Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Definitely too big to fit on a current MacBook Pro. A FW800 port just barely fits, and it looks like the USB3 connector is much larger than that.

Light Peak connectors appear to be roughly the size of USB2 connectors, so they would fit nicely. End of story (until there's a mini-USB3 connector, if USB3 ever does take off.)

The USB3 connector is identical to the USB2 connector for Type A connectors. Yes, the same flat 4 pin design. The ports are backwards compatible.

Sure throws a wrench in your "end of story" right there uh ? :rolleyes:
 
As I tried to comment earlier, it makes sense that Apple are deciding not to run with bleeding-edge technology right away. Instability can come from brand new technology, and it'd only serve to make Apple look bad. As professionals rely on their computers, it's best to just leave support out for now.

However as someone who understands Apple are not to blame for a brand new interface and preferring choice, I went for a 'custom' Mac this time. It's unfortunate for Apple that there are so many new things (Blu-Ray, USB3) that they won't touch yet, as it's lost them a hardware sale this time around.

(Side note, fair enough deleting my post for interacting with a troll, but I really wish there was some sort of communication instead of just silently deleting people's posts, and leaving the on-topic parts of the post intact would be nice.)
 
FW800 has been a second rate option ever since esata, now there's USB3 which is better and Apple still refuses to support either of them. Most new drives don't come out with FW800 versions anyway.
 
Just like, USB 2.0, USB 1.1, it was a standard, it is widely accepted, it was the norm for all, universal. USB 3.0 is not yet. If all manufacturers accepted it and embraced it, then it becomes a standard.

It is just apple that does not want to be on the USB 3.0 bandwagon. There maybe some technical reasons behind, who knows?

If it takes off then SJ is wrong in his assumption. There are a limited number of mobos that have USB 3.0 already. Everyone have the liberty to buy what he wants and can't push what he wanted to anybody's throat.

If we really wanted USB 3.0 on macs, then boycott all mac products until what we wanted is delivered.

Great point. That's why I opted out on buying a Mac this time round. I won't buy a PC without Blu-Ray. Period. And the people here talking about internet connections killing optical drives:

You've got it wrong. I have several media distribution channels and I have a 100 MBit VDSL connection. Nevertheless I neither use T-Home Entertain (tried that for Gran Torino HD in 1080p) nor MS Zune Marketplace or Maxdome or all the other stuff. And you know why?

Because they offer too little for too much money. Over the Helloween weekend I rented 3 DVDs (SD for sure) for 7€. That would've given me 2 iTunes SD (!!!) rentals. 2 iTunes HD rentals would've been more expensive.

And now the reality check: Rental services are switching from DVD to BluRay at a fast pace - so me, I just needed a complimentary PC to connect to my TV that let's me browse media, internet and use BluRay.

Sorry, Steve, the Dell Zino HD just was better for my needs than the Mini.

And BOT: All Mac fans, please educate me since when we have full USB 2.0 on the Mac. It took years and we still have USB 1.1 on the keyboard plugs AFAIK. So don't hold your breath for USB 3.

We're left to rot in the dust - errr give our money to iTMS because "we don't need USB drives when everything is stored in the cloud".
 
What I get from Jobs reply is that right now there aren't many product released using the USB3 norm.

When you look at the list. You can see that there are only 116 products listed, of which only 31 are end-user storage products (counting HD enclosures).

So you could put USB3 in all the mac you want, but user would still have a hard time finding products, corresponding to their needs, using the norm.

The real question is will USB3 manage an industrial following before Light Peak is introduced?
Since Light Peak is made by Intel (and thought by Apple in the first place) , they'll probably make it a standard on PC mother boards when it's ready, quickly and easily outnumbering USB3 capable machines.

Apple after creating and pushing the FireWire standard, that's still used industrially, is looking to bring another standard more robust and easier to use that will be able to handle every peripheral thrown at the users, from storage devices to external monitors.

And here is one of the interesting things Light Peak will be able to do for the professionals, right now if you want multiple screens you need multiple video cards but, if you only want to use one display, most video capacities are wasted if you can't use (like macs) SLI or CrossFire.
Then what about OpenCL capacities? As Apple has made clear with is continued use of old Core2Duo only for the benefit of having a OpenCL capable graphic chip, and their implementation of the norm in Snow Leopard, they feel that the centralized used of all the machine calculation capacities is a must have.

A standard like Light Peak would remove the need for graphic PCI cards to have out ports, directing every output through the PCI to the CPU allowing the full potential of the hardware to be used and controlled by the system.
 
As I tried to comment earlier, it makes sense that Apple are deciding not to run with bleeding-edge technology right away. Instability can come from brand new technology, and it'd only serve to make Apple look bad. As professionals rely on their computers, it's best to just leave support out for now.

So when they are the first adopter of Light Peak, will you change your stance ? :rolleyes:

The reasons are simple and have been stated before : Apple is pushing a new standard that will compete with USB3 in Light Peak. As such, they want to make sure their efforts are rewarded so that they don't lose the battle like they did last time with Firewire.

This has nothing to do with not supporting bleeding edge technology. Apple supports what they want to support it, sometimes it's bleeding edge, sometimes it's old tech.
 
What I get from Jobs reply is that right now there aren't many product released using the USB3 norm.

When you look at the list. You can see that there are only 116 products listed, of which only 31 are end-user storage products (counting HD enclosures).

So you could put USB3 in all the mac you want, but user would still have a hard time finding products, corresponding to their needs, using the norm.

The same could have been said of USB when Apple first started using it and ditched all the other ports.
 
It is just apple that does not want to be on the USB 3.0 bandwagon. There maybe some technical reasons behind, who knows?..

Come on, it is stated in the OP! Intel doesnt support it. Therefore no usb3 in mac pros withoUt alterations, therefore no usb3 in any other machines. Its bad publicity if the "lower machines" have a newer technokogy before a higher machine.


Also what wrx said :)
 
Come on, it is stated in the OP! Intel doesnt support it. Therefore no usb3 in mac pros withoUt alterations, therefore no usb3 in any other machines. Its bad publicity if the "lower machines" have a newer technokogy before a higher machine.


Also what wrx said :)

Exactly, when the chipset supports it, we'll get it. Just like eSATA, or even better eSATAp. Wait, what?

Wait, so what about FW? Intel doesn't support that yet it still somehow finds it way into (some of) Apples computers...
 
Apple will support it when Intel chipset's support it. That's my guess.

That said, Steve Jobs is a moron. They could be installing USB 3.0 right now with a 3rd party chip. They didn't have a problem with that in the PPC Macs.

Yes, Apple's financial results clearly show Steve Jobs is a moron.:rolleyes: It's not Apple's goal to build in every computing feature on the market into their products.

A 3rd party chip is much more expensive than built-in support from Intel. It doesn't make sense to pay extra to put in a feature that only a tiny percentage of users will use.
 
It is not even clear WHEN Lightpeak will hit the market and even less when it will see any sort of adoption, being a completely new, incompatible standard requiring fiber optics cables and all. It is very likely that absolutely nothing will happen before 2012. Apparently you have a lot of time at hand. Time you can fill waiting for your data to be copied to your USB 2 drive...

Luckily, I'm not cheap enough to use USB 2 for backups ;)

I use FW800, and am perfectly happy with it.
 
What I get from Jobs reply is that right now there aren't many product released using the USB3 norm.

When you look at the list. You can see that there are only 116 products listed, of which only 31 are end-user storage products (counting HD enclosures).

So you could put USB3 in all the mac you want, but user would still have a hard time finding products, corresponding to their needs, using the norm.

The real question is will USB3 manage an industrial following before Light Peak is introduced?
Since Light Peak is made by Intel (and thought by Apple in the first place) , they'll probably make it a standard on PC mother boards when it's ready, quickly and easily outnumbering USB3 capable machines.

Apple after creating and pushing the FireWire standard, that's still used industrially, is looking to bring another standard more robust and easier to use that will be able to handle every peripheral thrown at the users, from storage devices to external monitors.

And here is one of the interesting things Light Peak will be able to do for the professionals, right now if you want multiple screens you need multiple video cards but, if you only want to use one display, most video capacities are wasted if you can't use (like macs) SLI or CrossFire.
Then what about OpenCL capacities? As Apple has made clear with is continued use of old Core2Duo only for the benefit of having a OpenCL capable graphic chip, and their implementation of the norm in Snow Leopard, they feel that the centralized used of all the machine calculation capacities is a must have.

A standard like Light Peak would remove the need for graphic PCI cards to have out ports, directing every output through the PCI to the CPU allowing the full potential of the hardware to be used and controlled by the system.

Blah, blah blah...

Usb3 is already here. It is a reality and it is growing every day. lightpeak is in vaporland still. We'll talk about it when it is real.
 
A 3rd party chip is much more expensive than built-in support from Intel. It doesn't make sense to pay extra to put in a feature that only a tiny percentage of users will use.

Like Firewire ? :rolleyes:

Apple doesn't care about costs, extras, 3rd party chips. They care about pushing their own agenda. End of story.
 
Blah, blah blah...

Usb3 is already here. It is a reality and it is growing every day. lightpeak is in vaporland still. We'll talk about it when it is real.

Nice argumentation going on there.

If only you were able to read, and clic on links in order to gather that the USB3 devices offer is insignificant right now.
No products showing its capacity as a replacement for SATA like external RAID 5 storages.
 
Intel support aside, why would Apple want that ginormous port on the side of there shrinking devices. That appears to be twice as thick than your standard USB port.

The future belongs to a nearly portless, streaming, cloud based world.

Yes, I was also wondering who made this monster ugly plug. Too many dongle shapes as it is.

Apple will do what Apple will do, when they decide. It goes against their philosophy to have the latest stuff integrated into their products.

They have always waited to see what is next. Not every format or technology makes it.

They want the majority of consumers to have a good overall experience, although they try to make everybody happy. (They realize they can't).

Users who want cutting edge technology may have to look elsewhere and many times will become pioneers and testers of new technology.
(Thank you)

In the meantime I want them to integrate Betamax and 8-track into the 11.6 MBA:)
 
FTFY, and I find it unlikely.

Apple are not known these days for being first adopters of anything. Sometimes the first to snap up new Intel CPUs, but that's about it.

You do know Apple is involved in the developement of Light Peak right ? Mini Display port much ? :rolleyes:

It's not unlikely, it's their modus operandi.

Yes, I was also wondering who made this monster ugly plug. Too many dongle shapes as it is.

Again for all those tuning in late : The USB3 and USB2 connectors are identical. Type A connectors keep the same design. It's not thicker at all.

Keep on repeating those false statements boys, makes it easy to spot who doesn't really know what they are talking about.
 
He said the same thing about bluray, mac users wont see it until it becomes an industry standard.

In the case of USB3, it is an excuse totally understandable, in my opinion.
But in the case of BR, I think it is already an industry standard, and SJ will not ever acknowledge that fact until there is an update of BR for which he gets a fee every time you play a BR. BR targets the big business of Apple, iTunes, that's the only reason SJ will never accept it.
 
[attractiveness of a connector] doesn't bother me, but it DOES bother perfectionists like Steve Jobs - and it's Steve Jobs who gets to decide what's included on the Mac. That is highly relevant to this discussion.

As long as the RJ-45 connector exists then it isn't relevant. That connector is as crude as the phone jack it's based on and it will not be going away any time soon in any machine trying to pass itself off as a computer.

So unless Steve's planning to overthrow the entire networking industry or give everyone in the world free Gigabit wi-fi then he's stuck with an aesthetically unpleasant connector on Macs for decades to come yet.
 
As long as the RJ-45 connector exists then it isn't relevant. That connector is as crude as the phone jack it's based on and it will not be going away any time soon in any machine trying to pass itself off as a computer.

So unless Steve's planning to overthrow the entire networking industry or give everyone in the world free Gigabit wi-fi then he's stuck with an aesthetically unpleasant connector on Macs for decades to come yet.

The RJ-45 is a beautiful thing. It is trivial to crimp onto cables, incredibly inexpensive and can handle very high bandwidth applications.

The only serious flaw is that the locking tab can break off but this can be fixed by using better quality plugs with guards around the tab.

I love RJ-45. If network connections were injection molded, hard to crimp deals it would make my life as a network admin a LOT more difficult.
 
As long as the RJ-45 connector exists then it isn't relevant. That connector is as crude as the phone jack it's based on and it will not be going away any time soon in any machine trying to pass itself off as a computer.

So unless Steve's planning to overthrow the entire networking industry or give everyone in the world free Gigabit wi-fi then he's stuck with an aesthetically unpleasant connector on Macs for decades to come yet.

Hey, they do sell a USB dongle for that (although not Gb). I could see them removing RJ-45 and telling everyone to buy a dongle.

As much as this pains me to say, I sue my DVD drive more than I use my ethernet port. Although I like that they both exist, and I didn't have to choose between one or the other.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.