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Steve Jobs on Lack of Firewire in MacBooks

dizzy13 said:
B/c the design of the physical notebook made them have to choose what would work best for ~80% or more people. They choose 2 USB vs 1 USB and 1 FireWire. I don't think apple sees FireWire as dead in the bigger picture, they just don't see it as that important to include on they low end macbooks over USB which makes perfect sense to me.
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Because the design is wrong, as with many Apple products.
 
gibheid said:
Maybe Apple know something about USB 3.0 that we don't yet. Intel have (apparently) made great strides in streamlining and synchronizing the new standards to their chipsets, and if the rumors of a 4.8Gbps data transfer rate are true, FireWire--in any incarnation--will soon become a curious footnote in the history of computing. Give Steve Jobs a bit of credit--he generally knows what he's doing!

FWIW a small converter-box might be all that's necessary to keep those few remaining FireWire dinosaurs going until the inevitable happens.

I admit this post may sound slightly inflammatory if you're not hearing what you want to hear, but the writing is on the wall for FireWire, and Apple is giving you fair warning...

Evolve or die--same as it ever was...
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I'll bet anything that, just like firewire 400 is faster than USB 2.0 despite on paper USB looking faster, that firewire 3200 (maybe even 800) is faster than USB 3.0 at sustained speeds. Plus since firewire is constantly streaming, instead of USB which transfers in bursts, firewire will be better at transferring live data.
 
Porco said:
If someone has physical access to your computer, they could remove the Hard drive or boot from an OS X CD too. If security of the firewire port was that much of a concern, you could protect the computer by encrypting your hard drive or setting a firmware password ( see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352 ). So that argument is flawed.
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Not if it is encrypted. At least for windows and linux thats easy done.
 
Eidorian said:
Any device to which one has physical access has NO meaningful security.

Use FileVault if you're that worried.
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You need to watch the hardware to be sure that no one have access to it if don't have some basic self protection. FileVault does not protect from someone to install
trojans or reading system passwords. It's only protecting user data.
 
captnfun said:
I would agree with you except for Steve's incredibly out of step with regular people.

Regular people have older camcorders with lots of legacy DV tapes, and many regular people cant afford the Macbook Pro.

The regular people who do have the cash for a new HD camcorder, and a new Macbook Pro would like to output their new HD footage to Blu-Ray, or use HDMI, but Steve refuses to give those options.

In my opinion he doesn't understand either set of regular people.
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I have an old tv that has S-Video, and I can't afford a new one, and now I can't use that anymore!!!!11!! Why don't we have S-Video output on our laptops anymore (for the past 3 years?!?!?) !!??!?! ACCOMMODATE MY OLDER STUFF.
 
NJPitcher said:
I have an old tv that has S-Video, and I can't afford a new one, and now I can't use that anymore!!!!11!! Why don't we have S-Video output on our laptops anymore (for the past 3 years?!?!?) !!??!?! ACCOMMODATE MY OLDER STUFF.
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You can get S-Video by using an adapter. There is no such alternative for Firewire. This is NOT a valid comparison.
 
The thing is, it 100% doesn't matter if USB 3.0 were out today (which it definitely is not), or how capable it may be compared to Firewire, since the new MacBook doesn't support it anyway!

They will still have to re-do the board with 3.0 chips when the time comes, so its 100% irrelevant what USB 3.0 can do for current models.

edit: I see Danny beat me to the point!
 
What a crock of...

I'm sure this has already been said, but Steve... "What a crock of s###!"

And I apologise for not reading the 20-odd pages of responses, but the only reason why Firewire has been dropped from the Mac Book is to ensure differentiation between it and the Mac Book Pro.

The addition of dedicated graphics in the Mac Book has now severely blurred the differences between the two - why would you choose a Mac Book Pro over a Mac Book if the two had Firewire?

I for one would certainly be choosing the Mac Book - and at this stage in the game I'll not be replacing my current C2D Mac Book with one of the new boys in town.

And Steve, you're wrong to say HD camcorders from the last few years are using USB2 - I'm a Sony guy and I'm struggling to find any of theirs utilising anything but iLink.... Although I'm sure I'll be proved wrong!!

Apple, I'm disappointed - but I understand why you've chosen this particular path!!
 
LillDrutten said:
You need to watch the hardware to be sure that no one have access to it if don't have some basic self protection. FileVault does not protect from someone to install
trojans or reading system passwords. It's only protecting user data.
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Might as well just keep your computer off of any network then. ;)
 
NJPitcher said:
I have an old tv that has S-Video, and I can't afford a new one, and now I can't use that anymore!!!!11!! Why don't we have S-Video output on our laptops anymore (for the past 3 years?!?!?) !!??!?! ACCOMMODATE MY OLDER STUFF.
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What a totally ridiculous comparison!! Analogue output compared to digital bidirectional in/out is absurd...
 
iMeanIt said:
Yes, the 12" MBP was appealing to some, but apparently didn't make enough money to remain viable. Like any big company - the name of the game is "big numbers." I'd recommend running over to Amazon and picking up a black MacBook (with Firewire) while they still have them - then goose it up to 4GB of RAM. It looks cool and I use mine to run FCP, Motion, STP and DVDSP without a problem. The price is very good now - and it would be silly to abandon Mac altogether. That's throwing out the baby with the bath water!
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The problem is, I was waiting for the new MB's because of the rumored better graphics. That's what I wanted and they delivered that, sans firewire which I can't live without, for at least the forseeable future. I just can't bring myself to buy yesterday's technology when it comes to computers, because it changes so rapidly anyway. I could buy one of the last gen MBP's (and I still might), but if this is the direction Apple is headed, I might as well make the change now. And, since I teach high school video classes and we're ready for new computers in our lab, now may be the time to make the break. It would make my district happy because our IT department doesn't support Macs (which never bothered me because I do my own support), and because PC's are less expensive and we are in the midst of a budget crunch in my district I might get more replacements than if I stay with Macs. It's not where I planned to go, but I think Apple's abandoning the educational market anyway. They're looking more to the ipod/iPhone crowd. I guess I should have suspected that was where they were headed when they took the "computer" out of their name. :(
 
gibheid said:
USB 3.0 might come out.
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And if it did, what difference would it make? If you are using a firewire camcorder, hard drive, audio equipment, etc. then USB3 doesn't give me anything I need. I live today, not in some nebulus future. Vaporware doesn't produce anything.
 
Apple isn't interested in marketing to the education sector and "creative types" these days.
Steve-o just doesn't find that crowd cool anymore. Despite the fact that those people are the ones that kept Apple going through the tough times.
Now it's all about iPods and iPhones.
Computers aren't the highest priority; if they look good that's all that really matters.
 
If firewire is no longer necessary, why is it still included with macbook pros? It's pretty obvious Apple is crippling the 'book for the sake of product line differentiation.
 
editguy said:
And if it did, what difference would it make? If you are using a firewire camcorder, hard drive, audio equipment, etc. then USB3 doesn't give me anything I need. I live today, not in some nebulus future. Vaporware doesn't produce anything.
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I refer you to posts #890 & #891 on this page. My mistake, and you have a valid point.
 
Bakey said:
The addition of dedicated graphics in the Mac Book has now severely blurred the differences between the two - why would you choose a Mac Book Pro over a Mac Book if the two had Firewire?
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Err... the new Macbook has no dedicated graphics. It has an integrated chip like the plastic Macbooks. The Macbook Pro keeps the dedicated chip but gains an integrated one to save power when you don't need all that graphics power.

The difference between the Macbook and the Macbook Pro is mainly:

- Macbook Pro is bigger and heavier (15" vs. 13")
- Macbook Pro has FireWire
- Macbook Pro has a better display (viewing angle, colors)
- Macbook Pro has an ExpressCard slot
- Macbook Pro has an additional dedicated graphics chip
- Macbook Pro has a bigger power brick
- Macbook Pro has faster CPUs
- Macbook Pro has backit keyboard standard (the low end alu Macbook doesn't have it)

That's pretty much it. There's plenty of differences here.

How about a third (high end) aluminum Macbook with a bigger hard drive and Firewire 800 on it?
 
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