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they cant remove the firewire, how will pro manage to plug their pro soundcards (i paid 3k$ for this RME firewire soundcard, i'm not getting another cheap ass usb card just to upgrade my computer, that's ridiculous)

http://www.macstories.net/news/the-thunderbolt-accessories-of-ces-2012/

$299
Belkin%20Thunderbolt%20Hub.jpg
 
NAB 2012 was ALL about Thunderbolt.

Apogee and Universal Audio (Apollo) audio interfaces both have Thunderbolt options. I'm not going to diminish someone's workflow but at some point businesses need to write off purchases and keep moving towards superior solutions.
Yup. It seems that the professional audio and video product manufacturers are embracing thunderbolt fully. Dinosaurs need to move out of the way. Hold onto the train or you wil fall off
 
Big, small and optimal?:confused:

How are they going to do that if they are only going 2x everything. Small is 2x, big is 0x (or vice versa) and then what's optimal since they can't go for 1.5x?
 
I'm sorry, I don't see Retina Displays until Haswell. The power consumption will be too great. Look at the iPad 3's needs-and you're really going to have a MacBook Air-ish device start to run hotter and need twice the battery?

USB 3 is a given with the chipset. Retina is next year. It doesn't make sense from a technological perspective yet. Retina might come with the Macbook Air, assuming they don't merge the lines, later this year.
 
Yup. It seems that the professional audio and video product manufacturers are embracing thunderbolt fully. Dinosaurs need to move out of the way. Hold onto the train or you wil fall off

Audio guys are going to LOVE Thunderbolt. Even Firewire was pretty shaky for audio devices unless you knew you were getting a device with a solid Oxford Semi bridge chip.

I suspect Thunderbolt will be integrated right into the motherboard chips from Intel in about 2-3 years so people may as well start making the transition.
 
Ethernet was introduced in 1980. I'd say half this message-board may be inhabited by people younger than the protocol itself. It's a pretty large leap to say Ethernet makes a device Professional

Yeah, and the Internet Protocol Suite has its basis in the 1970s. Doesn't mean Apple should stop including a TCP stack implementation in OS X.

As for Ethernet, the issue at hand, I don't see the value in making the aluminum MPBs just a few millimeters thinner as being particularly advantageous, particularly if this is the price we pay to do so.
 
I'm sorry, I don't see Retina Displays until Haswell. The power consumption will be too great. Look at the iPad 3's needs-and you're really going to have a MacBook Air-ish device start to run hotter and need twice the battery?

USB 3 is a given with the chipset. Retina is next year. It doesn't make sense from a technological perspective yet. Retina might come with the Macbook Air, assuming they don't merge the lines, later this year.

I think they will introduce Retina in this years MBP generation, but not MBA. It is too thin and, as you said, will get too hot. The MBP could manage the heat, depending on how thin in will be. With the introduction of Retina Apple will attract a lot of buyers to the MBP, spending more on this devices instead of the MBA, even if the MBA "is the future".
 
I'm sorry, I don't see Retina Displays until Haswell. The power consumption will be too great. Look at the iPad 3's needs-and you're really going to have a MacBook Air-ish device start to run hotter and need twice the battery?

USB 3 is a given with the chipset. Retina is next year. It doesn't make sense from a technological perspective yet. Retina might come with the Macbook Air, assuming they don't merge the lines, later this year.

The why would 10.7.4 suddenly put in hiDPI (1024x1024) graphics? Apple doesn't normally add stuff like this a full year before Haswell even ships.

Intel's already marketing that current hardware is preparing us for high resolution screens

https://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/12/intel-looking-toward-retina-display-pcs-by-2013/

So if Intel expects this to go mainstream we know Apple is likely already there.
 
Simple scenario, your WiFi at home stops working, or you call your ISP up for help, first thing they will say or that you will want to do is......... oh yeah plug in your ethernet cable! Which you can do on every machine bar Apple's $2000 plus machine. Unless they include the dongle with every machine, or you buy one.

If your talking about people who use them for work..... that's a whole different ball game.

Hmm... interesting. That may be true, but I'm sure there are troubleshooting solutions that don't require plugging in an ethernet cable. I would argue that most people don't even own an ethernet cable anymore... I think I may still have one laying around somewhere, but it'd probably take me all day to find it. So then your options would be troubleshoot with other methods, or go buy an ethernet cable, and while your at it you can buy the adapter dongle as well.
 

because all corporate networks rely on it, it's standard and the only infrastructure in many usage scenarios, and a speed degrading dongle, or any dongle for that matter is not an acceptable solution for such an important element in a computer. In addition ethernet is not technology that's out or it's going to be out any time soon like the optical drive, and it's technology you cannot obsolete. Networks will always use some cable infrastructure, and a lot of networks will always preserve for security purposes said infrastructure access only. A pro machine has to connect to an ethernet network out of the box, not have you searching for some adapter, that you might have left home, or forgot at the office, or in another bag. Adapters are for much more minor unimportant usages.

Ethernet is not firewire to be superseded by thunderbolt, and it's not optical that's on the way out and for most usage scenarios you can do without, provided you do have it in some system because I 've yet to see a conference handing out usb sticks.

Ethernet should be the very last thing to go from a pro machine, there's no alternative to it, dongles are not a viable solution, and it's a technology that's both a standard in tons of usage scenarios and has both a present and a future.


Apple can be our guest and take it out, it won't be their first stupid decision, nor their last, and it will certainly fit along nicely with making their company less for the pros and more for the consumer along with their poor os x development. Others will keep it and guess who the IT is going to go for. The problem is that apple again, should they do that, will be spitting on a very large number of their user base, the people who's word of mouth they 've depended to sell their machines for a long while, and the people who have paid heavy premiums on hardware to be on the platform because they have had a high opinion of it and its future in the pro space. And I wouldn't blame anyone of them going they can shove their tv up where the sun don't shine, windows run faster on much less demanding hardware, and are currently more robust than os x, I am sick of them not giving a damn about their pro users and paying their 40% margins...here's a nice lenovo or a vaio let me have it thank you very much and good riddance to you.
 
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Hmm... interesting. That may be true, but I'm sure there are troubleshooting solutions that don't require plugging in an ethernet cable. I would argue that most people don't even own an ethernet cable anymore... I think I may still have one laying around somewhere, but it'd probably take me all day to find it. So then your options would be troubleshoot with other methods, or go buy an ethernet cable, and while your at it you can buy the adapter dongle as well.

I have a router with 4 ethernet cables routed to areas of my house.

Now. If Apple comes out with the new WiFi standard I could see a reason to ditch the ethernet.
 
Where are the Thunderbolt offerings?

I'm going to be honest, I use wired ethernet on my laptop only slightly more often than the optical drive. I'm on wireless at work and at home but occasionally, I have to move some multi-gig VM to our file server and I plug in for that. There are also times where there's no wireless.

I have no issue with removing the port or Firewire for that matter to conserve space. Fine. However, what's the point of multiple Thunderbolt ports if there are no devices for it? It's not as if Thunderbolt to ethernet and Firewire isn't doable. It's on the bloody Thunderbolt display.

Hopefully—presuming this is true anyway—if they go this route we'll finally see some Thunderbolt devices. Ethernet over USB (and I don't care that it's USB 3.0 because USB is still USB and the protocol itself is... well... it's not Firewire) sucks. It'll get me by, but...
 
I'm sorry, I don't see Retina Displays until Haswell. The power consumption will be too great. Look at the iPad 3's needs-and you're really going to have a MacBook Air-ish device start to run hotter and need twice the battery?

USB 3 is a given with the chipset. Retina is next year. It doesn't make sense from a technological perspective yet. Retina might come with the Macbook Air, assuming they don't merge the lines, later this year.

Retina is this year.
 
Just couple of objections to the "new" design:

a) Kensington port is too close to SD reader. I'm afraid I won't be able to plug in Kensington and SD card at one time. *conveniently*
b) Where are my Ethernet and FireWire ports? Thunderbolt accessories are too dang expensive and $300 Belkin so-called dock is not the right solution. Ports used to be included with the computer for free...
c) why on earth would they put there 2 Thunderbolts? Daisy chaining is the way to go.
d) Thinner. Yeah, looks awesome at first, but what about heat issues?
e) ports are stuffed to close to each other. it causes me problems with connecting some USB devices as it is now. Change it.

So this is what the new 15" may look like, and it doesn't seem to me like a Pro-grade laptop. I'm very curious about the new 13" though, as I am interested mainly in this model. 13" Pro or equivalent Air. If there won't be any Ethernet or FW800, is doesn't make any difference to me anyways...
 
If there is a retina display on the 15 inch, I'll sell my top of the line 13" MacBook air and get it immediately. I'll toss out my old 17" MacBook pro too to get a higher end version. This would be the best update ever.
 
Just couple of objections to the "new" design:

a) Kensington port is too close to SD reader. I'm afraid I won't be able to plug in Kensington and SD card at one time. *conveniently*
b) Where are my Ethernet and FireWire ports? Thunderbolt accessories are too dang expensive, which leads me to...
c) why on earth would they put there 2 Thunderbolts? Daisy chaining is the way to go.
d) Thinner. Yeah, looks awesome at first, but what about heat issues?
e) ports are stuffed to close to each other. it causes me problems with connecting some USB devices as it is now. Change it.

So this is what the new 15" may look like, and it doesn't seem to me like a Pro-grade laptop. I'm very curious about the new 13" though, as I am interested mainly in this model. 13" Pro or equivalent Air. If there won't be any Ethernet or FW800, is doesn't make any difference to me anyways...


If they do put two TB ports on it I could see why.

Not everybody has a TB capable display but TB is backwards compatible to other displays that can't be daisy chained . This would leave an extra TB port for other devices.
 
That's why there is still an external option. The time to drop internal support for something is just before it becomes obsolete, not after. Otherwise, technology won't move forward, because as long as it is included people won't want to migrate off.



It's more like, just because you use old technology doesn't mean I should have to buy it to get what I do want (e.g. Retina Display, Ivy Bridge, USB 3.0).

Not sure what is wrong with technology that still has a use. All of these dongles and external devices certainly defeat the purpose of having a thinner notebook. Until iTunes sells lossless music in the iTunes store, I will certainly have a use for an ODD. In this case, old technology is clearly better.
 
Ok...gotta vent.

In regards to the "Pro" moniker:
- It's been well established that Apple is now a consumer oriented company. "Pro" is nothing more than a word to justify a more expensive product.

Retina Display:
- I'm tossed on this one. I don't see it going in properly. It may make it into the new MBP, but my worry is battery life will suffer. I just wish they would provide proper resolutions as the default with existing LCD panels.

Apple's biggest asset was Steve Jobs saying no and making seemingly unreasonable demands to push the engineers to make a better product. Without that, I am definitely going to wait and see what happens.
 
Ok...gotta vent.

In regards to the "Pro" moniker:
- It's been well established that Apple is now a consumer oriented company. "Pro" is nothing more than a word to justify a more expensive product.

Retina Display:
- I'm tossed on this one. I don't see it going in properly. It may make it into the new MBP, but my worry is battery life will suffer. I just wish they would provide proper resolutions as the default with existing LCD panels.

Apple's biggest asset was Steve Jobs saying no and making seemingly unreasonable demands to push the engineers to make a better product. Without that, I am definitely going to wait and see what happens.

Um...the ODD is gone...that means more room for bigger batteries and dedicated graphics.

Regarding the Steve Jobs comment...those engineers are still there and do you really think they just said "f' it...Jobs is dead now...now we don't have to push the envelope"

These comments are so stupid.
 
Stop Whining and cough up the cash.

Change happens. Get rid of the ether i don geev a flock... give a tug on the dongle and let er dangle!
 
because all corporate networks rely on it, it's standard and the only infrastructure in many usage scenarios, and a speed degrading dongle, or any dongle for that matter is not an acceptable solution for such an important element in a computer. In addition ethernet is not technology that's out or it's going to be out any time soon like the optical drive, and it's technology you cannot obsolete. Networks will always use some cable infrastructure, and a lot of networks will always preserve for security purposes said infrastructure access only. A pro machine has to connect to an ethernet network out of the box, not have you searching for some adapter, that you might have left home, or forgot at the office, or in another bag. Adapters are for much more minor unimportant usages.

Apple can be our guest and take it out, it won't be their first stupid decision, nor their last, and it will certainly fit along nicely with making their company less for the pros and more for the consumer along with their poor os x development. Others will keep it and guess who the IT is going to go for. The problem is that apple again, should they do that, will be spitting on a very large number of their user base, the people who's word of mouth they 've depended to sell their machines for a long while, and the people who have paid heavy premiums on hardware to be on the platform because they have had a high opinion of it and its future in the pro space. And I wouldn't blame anyone of them going they can shove their tv up where the sun don't shine, windows run faster on much less demanding hardware, and are currently more robust than os x, I am sick of them not giving a damn about their pro users and paying their 40% margins...here's a nice lenovo or a vaio let me have it thank you very much and good riddance to you.

Thunderbolt doesn't speed degrade. Search for benchmarks of the USB/FW/Ethernet ports on a Thunderbolt display and you'll find that they run at full speed.

Companies often spent extra money on docking stations that remained on a desk yet let laptop users remain mobile. I don't see the problem with having the same type of scenario here.

If Sony or Lenovo were doing such a great job they'd be outselling Apple. They aren't so in this case Steve was right when he said "the customer will tell us if we haven't done a good job by not buying our products"

Some of you guys bitch and complain too much. If you don't like it...send a message and don't buy it.
 
Uh, Apple makes a lot more money on PCs than HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, ASUS, and Fujitsu. There is lossless digital content. Plus, there are these things known as external optical drives.

If we left PC design decisions to HP, Dell, Acer, etc. we'd still have parallel ports, VGA ports, floppy drives, and other useless oddities "just in case" someone is still using them. Personally, I HATE taking my Windows work notebook with me because it is so bulky, partly because it includes the optical drive, VGA port, and RJ-11 modem port that I never use.

It's really stunning how obviously a lot of Apple enthusiasts are really the kind of CoolAid drinkers they're often accused to be. Anything that is older than the attention span of the MP3/MacBook-at-Starbucks/ADHD generation obviously is useless and needs to be eliminated for something new and "advanced" (which of course can only come from Apple).

Well, guess what. If you start living in the real world outside of a college dorm - you know, the places where you work for your money and tax revenue is generated - you'll notice that VGA ports for instances are still very necessary. You'll find cables to plug in for you presentation in pretty much every conference room in the world. So for your MacBook you then need an adapter. If you forget it you can then email your PowerPoint presentation to a colleague with a PC laptop that still has such an ancient port. That is if you brought your Ethernet to Applebolt adapter because you don't have access rights to the encrypted corporate network. If by then you still have a job and were able to give your colleague the PPT presentation all your little graphics and pictures are all over the place and won't display at all because the standard PowerPoint isn't quite as advanced as you with all your little "QuickTime" gizmos.

But hey, who wants top be a corporate stiff anyway. So you'll be a photographer or music producer. Ooops. Now we're back to square one where you need a designated FireWire port that unlike USB has designated bandwidth in one direction and doesn't trip over moving a mouse or some data colliding with your external scratch disk.
 
Big, small and optimal?:confused:

How are they going to do that if they are only going 2x everything. Small is 2x, big is 0x (or vice versa) and then what's optimal since they can't go for 1.5x?

There is no need for 2x solution for OS X because market is full of different display resolutions already and applications don't rely on certain pixel size. Cannot be compared to the iOS situation. Text and images can be scaled quite freely but of course web images must be upscaled which will look a bit awful.
 
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