Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Externalnhard drives make up 99% of the drive for progress in external transfer speed duhh. Ugh. Have you been to a store lately? Every portable external brand (wd, seagate, iomega, hp) has discontinued their FireWire and all replaced with 3.0

...And that makes USB 3.0 a standard because of that? I think you're confused as to what standard really means. Like everyone says, it's not everywhere, a few computers have it but that's it. USB 2.0 is the standard and will remain to be, for at least a little longer.
 
As per one posters question; as far as I'm aware you still can't power the higher juiced drives with USB3.0, which is why they're not portable.

Unless they increased the voltage in the line from 5V to something higher (per USB 2.0, which still isn't constant across all manufacturers), its still not gonna happen. Of course, I could be wrong, and USB3.0 could deliver more than 5V--I'm just too lazy to look it up.

My 1TB Quad interface external can't run on USB2.0 alone; the WD Caviar Black inside draws too much power (In excess of 5V).

The one thing I do know, however, is that the current max increases; 500mA->900mA.
 
99%??

every portable external brand?


can you stop pulling figures out of your ass?

you need to stop exaggerating, do you even have ab mbp? i don't see what makes you such a professional about these things. just the fact that you've been to a store before doesn't mean anything.

USB 3.0 and/or light peak as a standardized form of data transfer is imminent yes, so what is it that you're asking? Should you buy a USB 3.0 portable hdd for 25% more? Sure why not, what does that equate to like twenty bucks?

just to continue on your path of ridiculous statistics, since you asked the likelihood of seeing it this week i would say that there's about a 98% chance of it releasing wednesday. However don't forget that I have never worked for Apple nor do I know any inside information. I'm just a regular random person who claims to know everything /sarcasm

Yes. I stand by my position. Did you look through the CURRENT product lines Seagate, Iomega, Western Digital, or even the second-tier (verbatim, toshiba, HP) product lines? ALL of them have replaced the last of the firewire800 drives in their line with USB 3.0.

- USB 3.0 is here. Lightpeak is not. FACT

- MOST people use an external drive for backup. FACT

- Almost all external transfer users would benefit more from a USB 3.0 deployment than ANY other type of peripheral. USB 3.0 isn't going to do much for a scanner, or a mouse, but it's the hard drives, flash drives, mp3 players, and video cameras which make up almost the entire USB accessory market that will benefit. FACT

- LightPeak drives are not available at any retailer today. It's safe to say that in the next 1 year it will not be a household item. FACT

- USB 3.0 is on 46 models of hard drives presently sold at Best Buy. All 1TB portable USB drives released in the last 2 weeks at BestBuy have USB 3.0. No 1TB portable usb drives presently on-sale at bestbuy have firewire800.

I realize that some people have a natural tendency to attack anything that's not Apple, and come up with excuses as to why Apple does what they do. People did it when other companies started adopting 802.11n and Apple didn't. The fact of the matter is Apple doesn't want to make the wrong choice, so they take the conservative approach on new technologies. The difference this time is 3.0 is a standard, and as of today and the foreseeable future (say 6 months so the nerds don't attack me saying in 8 months light peak will be available). Why would Apple continue with Firewire (none of the 2010\2011 drive manufacturers are making FW800 portable drives) when the evolution is 3.0? People often say "you have to compare 'apples' to apples" when making accusations that Apple has lost it's value in the market, and to ME (wow, I can have an opinion), not having the current standard in external peripheral attachment is detrimental, and regardless of the computer's name, drops the "Pro" piece out of the name. Apple didn't jump on the eSATA bandwagon, which is understandable, but 3.0 is here and every other manufacturer at least gives the option to add it. Doesn't have to be adopted as standard, but at least give me the OPTION to add it on... it's not unreasonable when 100% of the top 4 drive manufacturers ONLY offer their latest product in USB2 or USB3...

Sorry if my previous posts inspired certain people to make personal attacks... but like many times int he past, people defend apple's behind-the-curve approach to certain decisions like adding a new technology. I am the consumer. I buy every revision of MBP that comes around (yeah, literally 2-3 a year), so I can say all this with experience.... Hopefully tomorrow we'll see at least something addressing it... because I want a portable 1TB drive, and right now there is nothing on the market that my MAC is compatible with (yeah, I said that, cause I can buy an HP that'll work with a WD 3.0 drive, a
Dell that'll work with a seagate 3.0 drive, and a asus that'll work with a Iomega drive)... I just can't even add the option on my $3000 MBP to be able to use anything but the 480 mbps on the 8 year USB2 technology.

Bummer.... you all can attack my opinions all you want, but if you had the option tomorrow of going from 480mbps\800mbps to 5000mbps (yeah I know it's exaggerated, but 4-10x the speed of usb2 and 2-4x the speed of FW800, you'd jump on it in a second. Rather than 2 hours to restore your mac's time capsule it'd take 20 minutes. You'd be jumping on board so quick.. but you resist it because you let Apple tell you what you want to buy rather than telling Apple what they need to do to make a machine perfect. THINK DIFFERENT seems to be a statement apple uses to allow them to do their own thing. They hit the bullseye on iPad and iPhone... but there's not a huge adoption rate anymore in their laptop category, and it's because they've stopped innovating in the category. Hopefully they'll jump onto USB3 quick in their "Pro" models at least.... That's all...
 
What you keep forgetting is that most COMPUTERS don't have USB 3.0. It doesn't matter are the external 2.0 or 3.0 because most computers sold, even today, come with USB 2.0 because Intel nor AMD have adopted USB 3.0 to their chipsets. When USB 3.0 is integrated into the chipsets, like USB 2.0 is now, then USB 3.0 will be a standard because most computers that are being sold will have it.

Yes, there are PCs with USB 3.0 but they use a discrete USB 3.0 chip. That means only selected models have it and they are often premium models. Obviously, Apple didn't want to go this route.

Ext HD manufacturers are just making their products future-proof and since USB 3.0 is backwards compatible, you can buy one and use it with your computer that has USB 2.0 and when you eventually buy a computer with USB 3.0, you can take the full advantage of the drive.
 
Yes, there are PCs with USB 3.0 but they use a discrete USB 3.0 chip. That means only selected models have it and they are often premium models. Obviously, Apple didn't want to go this route.

The Macbook Pro isn't a premium model? Learn something new everyday.
 
The Macbook Pro isn't a premium model? Learn something new everyday.

Yeah apparently it's just a marketing name "pro" because the features of 50% of the line (air and 13" models) aren't very premium
 
I didn't say that it is not.

Apologies. After looking back at the thread, you actually agree that the new Pro should have USB 3.0 to embrace the possibility of it being the standard.

I think the 3 of us all agree....
 
Yes. I stand by my position. Did you look through the CURRENT product lines Seagate, Iomega, Western Digital, or even the second-tier (verbatim, toshiba, HP) product lines? ALL of them have replaced the last of the firewire800 drives in their line with USB 3.0.

- USB 3.0 is here. Lightpeak is not. FACT

- MOST people use an external drive for backup. FACT

- Almost all external transfer users would benefit more from a USB 3.0 deployment than ANY other type of peripheral. USB 3.0 isn't going to do much for a scanner, or a mouse, but it's the hard drives, flash drives, mp3 players, and video cameras which make up almost the entire USB accessory market that will benefit. FACT

- LightPeak drives are not available at any retailer today. It's safe to say that in the next 1 year it will not be a household item. FACT

- USB 3.0 is on 46 models of hard drives presently sold at Best Buy. All 1TB portable USB drives released in the last 2 weeks at BestBuy have USB 3.0. No 1TB portable usb drives presently on-sale at bestbuy have firewire800.

I realize that some people have a natural tendency to attack anything that's not Apple, and come up with excuses as to why Apple does what they do. People did it when other companies started adopting 802.11n and Apple didn't. The fact of the matter is Apple doesn't want to make the wrong choice, so they take the conservative approach on new technologies. The difference this time is 3.0 is a standard, and as of today and the foreseeable future (say 6 months so the nerds don't attack me saying in 8 months light peak will be available). Why would Apple continue with Firewire (none of the 2010\2011 drive manufacturers are making FW800 portable drives) when the evolution is 3.0? People often say "you have to compare 'apples' to apples" when making accusations that Apple has lost it's value in the market, and to ME (wow, I can have an opinion), not having the current standard in external peripheral attachment is detrimental, and regardless of the computer's name, drops the "Pro" piece out of the name. Apple didn't jump on the eSATA bandwagon, which is understandable, but 3.0 is here and every other manufacturer at least gives the option to add it. Doesn't have to be adopted as standard, but at least give me the OPTION to add it on... it's not unreasonable when 100% of the top 4 drive manufacturers ONLY offer their latest product in USB2 or USB3...

Sorry if my previous posts inspired certain people to make personal attacks... but like many times int he past, people defend apple's behind-the-curve approach to certain decisions like adding a new technology. I am the consumer. I buy every revision of MBP that comes around (yeah, literally 2-3 a year), so I can say all this with experience.... Hopefully tomorrow we'll see at least something addressing it... because I want a portable 1TB drive, and right now there is nothing on the market that my MAC is compatible with (yeah, I said that, cause I can buy an HP that'll work with a WD 3.0 drive, a
Dell that'll work with a seagate 3.0 drive, and a asus that'll work with a Iomega drive)... I just can't even add the option on my $3000 MBP to be able to use anything but the 480 mbps on the 8 year USB2 technology.

Bummer.... you all can attack my opinions all you want, but if you had the option tomorrow of going from 480mbps\800mbps to 5000mbps (yeah I know it's exaggerated, but 4-10x the speed of usb2 and 2-4x the speed of FW800, you'd jump on it in a second. Rather than 2 hours to restore your mac's time capsule it'd take 20 minutes. You'd be jumping on board so quick.. but you resist it because you let Apple tell you what you want to buy rather than telling Apple what they need to do to make a machine perfect. THINK DIFFERENT seems to be a statement apple uses to allow them to do their own thing. They hit the bullseye on iPad and iPhone... but there's not a huge adoption rate anymore in their laptop category, and it's because they've stopped innovating in the category. Hopefully they'll jump onto USB3 quick in their "Pro" models at least.... That's all...

sucks you took the time to write all that because i won't be reading it. the first two lines were bad enough.

just so you know, obviously apple will have usb 3.0 it's just a matter of when. btw, you're so cool cause you buy every macbook revision.
 
So I want to buy a new external hard drive that's portable and fast. The Firewire800 drives that don't require power only go up to about 640GB, and ideally I want a 1TB...

Going to BestBuy and shopping online, Firewire seems to officially be dead now (unofficially it's the 5th year of it's death, lol).... and USB 3.0 is all the rage... there seems to be about a 25% surcharge on the 3.0 drives.

My hopes are that this week Apple's media event will launch new macbook pro speed bumps and\or new features... and my question is this... Since "Pro" usually means high (or at least high-er) end, Apple shouldn't bring another computer to market WITHOUT USB 3.0 or am I not safe to assume that?

I know it's been discussed, but trying to decide if I should save the 25%, or just bite the bullet and go for the 3.0... course if I get the 3.0 and the refresh on wednesday doesn't include 3.0 then I'll basically have wasted $$$

Lol what? I have a 2TB Firewire800 and can switch to FireWire1600 or USB3 interface. Seagate Go Flex is awesome!.

SECONDLY, LEARN ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND APPLE MACBOOK.

THE ISSUE IS INTEL 5 SERIES DOES NOT SUPPORT USB 3.

INTEL 6 SERIES DOES. IT IS COMING OUT NEXT YEAR.


NOW STOP WHINNING LIKE KIDS! I'm SICK of these people in the forum all they do is WHINE!

I am bashing whoever whine about the same over. BECAUSE it is OVERFLOWING THE FORUMS WITH CRAP like YOU!

SRY BEING RUDE THIS NEED TO REMEDY!

My CAP LOCK Key is smashed up as I type.
 
sucks you took the time to write all that because i won't be reading it. the first two lines were bad enough.

just so you know, obviously apple will have usb 3.0 it's just a matter of when. btw, you're so cool cause you buy every macbook revision.

Haha you say you don't read it yet you address point showing you read it haha.
 
Lol what? I have a 2TB Firewire800 and can switch to FireWire1600 or USB3 interface. Seagate Go Flex is awesome!.

SECONDLY, LEARN ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND APPLE MACBOOK.

THE ISSUE IS INTEL 5 SERIES DOES NOT SUPPORT USB 3.

INTEL 6 SERIES DOES. IT IS COMING OUT NEXT YEAR.


NOW STOP WHINNING LIKE KIDS! I'm SICK of these people in the forum all they do is WHINE!

I am bashing whoever whine about the same over. BECAUSE it is OVERFLOWING THE FORUMS WITH CRAP like YOU!

SRY BEING RUDE THIS NEED TO REMEDY!

Heaven forbid a consumer express opinions. I wouldn't want to put apple out by requesting a feature or expressing my opinion on an opinion board. If you dont like compliments or complaints maybe you should take your browser over to a different website because a forum like this is for help, tips, tricks, and yes RANTS and RAVES!
 
Sorry I got to burst out something sometime. Like a timing bomb. You can simply ignore anything you want. =P
 
Sorry I got to burst out something sometime. Like a timing bomb. You can simply ignore anything you want. =P

You're welcome to whine, yell or shout or all of the above :)

I respect all opinions as this is an open message board.. I'm not sure why people feel the need to put down anything that's progress as stupid. I think wanting blu ray is stupid because it benefits very few, but I don't go to peoples threads and call them names. USB 3 is a great new technology many are adopting and I believe apple should too. :)
 
I second the call for USB 3. An add-on chip is 2-4 USD depending on whether
it´s VIA or NEC. Who cares? Apple has put in FW controllers for years so where is the problem if they really wanted to do something for consumers?

The Mac updates this year have been a joke for the most part.
 
I second the call for USB 3. An add-on chip is 2-4 USD depending on whether
it´s VIA or NEC. Who cares? Apple has put in FW controllers for years so where is the problem if they really wanted to do something for consumers?

The Mac updates this year have been a joke for the most part.

You need to write drivers and redesign the logic board. Maybe Apple thinks it's not worth it to invest money on that while they can wait little longer for native USB 3.0 support from Intel
 
Certainly Apple could add USB 3.0 if they wanted to. Apparently they don't feel the pressure. Most customers are satisfied with the status quo, judging by the booming sales figures.
 
You need to write drivers and redesign the logic board. Maybe Apple thinks it's not worth it to invest money on that while they can wait little longer for native USB 3.0 support from Intel

Judging at how long it has taken Apple to write decent drivers for a VERY limited set of GPUs and how everyone blamed the NV and ATI you are probably right.

Well, one more year to wait then *argh*
 
Just because USB3 came to market first doesn't mean we should adopt it as a standard. If something better is only a year or two away, it is worth waiting for.

Your choice:
2010 laptops with usb3 ports
2011 laptops with lp ports
Market full of usb3 port devices, then a switch to lp

2010 laptops with usb2
2011 laptops with lp
Market full of lp port devices with no switch
 
I would like this explained as well....

I keep reading these boards and everyone says you need Sandy Bridge, but clearly other companies are doing it without it....

Every laptop has a CPU and a chipset (additional one or more chips that connect CPU to periferal devices). Available chip sets from Intel do not have support for USB 3.0. To have USB 3.0 in a computer, manufacturer has to add extra chip. It costs probably about $5. That's $5 from Apple profits and Apple can not afford it.


Just because USB3 came to market first doesn't mean we should adopt it as a standard. If something better is only a year or two away, it is worth waiting for.

Your choice:
2010 laptops with usb3 ports
2011 laptops with lp ports
Market full of usb3 port devices, then a switch to lp

2010 laptops with usb2
2011 laptops with lp
Market full of lp port devices with no switch


Clearly, for those buying laptops now the best option is to have USB 3.0. It's backward compatible with USB 2.0 (and I believe some of the ports on those laptops are actually USB 2.0) so there is absolutely no downside to buying USB 3.0 equipped laptop.
 
please use more cap's as i don't think your message is getting across :rolleyes:

its a valid question to ask what is becoming an industry standard and why apple continues to give it the finger (Blu-Ray anyone?)

Lol what? I have a 2TB Firewire800 and can switch to FireWire1600 or USB3 interface. Seagate Go Flex is awesome!.

SECONDLY, LEARN ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND APPLE MACBOOK.

THE ISSUE IS INTEL 5 SERIES DOES NOT SUPPORT USB 3.

INTEL 6 SERIES DOES. IT IS COMING OUT NEXT YEAR.


NOW STOP WHINNING LIKE KIDS! I'm SICK of these people in the forum all they do is WHINE!

I am bashing whoever whine about the same over. BECAUSE it is OVERFLOWING THE FORUMS WITH CRAP like YOU!

SRY BEING RUDE THIS NEED TO REMEDY!

My CAP LOCK Key is smashed up as I type.
 
Lol what? I have a 2TB Firewire800 and can switch to FireWire1600 or USB3 interface. Seagate Go Flex is awesome!.

SECONDLY, LEARN ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND APPLE MACBOOK.

THE ISSUE IS INTEL 5 SERIES DOES NOT SUPPORT USB 3.

INTEL 6 SERIES DOES. IT IS COMING OUT NEXT YEAR.


NOW STOP WHINNING LIKE KIDS! I'm SICK of these people in the forum all they do is WHINE!

I am bashing whoever whine about the same over. BECAUSE it is OVERFLOWING THE FORUMS WITH CRAP like YOU!

SRY BEING RUDE THIS NEED TO REMEDY!

My CAP LOCK Key is smashed up as I type.

Learn a little about technology yourself. HP and Dell are using the same chip sets from Intel as Apple does yet they have USB 3.0. If Intel chip set does not support USB 3.0 it does not mean that laptop using this chipset can not support USB 3.0. Apple just need to use extra controller chip from NEC or other provider and the price of this chip according to this article is about $2.
 
Learn a little about technology yourself. HP and Dell are using the same chip sets from Intel as Apple does yet they have USB 3.0. If Intel chip set does not support USB 3.0 it does not mean that laptop using this chipset can not support USB 3.0. Apple just need to use extra controller chip from NEC or other provider and the price of this chip according to this article is about $2.

He just repeats what he hears from other misinformed people. The only thing worse than someone spouting crap when they don't know what they're talking about is someone who spouts the crap they overheard from another person who doesn't know what they're talking about :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.