....how did that make any sense in relation to what you quoted?
Also, if im not mistaken theres a less expensive macbook you can get...(still not "cheap" but its got FW)
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Will APPLE EVER give up on screwing PRO user (no firewire) read in.
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....how did that make any sense in relation to what you quoted?
Also, if im not mistaken theres a less expensive macbook you can get...(still not "cheap" but its got FW)
I am bummed that Linux lacks the commercial applications required to avoid Apple's pathetic hardware.
... alright?
Dude, go buy that Acer that everyone makes reference to. You know that's what you want.
You could probably get a pretty decent Acer for under a grand with all the fixin's.
No jokes dude but do you have a problem with referring to the Intel GPU as the "X3100"? You keep writing X300 and now X3 series and time after time the forum members keep informing you that you are referring to it wrong. At this point we don't know if you mean something else or if you're just dyslexic.
Questions for those in the market for new laptops:
Is FW a "damn I would have gotten it if not for the lack of FW" or is it a "Well it would have been nice to have FW" to you?
Also, if you bought something else because of it plz post what you bought.
cheers.
Is FW a "damn I would have gotten it if not for the lack of FW" or is it a "Well it would have been nice to have FW" to you?
Also, if you bought something else because of it plz post what you bought.
cheers.
Bought a new unibody macbook. I'm quite pissed that it doesn't have firewire but it wasn't a deal breaker for me. I think few laptops come close to the macbook and I love the software. I was in the market for a new audio interface, I would probably have gotten something firewire but my brother just upgraded his studio so he's selling me his old usb system for a ridiculous price. That settles that, I don't own anything firewire. And I want a small laptop, 13" is a better size for me.
So I guess I fall in the ''well it would have been nice to have FW'' class. Mind you, I think FW is a very usefull interface. It's not like a floppy vs other media case. In usb vs firewire, both are quite different and both capable. Floppy doesn't hold as much info as others, end of, it's pretty much the only thing that counts when comparing storage devices... also pricier, bigger, more prone to failing. But usb and firewire can both do most jobs equally well. Mind you, FW can have a higher bandwidth for sustained amounts of times and can possibly be faster. USB is cheaper and smaller to implement in things like thumb drive. But the thing is, FW is not on the way out (well not before apple removed it from the MB). Companies are still developing for FW and it's still the an industry. Not like floppy that was evidently on the way out.
I don't get it most people in this forum don't admit that it's not a good idea from a customers point of view to remove FW. It would cost something like 0.50$ to apple to implement it on the laptop. So essentially, apple intentionally removes it form their laptop to drive more people to the MBP even if they don't need a faster computer or a larger screen.
Sure, the new macbook will still be successful because of the hype around the platform and they know they have a better product than all the other companies and most users probably don't even know what FW is. Mind you, if they removed it because it's simply useless to the majority of users and just ugly, they would have done the same thing with the kensigton lock, seriously, who uses that anyways ? Clearly the reason why it was removed is to drive consumers to other more expensive alternatives, sure they can do that it's their company but, as users, we can still be mad knowing that we bought a piece of hardware that isn't fully capable, simply so they could drive a couple of users to the MBP so they could make more profit.
I guess if they put it back in, they would have to find another to screw us as the macbook would simply become a small macbook pro and apple wouldn't want that
. Secondly, I don't get it why people on this forum thing it's great from apple to be priced so much higher. What's with those car comparison ? Dude, it's not a ferrari vs a honda, it's essentially the same components as other computer but actually engineered to work properly and look nice, and that engineering doesn't cost apple tons, think about it, they only make a few computers and change the design only after a couple of years. I think the price on the macbook is okay as it is right now... just if it had firewire and was a true fully capable computer, not a victim of apple's sucky policies and cut throat marketing plan.
Right. It's one thing to taketh away from the pro user, I mean, why else have a GMA that benchmarks at 170% with leopard that you can't play games on anyway and re-release the X3 series bringing the benchmarks to 70%. The only people it hurt were the 1% pro's that used the machine for motion as reported on many websites.
This time around though, by removing firewire since the GPU is much stronger and well enough for motion, let alone PRO products, the people hurt this time are the thousands upon thousands of musicians who have firewire interfaces (it simply is a better solution than USB) and the mom and pop iMovie users. Many more are hurt by this move than the previous one of releasing the X3 graphic chipset.
Again, any pro worth his salt, plus musician that starts to make it, buys high end as well and uses the low end as a travel, backup machine.
ALSO, for what its worth, I was in best buy yesterday and saw a lot of laptops for a decent price that were 10", loaded and very light.
To right the wrongs by this move, Apple has to release a $1399 (although it will be $1499, probably $1799), 13" macbook pro.
What the hell does the second sentence even mean? I have no idea what benchmarks you're referring to. By all benchmarks that I've seen, the X3100 is a better GPU than the GMA950 that it replaces. If that's not the case, I'd be interested to see benchmarks showing where it's deficient.
1) The X3100 can (to my knowledge) run Motion. Not as well as a dedicated GPU, but then again if you're really serious about video compositing, you wouldn't get _any_ integrated GPU.
2) Again, it's the X3100 -- last I checked, the X3 was a BMW.
And any computer user worth their salt checks the damn specs of the machine before purchasing. If you're dependent on FireWire on the road, you get a laptop that has it... like the white MacBook.
Right. So since we're no longer comparing equivalently spec'd machines, I'd like to point out that the Asus Eee is about 1/5 the cost of the MacBook. Clearly Apple is teh sux.
They could indeed take the suggestions of every forum user who writes an angry post. Or, alternatively, they could continue making the product line planned by the same engineering team that has consistently increased their market share for the last 8+ years.
Yes, its inconvenient that the MacBook removed Firewire. I don't think it's necessarily a greed issue (as the folks who want a MacBook are rarely in the market for a computer in the same price range as the MBP), but rather (as pointed out above) an issue of space. The new case design likely required that some things be cut (my guess is due to the need for better cooling), and thus Firewire, a feature used by a rather small percentage of the consumer market, got the axe. The MacBook isn't targeted at pros. It's not designed with pros in mind. Pros are free to purchase it, but turning around and then bitching that it doesn't meet one's professional needs is... well... silly.
Okay I haven't had time to reply here. And its absolutely not worth it to go through and reply to certain things, like asking me to search down a person I haven't spoken to in more than a year and a half because they moved across the country and stopped talking to everyone on this coast and ask them what kind of camera they had.
http://www.edibleapple.com/steve-jobs-email-response-re-lack-of-firewire-on-macbooks/
That sums it up.
We all know of the other post in this forum talking about Jobs response posted there.
But that article has an even better point. at that time it was posted only ONE camera on Amazon's top 10 sellers SUPPORTED (not required) firewire. The rest were only USB 2.0.
And Jobs himself has said the same thing that other sensible people here have been saying all along, that video cameras over the past FEW years (few means more than two) have been USB 2.0.
End of argument. Firewire is irrelevant, camcorders from the last few years have been USB 2.0 according to the man himself, and people themselves are buying USB 2.0 cameras. This ends all debate regarding this and other ridiculous statements such as those from people trying to say USB 2.0 only works for still images (stupidest comment of the year award goes to that one).
http://www.edibleapple.com/steve-jobs-email-response-re-lack-of-firewire-on-macbooks/
That sums it up.
We all know of the other post in this forum talking about Jobs response posted there.
But that article has an even better point. at that time it was posted only ONE camera on Amazon's top 10 sellers SUPPORTED (not required) firewire. The rest were only USB 2.0.
And Jobs himself has said the same thing that other sensible people here have been saying all along, that video cameras over the past FEW years (few means more than two) have been USB 2.0.
End of argument. Firewire is irrelevant, camcorders from the last few years have been USB 2.0 according to the man himself, and people themselves are buying USB 2.0 cameras. This ends all debate regarding this and other ridiculous statements such as those from people trying to say USB 2.0 only works for still images (stupidest comment of the year award goes to that one).
You probably should have read the thread, actually...
"USB 2.0 won the connectivity battle for the lower-end of the market" Why settle with the lower end? The macbook is much more than a low-end product and is certainly capable of doing more than low-end editing.
Amen with regard to the camera subject. Why is that so hard to accept? This is the way that consumer cameras are going...and big revelation here...that is exactly the market that Apple is selling to with the MB
Now audio recording may be a different issue but for cameras its clear.
I'm sympathetic (no really i am ) that Apple did not make a 13" MacBook Pro for those of you that needed something smaller with FW, but I am guessing its because they could not find a place in the lineup for it price-wise or could not simply justify the project on sales forecasts
The MacBook isn't a low-end product?
Okay I like my aluminum MacBook. The casing and screen are "high end", but thats it besides the price tag. You can't call it high end considering it only has a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, only has integrated graphics, only has a 13.3" screen, only has 2GB of RAM, and only ships with a 160GB HDD while not having other standard features such as eSATA, HDMI, memory card readers, etc.
The MacBook is more low-end than an $800 HP at Best Buy.
Also, in a real world situation with quality USB 2.0 controllers, theres no speed difference between Firewire 400 and USB 2.0. The average transfer speeds are the same.
Not only that, but most external HDDs don't even write data as fast as USB 2.0 or Firewire can transfer. So.....
If either the MacBook or MacBook Pro were high end, they'd skip Firewire entirely and go for eSATA, as many notebook PCs do now. Firewire is mostly a legacy interface now. Theres no point. Theres too few Firewire 800 devices, Firewire 400 is irrelevant, and eSATA is here now and is faster than both of those and USB 2, and USB 3 is just around the corner.
As it is, USB 2.0 is anything but "low end". That might have been true with Apple's previous MacBooks and MBPs because they used low quality USB controllers which resulted in lower speeds. But go check out benchmarks of the new revisions and you'll see speed has increased significantly.
Well, M-Audio and E-MU have always made USB versions of their products or USB only products. So its really not an issue either...
Really it isn't worth arguing this. All these new Apple fans refuse to acknowledge the company's faults. The revisionism displayed in this thread is stunning.
I had really hoped that the macbooks would be a replacement for the 12 inch pro. Yes, I realize it isn't a pro line, but 15 inches is too large to be practical for many people.
I had really hoped that the macbooks would be a replacement for the 12 inch pro. Yes, I realize it isn't a pro line, but 15 inches is too large to be practical for many people.
Not to mention the fact that they now only have glossy screens. They have no right putting "Pro" at the end of that computer's name any longer. I still propose "MacBook Yuppie".
Definitely a "Damn I would have gotten it" thing for me. Ok, the crappy viewing angles on the Macbook was just as big an issue to me. Planning to go for the MBP now. What bugs me is that while the 15" screen's higher resolution is nice, I don't care for the larger size, weight and price. I don't need the better graphics card either because I don't plan to play games on the Mac. Got a fine desktop PC for that.
For anyone who deals with music recording, FireWire is anything but irrelevant. Pretty much all better audio interfaces are FireWire or PCI.
Where can you get a 17" Asus notebook with better specs than a 17" MacBook Pro for under $950? Or did you just make up numbers to support your point?
I'd be more sympathetic to the firewire and matte screen issue if it weren't for the fact that Steve Jobs, in no uncertain terms, has stated firewire is gone for good on the consumer Macbook and that going forth every screen is gonna be glossy. Was it the right thing to do? We could argue that until we're all blue in the face. But it isn't going to change anytime soon.
Bottom line is that MiniDV tape based camcorders transfer video from a camcorder to the computer via FW. Period. They cannot do this via USB not matter how much you wish it was so.
This person's camcorder, if MiniDV tape based, also had flash memory which allowed the user to record short videos and pictures to flash memory. This flash memory is what showed up on the computer, and allowed you to transfer video files and pictures.
I hope that this makes sense.
Just took at Amazon's top 10 list. None are MiniDV tape based.
All are flash, HHD, or DVD based. So of course they can use USB to transfer video files because these devices do not use a MiniDV tape to store the video.
FWIW, the HD ones (flash or HDD based) that I looked at had FW. Seems like FW is still here.
Just because you say it, doesn't mean that it's true.
In case you haven't read other posts in the forum, FW is used for many other features besides video transfer from camcorders.
You're trying to tell me that a MiniDV camera that would now be approaching FOUR years old had enough FLASH memory to store more than an hours worth of DVD quality video? Video that was several gigabytes in size (Hey just like MiniDV!) and took some time to pull off the camera?
And how many of those were FW exclusive?
External HDDs are just as fast on USB 2.0, eSATA is becoming the standard, which is faster than any current Firewire standard being used.
And E-MU and M-Audio both make USB versions of everything.
Plus the MacBook has bit perfect digital audio input anyway.
Besides, if you're a musician, why are you using a MacBook? You're better off with a cheaper PC built around exactly what it is you want to do. For less than the cost of an aluminum MacBook you can build a PC that would mop the floor with the Mac Pro so theres no point in even complaining about the MacBook's lack of Firewire thanks to physical size.
One of the prime sector of mac users are in the music bizz. Software is pretty much equally developed for mac and pc, usually perceived as better on mac.
Why use a macbook if you're a musician? Well most travel quite a bit, don't usually record only at home (easier to move a laptop, an interface and a mic than it is to move your guitarist's halfstack and guitar) and a growing number use a computer on stage. And most don't have a budget to have both a laptop and a tower pc. Secondly, the macbook is a plenty capable of handling quite large recordings without squinting the least.
Now, sure most USB audio interface do a good job. But all of the higher end stuff is FW. Mind you, I must admit, most USB interface do a good enough job for the average musician. But many already own FW equipment and isn't cheap to replace and many would probably like to forgo the limits of what is offered in USB, more inputs, more choice, better pre-amps, better digital conversion...
As for using the integrated input, it doesn't have a pre-amp. So the input must be digitally amplified witch amplifies the noise. Making say guitars recordable, to all practical extent (must be amplified so much that the signal contains more noise than the original guitar sound). Impossible to use a condenser mic directly as they need external power to be usable. Can't interface with midi, the list goes on...
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