Rumored aluminum Macbooks look awesome but no firewire port??

[jjahshik32]

As read here from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/05/16/specing-the-rumored-macbook-update

They are claiming that there will not be a firewire port on the new macbooks. I know the led screen from the mba to the new macbooks is exactly what I wanted to hear but no firewire?!? I thought they would put in fw800 in the newer macbooks!

I hope Apple will keep fw400/800 on the macbook pros at least if not then I'm keeping my current mbp forever!

 

[daneoni]

There was never anyway FW800 would make it into the MacBooks. In fact the Core Duo MacBook Pro shipped sans FW800 ports but there was an uproar so it made a reappearance in the Core 2 Duo models

As for Apple killing FW completely its very much possible. USB is a capable contender even though it cant maintain transfer speeds like FW it'll still move your data from point A to B...eventually. The network speeds of 802.11n which is becoming popular could also be another arguement for the redundancy of FW. Most serious users shifting large chunks of data are probably using Gigabit ethernet to transfer files from servers and the average home user is probably using Time Capsule and if not USB would suffice

So yeah it can happen. We all know what happened to the Floppy in the G3 iMacs

 

[DaBrain]

As read here from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/05/16/specing-the-rumored-macbook-update

They are claiming that there will not be a firewire port on the new macbooks. I know the led screen from the mba to the new macbooks is exactly what I wanted to hear but no firewire?!? I thought they would put in fw800 in the newer macbooks!

I hope Apple will keep fw400/800 on the macbook pros at least if not then I'm keeping my current mbp forever!

I for one would not be a happy camper if they eliminate FW from the macbook. I depend on its speed for using time machine. Not interested in doing that with USB or wireless. Unless there's a new usb at a much higher speed.

Fingers crossed this doesn't happen here.

 

[flopticalcube]

No way will they remove FW. As anyone who has booted off an external drive can tell you, FW >>>>>>>>>> USB. Even FW400.

 

[gkarris]

^^^ especially if you're doing Audio or Video work, say capture from a Camcorder...

I have two external portable DVD burners, one USB 2.0 and the other FW400. The USB one is a joke compared to the FW one... (much slower, doesn't always burn the discs properly).

 

[jjahshik32]

There was never anyway FW800 would make it into the MacBooks. In fact the Core Duo MacBook Pro shipped sans FW800 ports but there was an uproar so it made a reappearance in the Core 2 Duo models

As for Apple killing FW completely its very much possible. USB is a capable contender even though it cant maintain transfer speeds like FW it'll still move your data from point A to B...eventually. The network speeds of 802.11n which is becoming popular could also be another arguement for the redundancy of FW. Most serious users shifting large chunks of data are probably using Gigabit ethernet to transfer files from servers and the average home user is probably using Time Capsule and if not USB would suffice

So yeah it can happen. We all know what happened to the Floppy in the G3 iMacs

You gotta be joking though.. usb 2.0<<fw400<fw800.

I never said there was fw800 on the current macbooks, I've owned it before to know it only has the fw400.

One of my reasons to jump to the mbp from the macbook was the fw800. Its soo much easier to work with 1+TB files with fw800.

I remember I moved around 95GB worth of files from my 1TB external drive from my macbook (while the fw400 on the macbook was already connected with another external hdd) using USB and it took roughly 1hour 15 minutes.. fw800 took me 32 minutes.

 

[daneoni]

I never said there was fw800 on the current macbooks, I've owned it before to know it only has the fw400.

and i never said you said there was FW 800 in the macbooks. You said...

I thought they would put in fw800 in the newer macbooks!

To which i said...

There was never anyway FW800 would make it into the MacBooks

Also,

You gotta be joking though.. usb 2.0<<fw400<fw800.

i dont remember saying USB was >> FW anywhere in my post

I said

USB is a capable contender even though it cant maintain transfer speeds like FW it'll still move your data from point A to B...eventually

meaning it will still move your data from A to B even though at a slower rate compared to FW

It would seem for Apple USB is sufficient in a consumer notebook. Thats if they actually kill FW its all speculation at this point

 

[Laco]

No way will they remove FW. As anyone who has booted off an external drive can tell you, FW >>>>>>>>>> USB. Even FW400.

After my hard drive died i used my external USB drive for about a month it worked great. It is powered via USB so i could carry it around with me and i didn't need external power. So I disagree with this.

 

[mkrishnan]

After my hard drive died i used my external USB drive for about a month it worked great. It is powered via USB so i could carry it around with me and i didn't need external power. So I disagree with this.

To disagree with it, you really ought to have actually tried Firewire at least once...

 

[Warbrain]

After my hard drive died i used my external USB drive for about a month it worked great. It is powered via USB so i could carry it around with me and i didn't need external power. So I disagree with this.

And every single 6-pin FW device is powered by the bus. USB always has problems with powering from the bus.

 

[Laco]

To disagree with it, you really ought to have actually tried Firewire at least once...

Sadly I was limited in what I could buy around here: Jerusalem, Israel isn't tech central haha. But it worked much better then expected. In fact I was shocked as to how well it worked.

I would prefer another USB drive than the firewire which I haven't used once in the nearly year that I have owned this laptop and I bet many people are in the same boat as I. For example right now I have both USB drives occupied on my macbook and I would like to use a third usb device, maybe I will buy a hub.

 

[mreg376]

To disagree with it, you really ought to have actually tried Firewire at least once...

Firewire is certainly faster. But I'm not sure how necessary it is for regular Time Machine backups, unless you have multi-GB files changing every hour, and even then. I have a USB 2.0 SATA drive enclosure and if it takes 20 seconds to do an hourly backup it's a lot, and that's while I'm working with large photo files. I guess 10 seconds would be better than 20, but please...

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

I could see FW400 going away, but I highly doubt there wouldn't be a FW800 on any upcoming Mac Laptop or Desktop.....................

 

[Sweetfeld28]

FW400 will not be going away anytime soon. FW800 has to big of a bus port to be used in the newer thinner laptops. I could however see Apple incorporating a 4-pin Firewire port instead of the normal 6-pin plug/port.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

How many times has Apple come up with a better way only to have the industry walk away with something else or good enough. Firewire will do the same it seems. USB2 is good enough.

 

[Sky Blue]

There's no way they can get rid of FW. TDM is to crucial in troubleshooting.

 

[Eraserhead]

FW400 will not be going away anytime soon. FW800 has to big of a bus port to be used in the newer thinner laptops. I could however see Apple incorporating a 4-pin Firewire port instead of the normal 6-pin plug/port.

Unlikely, they generally aren't powered.

 

[Warbrain]

FW400 will not be going away anytime soon. FW800 has to big of a bus port to be used in the newer thinner laptops. I could however see Apple incorporating a 4-pin Firewire port instead of the normal 6-pin plug/port.

Won't happen. All those FW peripherals that I own and other people that depend upon the FW400 port won't work anymore on a new computer with a 4-pin port. Many of these have no other way to get power.

 

[revenuee]

hmm --- a move away from FW? interesting thought

The most recent camcorder i bought records on a solid state hard drive and transfers footage over by dragging and dropping -- over USB 2.0

I remember recording DV footage via firewire because anything less couldn't handle the data transfer without dropped frames, but now with drag and drop it's a thing of the past

admittedly that's consumer level, and i've long given up my dream of being a film maker

i'de be curious to know what those on the board who are still working in the industry think?

 

[Warbrain]

hmm --- a move away from FW? interesting thought

The most recent camcorder i bought records on a solid state hard drive and transfers footage over by dragging and dropping -- over USB 2.0

I remember recording DV footage via firewire because anything less couldn't handle the data transfer without dropped frames, but now with drag and drop it's a thing of the past

admittedly that's consumer level, and i've long given up my dream of being a film maker

i'de be curious to know what those on the board who are still working in the industry think?

I don't think that FW will die until the next revision of USB, which will allow it to do networking and have an extremely huge theoretical transfer speed. But if Apple really is pushing for thinness in the portables they'll nix it. They did in the iPod because the FW400 controller is still pretty big...

 

[akm3]

And every single 6-pin FW device is powered by the bus. USB always has problems with powering from the bus.

This is a serious question. Does this mean I don't need to keep the wallwarts of my daisy chained external hard drives plugged in?! I use have them chained off my Mac Mini's FW400 port. They both also have USB and one has ESATA so perhaps thats why they have power at all, but if I could free up two plugs and two wires that would be awesome.

I suppose I could just TRY it, but before I crawl around under my desk, will someone just tell me the answer

 

[Warbrain]

This is a serious question. Does this mean I don't need to keep the wallwarts of my daisy chained external hard drives plugged in?! I use have them chained off my Mac Mini's FW400 port. They both also have USB and one has ESATA so perhaps thats why they have power at all, but if I could free up two plugs and two wires that would be awesome.

I suppose I could just TRY it, but before I crawl around under my desk, will someone just tell me the answer

Depends on the device. Some will still power from the FireWire port, others won't and need power. Depends on how the device is set up.

Ah yes, daisy chaining is another reason why FireWire is still the best.

 

[CWallace]

I expect Apple to keep FW in some form on the Mac line since so many of our peripherals use it.

Warbrain's comments are the most likely - Apple will introduce USB 3.0 while still maintaining FW. However, Apple may stop at FW800 and not move to FW1600/FW3200 in order to "force" folks to USB 3.0 with their next round of peripheral purchases.

 

[bigwig]

It would seem for Apple USB is sufficient in a consumer notebook. Thats if they actually kill FW its all speculation at this point

Given the press releases regarding FW3200, it would be a serious disconnect for Apple to kill FW on the Macbook.

 

[bigandy]

In particular, work in the film/video industry requires FireWire. USB just plainly won't cut it.

FireWire 3200 will come in on the current lines that have FW800, IMO; along with USB3 across the board of Mac lines.

Both FireWire and USB have a place in future computers. They will continue to occupy our Macs, and many others' PCs for many years. USB for the low end, where high speed transfers aren't required (low end cameras, consumer scanners, phone/ipod synching), and FireWire for the high end - digital video, audio and professional applications. Both have their markets, and one will never be able to successfully occupy the other's market - almost by their design.