Thank you Apple: No more FW, Ethernet, and Optical

[therealseebs]

We've had a USB to Ethernet adaptor since my wife got her 1st gen MBA in 2009.

You haven't had a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter, and a USB to Ethernet adapter that predates USB 3 isn't going to do you much good for gigabit networking.

Furthermore, you'd better be able to plug things into those two ports, because without those ports to provide bandwidth and connections, the machine's a little light on functional ports.

----------

Well, I guess you could always just buy the $999 "adapter" from Apple called a 27" LED Thunderbolt Display. It has a FW800 and Ethernet port built-in... and you can walk into any Apple store and pick one of those bad boys up.... TODAY. </sarcasm>

Woah. I hadn't noticed that. That is really, really, tempting.

Only problem is, I use a KVM switch and three or four computers, and I don't think I could just ditch my current setup.

Seriously, though, if that thing had a DVI input too, I would probably get one and use it and be happy. That would be Good Enough for my actual application. ... wait, no, I think I'd need one with VESA mounting.

EDIT: They have a VESA kit for that. Now if only they'd done a new Mini, that would seriously solve a number of my problems. Or a Mac Pro with Thunderbolt, but what kind of idiot would want the highest-performance port adapter on the highest-performance machine? That's crazy talk.

 

[Xiroteus]

Apple continues to go further away from what I would want or need in a laptop. Nice resolution and all no optical drive? Hey Apple you should have a blu-ray drive! Removing the optical drive completely just makes it feel costly and limited. Still a current format which I use a few times a week. Tends to be a better idea have something there for those who need it the. To remove it completely. We are not talking floppy drives, DVD and blu-ray ate current and hold all types of media.

I WANT to like their products however they keep living so far in the future they forget the past and present, DVD's are not like floppies.

 

[therealseebs]

BTW, nevermind about the Thunderbolt display -- it's glossy. If I wanted eyestrain, I could totally get it without needing to buy a new display.

Seriously, how hard is this. Science has been done. Glossy displays induce eyestrain. They harm users. Why are we still getting this crap?

 

[Reddmanz]

Why is everyone complaining when there are still the regular MacBooks with all the legacy ports you want available?

Exactly. For once, Apple has given us choice to stop these sort of arguments.

Some people want/need them. Some don't.

 

[Astroboy907]

Exactly. For once, Apple has given us choice to stop these sort of arguments.

Some people want/need them. Some don't.

Not really. As the ones with the legacy (totally not legacy... USB3!!), dont have the newest tech. Read retina.

 

[jcpb]

Apple continues to go further away from what I would want or need in a laptop. Nice resolution and all no optical drive? Hey Apple you should have a blu-ray drive! Removing the optical drive completely just makes it feel costly and limited. Still a current format which I use a few times a week. Tends to be a better idea have something there for those who need it the. To remove it completely. We are not talking floppy drives, DVD and blu-ray ate current and hold all types of media.

I WANT to like their products however they keep living so far in the future they forget the past and present, DVD's are not like floppies.

If you want Blu-Ray, buy a PS3.

Considering all the butthurt the Blu-Ray tech foisted onto the masses, especially the ineffective copy protections that do nothing but inconvenience legitimate usage, it's best to keep BR off a Mac. And really, 100GB write-once Blu-Ray XL discs when it's already possible to cram a 256GB SSD into a tiny mSATA drive? Tough choice.

 

[Xiroteus]

If you want Blu-Ray, buy a PS3.

Considering all the butthurt the Blu-Ray tech foisted onto the masses, especially the ineffective copy protections that do nothing but inconvenience legitimate usage, it's best to keep BR off a Mac. And really, 100GB write-once Blu-Ray XL discs when it's already possible to cram a 256GB SSD into a tiny mSATA drive? Tough choice.

Because if I was spending THAT much on a computer the machine better have some type of optical drive. For blu-ray I just went and bought a blu-ray player, much easier, blu-ray is a pain even on a PC, powerdvd is junk, have to use any dvd just to get it to read correctly, found the whole thing rather annoying after a few years, blu-ray player, toss it in and it plays, perfect!

A laptop at least needs a dvd drive, I use these quite often, it is current tech, Apple likes to disregard anything people may already own for some reason. Again, we are not talking floppies and vhs.

The point is I am trying and want to like Apple computers yet they keep doing things with their systems that make them less usable for my needs.

 

[Tech198]

...

True..

There *is* no problem ... Just keep your current Mac.

 

[MacSince1990]

Do you seriously not comprehend how ubiquitous Ethernet is in the workplace and how obscenely expensive it would be for our employers to rip out all those ports to replace with whatever hip, proprietary new thing Apple wants to push?

I think there's a very great deal this guy doesn't comprehend..

 

[gngan]

It's obvious the OP is clueless regarding a lot of things.

As many has mentioned, ethernet is important for workplace and many places (i.e. hotels) only has cable.

FW is not so popular but it's far from dead. As someone mentioned, there are tools that's only available with FW.

Though i agree that i haven't used optical for a long time but his argument is not working. I hope you know that there are other countries in the world and they don't have Netflix or Hulu. The place i live does not have any streaming service.

 

[therealseebs]

Why is everyone complaining when there are still the regular MacBooks with all the legacy ports you want available?

Because we'd like the new feature (retina would actually be useful to me -- I do iOS development, and gosh would it be neat to be able to actually DISPLAY the full iPad display on my computer), but don't want to give up the old features. Heck, I have a MBP 17" right now, so I'd have to give up a USB port to get the new machine with USB3 ports, as well as giving up a ton of resolution. Or I could go with Retina, not be able to get a non-glossy display, not be able to get an external non-glossy display (only Apple makes Thunderbolt displays, and the thunderbolt display is glossy), not be able to get Ethernet or Firewire (except on that Thunderbolt display, or with adapters that "will" be available sometime soon), ...

So basically, if I want to preserve the functionality I have today, and use regularly, I have to stick with a machine that's two years old, or buy one with a much lower resolution display.

----------

True..

There *is* no problem ... Just keep your current Mac.

How do I use my current Mac with USB 3 devices?

 

[jcpb]

Because if I was spending THAT much on a computer the machine better have some type of optical drive. For blu-ray I just went and bought a blu-ray player, much easier, blu-ray is a pain even on a PC, powerdvd is junk, have to use any dvd just to get it to read correctly, found the whole thing rather annoying after a few years, blu-ray player, toss it in and it plays, perfect!

A laptop at least needs a dvd drive, I use these quite often, it is current tech, Apple likes to disregard anything people may already own for some reason. Again, we are not talking floppies and vhs.

The point is I am trying and want to like Apple computers yet they keep doing things with their systems that make them less usable for my needs.

Erm, if Blu-Ray is already this bad on a PC, why would you want one in a Mac?

Blu-Ray is, quite literally, Hollywood's hope that we all go out and replace our entire DVD collections with more expensive and restricted BR "special collectors' editions", spending even more money just to get these things to work. Believe it or not, Hollywood is pulling the same trick with Ultraviolet. The tech is never worth it since its inception, it's great for PS3 games, it's a horrible storage medium however.

Laptops don't need optical drives. 99% of the time those ODDs sit unused. That's a lot of precious laptop real estate wasted on something that gets used maybe a few days a year.

 

[houkouonchi]

Ethernet was the only thing I was annoyed about. I am worried about latency and also if the ethernet is part of the thunderbolt system (and not just a simple dumb device). I am worried ethernet might not be strait forward to get working in linux which is what I will use the macbook pro in primarily.

My internet connection at home is 300 megabits so I am sorry but ****** wireless can not cut it.

 

[BlueGummiBear]

How do I use my current Mac with USB 3 devices?

It depends on the device. Some devices are backwards compatible to USB 2.0. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_USB_3.0_backwards_compatible

 

[pat park]

Yeah! I totally want my $3000 laptop to be limited to a handful of ports so that it requires latency-inducing hubs to use any other medium, and I especially want my network access to be 54Mbps instead of 1000Mbps, because a factor of twenty performance hit makes me COOL AND MODERN.

I am all for trying to move forwards, but the fact is, modern ethernet and firewire, at least, are still pretty useful. USB is great for some stuff, but it has atrocious performance characteristics for some workloads. Wireless is nice except when it isn't, and then wired networks are awesome.

I'm right with you here. FW for recording is kind of the standard right now. I'm hoping for a Thunderbolt/FW adaptor so my Focusrite interface will work. For now, I'm gonna wait and not upgrade right away.

 

[philipma1957]

Thank you Apple,

For moving technology and the industry forward, by phasing these interfaces that are old, decrepit, and superceded by better standards and technology. It's about time that they go the way of floppy disks, serial ports, P/S2, and a myriad of ancient interconnect standards.

Ethernet was simply designed during a time when mainframe dominated, and when mini-computers size of refrigerators were considered "portable". There is no excuse in continuing to use a port that is designed during Watergate, and has a totally unreasonable size for the function that it performs and the designed bit rate. Its plastic and fragile construction was originally designed for data centers and intranets, very few people today can justify its continued existence.

FW is something that has not been used by normal people in many years. It is mostly a few stubborn people in photo/video production who have a baseless fear of new technology, while clinging to the things that they knew best. Even the iPod and most Apple consumer electronic products have not used it for nearly a decade, that tells how arcane and ineffective this interface really it. It's simply time to upgrade people's drives, peripheral, cameras, etc, and move on from this anachronistic monstrosity.

The ODD itself takes up huge amount of space. Even the media oriented Apple machines like the Mac Mini and Apple TV no long use such outdated forms of media recordings like DVD. Most people today watch shows and films on Netflix and Hulu, places like Blockbuster are dying a slow by certain death. Hopefully these huge space and weight hog in laptops will meet their final demise in all laptops soon, and we will never have to worry about having a disk stuck in the drive and rendering it useless, and having to carry a laptop with +2 lbs just because some people refuse to migrate to the streaming model.

Great job, , it's time to make the switch. Now that these ports have been relegated to legacy status, only being found on old, outdated models of MBPs. Please also phase these out on the iMac and other computers, and not look back.

The cloud will rule ^ once and for all.

While I would love to give you a down vote I won't as you happen to be correct in Apple's thinking.

No money in anything but the cloud.

 

[pat park]

Do you seriously not comprehend how ubiquitous Ethernet is in the workplace and how obscenely expensive it would be for our employers to rip out all those ports to replace with whatever hip, proprietary new thing Apple wants to push?

why would your employer need to rip out every ethernet port in the walls? Just install a wireless router. Problem solved. Or just keep your current MBP. If your office has wifi, well they are kind of behind the times.

No one is putting a gun to your head to upgrade anything.

 

[henry72]

Good luck with your "switch"

Honestly, I think people need to move forward! If you need the old ports and disc drive, get the old model! Personally, I think it's very stupid to get the "High end 15-inch model" for the same price as the Retina MacBook Pro

 

[therealseebs]

I'm right with you here. FW for recording is kind of the standard right now. I'm hoping for a Thunderbolt/FW adaptor so my Focusrite interface will work. For now, I'm gonna wait and not upgrade right away.

Yeah. I just got, within the last month or so, a synth that has a FW interface.

And honestly, if the thunderbolt display weren't !*@#!*# glossy, I'd get one of those and use it as my thunderbolt->firewire, but as is... come ON people.

----------

why would your employer need to rip out every ethernet port in the walls? Just install a wireless router. Problem solved.

Could you point me at a gigabit wireless router?

Heck, could you point me at a wireless router that can handle 100Mbps simultaneously for ten users?

 

[voodoopenguin]

So they have the ethernet adapter listed, but no one has actually gotten one yet, and the FW800 adapter has been "announced".

Which is to say: If, today, I had one of these Macs, I couldn't connect it to either of those.

Which was sort of my point.

Well you wouldn't have one of these Macs today. You would wait for it to ship to you or the stores, along with the adapter.

 

[Xiroteus]

Erm, if Blu-Ray is already this bad on a PC, why would you want one in a Mac?

Not sure how well the newer editions of power dvd work, I have heard nothing good about them, if you have anydvd you can play it much easier, however someone should not have to buy all these extra programs to get something to work.

A few years ago I bought a HD-DVD Blu-ray drive for my desktop, it got to the point that it needed an update to play new blu-rays yet with that update it would not play HD-DVDs and there were no fixes. Anydvd fixed that issue, even so the entire thing was a bit crazy and I figured why not just keep blu-ray to the television, that is the only function blu-rays have for me is media.

Blu-Ray is, quite literally, Hollywood's hope that we all go out and replace our entire DVD collections with more expensive and restricted BR "special collectors' editions", spending even more money just to get these things to work. Believe it or not, Hollywood is pulling the same trick with Ultraviolet.

I hate Ultraviolt, digital copy or forget it. I do like blu-ray and I can find them for good prices, I upgraded a few of my favorites, no way I am buying everything all over again. In some ways I am rethinking my role in owning movies, do I really need to own all these films, to what end and so forth. When I do not care about ownership streaming works fine.

The tech is never worth it since its inception, it's great for PS3 games, it's a horrible storage medium however.

Never bothered using blu-ray as a storage medium, sticking with hard drives.

Laptops don't need optical drives. 99% of the time those ODDs sit unused. That's a lot of precious laptop real estate wasted on something that gets used maybe a few days a year.

I know I need or want one, I use mine a few times a WEEK, I tend to use my computer systems a little different then a lot of people appear to. I have family members that hardly ever use their optical drive unless installing software (which I do for them) or playing Sims.

 

[PlaceofDis]

i gotta say that i have no problem with Ethernet or the Optical drive being phased out. i rarely if ever use either. I'm glad that they've announced a FW to TB adapter because its much needed since TB hard drives are a bit pricey too.

 

[therealseebs]

Well you wouldn't have one of these Macs today. You would wait for it to ship to you or the stores, along with the adapter.

Except the FW adapter doesn't actually exist.

It's possible that the ethernet adapter does -- we can't tell yet, because no one's seen one. But the FW one definitely doesn't.

Maybe next month.

 

[pat park]

Yeah. I just got, within the last month or so, a synth that has a FW interface.

And honestly, if the thunderbolt display weren't !*@#!*# glossy, I'd get one of those and use it as my thunderbolt->firewire, but as is... come ON people.

----------



Could you point me at a gigabit wireless router?

Heck, could you point me at a wireless router that can handle 100Mbps simultaneously for ten users?

yeah, you got me there. Didn't think about that.

 

[therealseebs]

yeah, you got me there. Didn't think about that.

At home, I still use Ethernet for a lot of machines. My Air and mini just sit on the wireless, and so does the work laptop, but the MBP, the server, the gaming desktop, and a bunch of other stuff are all on wired, because even a 100Mbps network runs RINGS around the performance of wireless, especially when everyone's using it.

Heck, I am likely going to move more things to ethernet in the nearish future, because I'm getting really sick of the way that streaming video starts acting up when files are being copied on other machines.