No FireWire in MacBooks

[delude]

Delude, it won't work. It's a plug adaptor, akin to the plug adaptors you plug into the wall. They won't work unless the voltages (the bus language in case of the USB/FW) are correct, if that makes sense, me mixing the example with the real stuff.

Anyway, at most you will get the USB power through the fw terminals, but you won't get any data, that's for sure. It's not just a matter of plug shape (as in my wall plug example). You can't have firewire over usb or vice versa with a simple plug adaptor (other than power, if done correctly). That's ridiculous.
I really question the competence of those people working at places like that

haha, that's exactly what I thought, thanks for confirming

 

[Moks]

I haven't logged on for a while for various reasons but have been reading MacRumors every day since April. I have taken a lot of information etc, researched and blah blah and will be happy to make my purchase soon.

Now, to the point...I was browsing the net and found the site below, with what looks like a Firewire (iLink) to USB adapter. I asked the customer services if it could be used with a Mini DV camera and they confirmed that it would work to a USB port. Could anybody shed more light on this?

Product: http://www.8starshop.com/en/b-usb-a-male-to-ieee-1394-firewire-4-pin-male-adapter.html?currency=GBP

Question:

Interesting. If this thing actually works, maybe I can get a new macbook after all????

 

[iShater]

Interesting. If this thing actually works, maybe I can get a new macbook after all????

No unfortunately. Read my and the last few posts. We have been through this and researched it heavily the last couple of days.

 

[Tosser]

Interesting. If this thing actually works, maybe I can get a new macbook after all????

It won't. So no MacBook for you

 

[Moks]

It won't. So no MacBook for you

Damn.

So, Option 1, new camera with USB.

Option 2, Macbook Pro

Option 3, Plastibook.

Hmmm.....

 

[Tosser]

Damn.

So, Option 1, new camera with USB.

Option 2, Macbook Pro

Option 3, Plastibook.

Hmmm.....

4: make yourself a hackintosh, and slowly migrate to another system instead of being locked in.

5: Cut your losses, and get the hell out of the locked down and limited system the Apple platform has become (before these new MBs/MBPs, they were merely "fast becoming", but with this they are close to the finish line). Switch.

6: Use your old MB/MBP until it gives up, all the while cutting loose from the closed platform.

7: Buy a refurb MBP/MB

8: Buy a used MBP/MB.

 

[iShater]

Damn.

So, Option 1, new camera with USB.

Option 2, Macbook Pro

Option 3, Plastibook.

Hmmm.....

I'm in the same bought.

I am thinking option #2, since editing on external drives over USB2.0 does not seem to be a good idea.

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

Damn.

So, Option 1, new camera with USB.

Option 2, Macbook Pro

Option 3, Plastibook.

Hmmm.....

Go with option 3. Get a maxed out black MacBook and you'll be good to go for a while. I'd hurry if I were you since everybody's probably got that idea now.
Or, if you need it and can afford it you still have a few months to get the 17" MBP.

And as a last resort, a Hackintosh might be something worth looking into.

 

[Milk*is*tasty]

I fired off some feedback yesterday, hope more do as well, no FW on MB is simply madness.

 

[delude]

I filed a complaint with Apple's Consumer Relations Division about the lack of firewire on the Macbook. There are SO many professional users who use the FW400 port non-pro version Macbooks... Here is what I recieved...

THE RESPONSE: The response I recieved was in conversation with Apple tech support was, “I am actaully not sure what Apple was thinking, I just found out yesterday myself. I don’t understand because we use it for troubleshooting and diagnostics ourselves...” So even the people at APPLE are not happy…
***The person with Apple’s Consumer Relation’s division said if Apple gets enough viable complaints they may change the design of the products… Posting on this forum may do very little good, that’s why WE must file with Apple’s Consumer Relations Division which you can speak with my calling the main number and requesting to file a complaint with Apple’s Consumer Relation’s division…


To file a complaint about the exclusion of FIREWIRE in Macbooks you can simply click here... very simple.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html

Or call 1800-MYAPPLE and ask for the Conumser Relations Division...

For MACBOOK PRO click here...
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

I have and use a Mac Pro "tower" and still like the portability of the Macbook WITH FW400... If you think FW400 is out, then head over to some pro Audio forums. You see MOST good interfaces, including Apple's own Apogee Duet is FW400... I need not go on...

Thanks for this, perhaps if you contact Arn he would be able to post the links in a place more easily accessible, so more people can share their opinions. I'm sure there are thousands of people (more!!) that share the same views, and would like at least one firewire port to be added. If all of these people made a complaint then they would not be ignored.

Oh, and perhaps we should put the link in our sigs?

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

People always hold off on buying an Apple product once there are even the slightest suspicions that a new version may be on the horizon.

This just goes to show that newer doesn't necessarily mean better.

Lesson to be learned: If you like it, buy it! It might not be around tomorrow.

When I bought my black MacBook and matching black 3rd gen nano I suspected they were both on the way out. But I also knew they were exactly what I wanted, so I made my peace with the possibility of being one-upped in the next update. If you know you can get what you want now, why chance it?
No regrets!

 

[mcdj]

Has anyone stopped to consider that Apple is trying to dominate the notebook market (and are hovering around a 20% share), and that their target demographic is no longer the niche society of photographers/videographers/film editors/tweak geeks etc.?

Their target demographic is now Yunnies, soccer moms, tweens, and legion others who possess more disposable income than tech savvy.

These people want stylish trendy electronics with shiny sleek interfaces. The majority of these consumers have never even heard of firewire, let alone miss it.

Before the iPod, Apple was like the band Elbow...extremely well crafted, under the radar, with a cult like following. Haven't heard of Elbow? Didn't think so. Now, post-iPod, Apple is like Coldplay (who admitted to copying Elbow's sound on their last album)...increasingly pop-like, less popular with their early fan base, and gaining more fans than ever.

 

[Moks]

Go with option 3. Get a maxed out black MacBook and you'll be good to go for a while. I'd hurry if I were you since everybody's probably got that idea now.
Or, if you need it and can afford it you still have a few months to get the 17" MBP.

And as a last resort, a Hackintosh might be something worth looking into.

Yeah, there was a blackbook in the Apple UK refurb store just after the 'event', but it went a few hours later. If I come across a good one I might go for it.

 

[Samwise592]

How will target disk mode work now? USB?

 

[Shurran]

Has anyone stopped to consider that Apple is trying to dominate the notebook market (and are hovering around a 20% share), and that their target demographic is no longer the niche society of photographers/videographers/film editors/tweak geeks etc.?

Their target demographic is now Yunnies, soccer moms, tweens, and legion others who possess more disposable income than tech savvy.

These people want stylish trendy electronics with shiny sleek interfaces. The majority of these consumers have never even heard of firewire, let alone miss it.

Before the iPod, Apple was like the band Elbow...extremely well crafted, under the radar, with a cult like following. Haven't heard of Elbow? Didn't think so. Now, post-iPod, Apple is like Coldplay (who admitted to copying Elbow's sound on their last album)...increasingly pop-like, less popular with their early fan base, and gaining more fans than ever.

Your comparison makes no sense. Elbow's defining quality is their excellent sound - One of the things that has defined Apple is the ease of use in audio/video fields!

I agree that Apple are becoming more mainstream now, but the only reason to remove the firewire port is to stop cannibalization of the MBP market. This does not help the consumer IN ANY WAY and only ensures Apple's already excellent profit margins. I would love to see a decent reason for us the buyer and us the user why they had to remove firewire.

How will target disk mode work now? USB?

One of the things that separates USB and FW is that FW can be used to connect peripherals to each other and computers to each other - USB is only designed to connect peripherals to computers. Therefore, USB will not work for target disk mode. Unless the manufacturer allows a bypass on the HDD to go straight to the USB bus (hmm, Universal Serial Bus bus, it didn't make sense if I just put USB at the end of that sentence)

 

[Radiomarko]

madness

Complete madness.

Thanks for the complaint link.

 

[highjumppudding]

im starting to think that maybe apple removed the firewire from both the macbook and pro (pro still has fw800) i think they removed them "temporarily". remember the 15 macbook pro when it was released, there was no firewire 800. then they added it. i think it is a temporary thing. if anything they are "testing" the waters to see if consumers are that reliant on the port.

 

[Eidorian]

im starting to think that maybe apple removed the firewire from both the macbook and pro (pro still has fw800) i think they removed them "temporarily". remember the 15 macbook pro when it was released, there was no firewire 800. then they added it. i think it is a temporary thing. if anything they are "testing" the waters to see if consumers are that reliant on the port.

That was my thought too! Just keep submitting those feedback notes with your desire for FireWire.

 

[Samwise592]

One of the things that separates USB and FW is that FW can be used to connect peripherals to each other and computers to each other - USB is only designed to connect peripherals to computers. Therefore, USB will not work for target disk mode. Unless the manufacturer allows a bypass on the HDD to go straight to the USB bus (hmm, Universal Serial Bus bus, it didn't make sense if I just put USB at the end of that sentence)

So you're saying that target disk is no more on the new macbooks?

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

i think it is a temporary thing. if anything they are "testing" the waters to see if consumers are that reliant on the port.

Let's hope so. Still it's the wrong approach. They could have simply conducted a survey!

There was a time when our studio's G5 was zapped in a power surge (yes, we use a surge protector) while workers were doing construction in the building and messing with the wiring. This caused the computer to no longer boot up - wouldn't make it to the login screen. But the data could still be accessed via Target Disk Mode. Thanks to this Firewire technology we were able to determine that the data on the drive was in tact (although the OS was inoperable) and take the appropriate steps to get up and running again.

We also have an eMac with a Combo Drive. Since we can't burn DVDs we rely on Target Disk Mode every time we need to make an iDVD project on it or back up significant amounts of data from that machine.

Even in a studio or other "pro" environment, not ALL of the machines will necessarily be pro. In other words it is perfectly reasonable to expect to be able to link up a MacBook to a MacPro. This goes against Apple's "just works" motto of intercompatibility.

These are just a couple of examples, but the point is whenever large amounts of data need to be moved in a short amount of time, Firewire comes to the rescue. Not any more. Or only for Pro users, rather. Apple has not offered an explanation for their decision or an alternative solution for replacing Firewire. It reminds me of when they released the Air without an optical drive - but then they at least provided an optional external SuperDrive and Remote Disk. Besides, the Air didn't replace an existing model so if you didn't like it you didn't have to buy it.

Dammit, I'm going to get a Firewire logo tattoo right now and flaunt it in protest of this atrocity!

 

[Wie Gehts]

The macbook is (uh, was) a great portable powerhouse for all us amateur/semi/pro musicians. FW is the defacto standard with peripherals.

If I do happen to need a second laptop in the foreseeable future, I'll switch to pc. (first time)

Apple won't be getting a dime from me.

 

[robanga]

If they would have conducted a survey I reckon that it still would have come out that their target market would say "what's firewire?" It is only the traditional core of that it matters to and likely that is now a much smaller percentage of Mac buyers than in the past.

 

[beret9987]

SHUT UP! You don't have to buy the product. The macbook is geared towards high school and college students for the most part as well as CONSUMERS. Most consumer level video cameras contain usb cables. You do not have to buy Apple's products. Apple most likely decided that the majority of people who buy macbooks do NOT use firewire, I have never used it myself and only know one person who does. And anyways if you dont want to shell out money for a mac book pro, buy a refurb or a macbook white.

You're an idiot. An absolute idiot. Yes while most consumer level video cameras DO support USB for stuff like picture transfer, every miniDV camera I have ever come across uses FIREWIRE to import its footage. So unless you're using an HDD or DVD camera, you're screwed on the macbook. Also, there is also the demograph of high school/college students that make movies or are film students and would need the Firewire port to import their footage and can't afford the Macbook Pro(sure as hell I can't and I'm one of those college students). So, yes, we're going to continue whining that there is a lack of Firewire on the Macbook, while geared towards "consumers", can't even use iMovie anymore unless you get a camera that'll support your MPEG-2 coming off your HDD or DVD camcorder. So, seriously, shut up and get back in your dog house.

 

[kolax]

If they would have conducted a survey I reckon that it still would have come out that their target market would say "what's firewire?" It is only the traditional core of that it matters to and likely that is now a much smaller percentage of Mac buyers than in the past.

Reason people would say they haven't heard of it is because they don't own any peripherals that use it........yet.

Down the line, they'll buy a cheap video camera for home movies that'll be FireWire only. Or they might get into music and fancy a bash at home recording with a cheap mixer, that will be FireWire only.

It isn't a small percentage that this matters to.

There is no reason to leave out FireWire apart from Steve being a selfish knob and wanting the Pro sales to increase.

 

[MrGando]

We need firewire. Give it back.

Damn!