the induction charging part of the case which is thinner, the tape has been removed from the macbook but on the internal shot you can see the induction panel.
 
MowingDevil said:
Nice contribution! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's the end of the world chicken little's!!!

There's new MacBooks coming, and I guarantee they will be great!!! Like usual, with price drops... My God MBAir had 1 USB port....

Just enjoy the keynote in a few hours, whatever will be, will be, you don't have to buy it!!!

Yawn, move along nothing to see here...:)
 
Marx55 said:
FIREWIRE IS ESSENTIAL FOR:

- Repairs via Target Disk Mode.
- Connection to Firewire camcorders.
- Fast and efficient file transfer (Retrospect backups, Time Machine backps, etc). PARTICULARLY FOR LARGE FILES.

EVEN FIREWIRE 400 is much faster, efficient and trouble-free than USB 2.

Is Apple fool? NO FIREWIRE, NO PURCHASE!!!
Click to expand...

You should add audio interfaces to that list. All the major manufacturers of portable/home audio recording have made the switch from SCSI to Firewire. Now what? Everyone has to buy yet another system? Firewire just works!
I hope the speculation is wrong or there's going to be alot of pissed off songs being written...and maybe recorded. :D
 
couldnt it be that the ethernet port is a FW 800 port (switchable to 400 with a simple 400-800 cable) and that whats missing is the ethernet port that can be easily made available by an already existing usb-ethernet adapter thats used in the MacBook Air?

I mean EVERYBODY uses their Firewire ports for be it a camcorder, hard drive, T-boot, audio consoles, etc...

Most of us have a wireless internet connection, and ethernet is just going out of style, I havent used that port in a whole year.

I say the missing port is ETHERNET! long live FireWire!
 
MowingDevil said:
You should add audio interfaces to that list. All the major manufacturers of portable/home audio recording have made the switch from SCSI to Firewire. Now what? Everyone has to buy yet another system? Firewire just works!
I hope the speculation is wrong or there's going to be alot of pissed off songs being written...and maybe recorded. :D
Click to expand...

my point exactly
 
VicMacs said:
couldnt it be that the ethernet port is a FW 800 port (switchable to 400 with a simple 400-800 cable) and that whats missing is the ethernet port that can be easily made available by an already existing usb-ethernet adapter thats used in the MacBook Air?

I mean EVERYBODY uses their Firewire ports for be it a camcorder, hard drive, T-boot, audio consoles, etc...

Most of us have a wireless internet connection, and ethernet is just going out of style, I havent used that port in a whole year.

I say the missing port is ETHERNET! long live FireWire!
Click to expand...

This may be well and true, but this could annoy a fair few of their Logic Pro users, myself for example. My MB goes on the road, but when I get home It plugs in to my network switch as a node so I can give my ageing Dual G5 a bit of extra horsepower when running LP8.

You can do this with firewire, but it's more fiddly and doesn't seem to work quite as elegantly (or as well) as with gigabit ethernet.
 
Tallest Skil said:
USB 3.0 isn't out until 2010. Keep dreaming.

FireWire 3200 on the other hand...
Click to expand...
I am going to have to agree with the MacBook losing FireWire and getting USB 3.0 connectivity. I think Apple has the hardware in place so when the specifications for USB 3.0 are released it will be just a matter of applying an update to get support for USB 3.0 devices. In the meantime, Apple will sell a USB-to-FireWire400 adapter that will let people continue to use their FireWire400 devices with the new MacBook.

The MacBook Pro will ditch FireWire400 altogether and get FireWire1600 standard with maybe an option for FireWire3200. I know FireWire800/1600/3200 will share the same physical connectors, but I do not know what is required (separate chips?) inside the computer to support each specification which is why I put FireWire3200 as an option.
 
sgntscrawn said:
Seems a bit odd, though, they'd get rid of FireWire on the MB. I can see them using the 4-pin connector, rather than the chunkier 6-pin connector. But, to be completely honest, what devices does the average consumer use that uses FireWire? Digital camcorders? Nope, they all now use USB, except for the MiniDV tape ones. iPods? Haven't for ages, and for those still using the old ones - if you're upgrading your laptop, why the hell not your iPod?! Hard drives? Firewire is really only a benefit when you're using FW800, and hardly any drives have that, most have USB.

Consider, then, the number of devices that use USB. It makes much more sense to place an emphasis on USB, rather than Firewire.
Click to expand...

Not for Pro users it doesn't. If you do audio or video you need FireWire...and usually 2 ports. If they got rid of FW on the MBs I could care less although I'm sure there's loads of users out there who would be pissed off. I'm more concerned of the 2nd FW port on the Pro machines. I can only hope that there's a pimped out 15"er that has 2 FW ports...I'd definitely pay extra to have that even if it was BTO.
 
The main reason for me wanting a new macbook was because my trusty iBook's firewire has died. No firewire would mean a complete rethink - maybe swapping back to PC:eek:...
I don't know if I can justify shelling out for a Pro just for a firewire port. Here's hoping that those pics don't tell the whole story.
 
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