Hey all. As some of you would remember, when the MacBook Pro first shipped, it only had one firewire port, and a later model was slightly redesigned in order to contain a second firewire port. Do you think this has any chance of happening again, with the nVidia MacBook Pros?
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Will there be a repeat with the FireWire?
- Thread starter raymondu999
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The situation is a little different here. Previously they dropped Firewire 800 and had only a Firewire 400 port, which pissed people off because Firewire 800 is faster.
Now, they dropped FW400 and have a FW800 port. This is a complete non-issue. Firewire 800 is 100% backwards-compatible with Firewire 400 - it's the same six pins, plus three more.
Plus, even the models with two Firewire ports still had only a single Firewire bus, with (basically) an internal hub driving the two ports. You will not see a difference in speed between the new MBP with an external hub, and the old MBP's with their internal hub.
Finally - if you look inside the case, there is physically just no more room for any more ports. The CD-drive and hard drive take up all the space on the right side, and the battery and existing ports take up all the space on the left.
I don't know what the story is with the MacBooks - maybe there wasn't any room in those either. That decision seems braindead to me (should have canned Ethernet instead - it's a laptop, after all), but dropping FW400 from the MBP's wasn't.
Now, they dropped FW400 and have a FW800 port. This is a complete non-issue. Firewire 800 is 100% backwards-compatible with Firewire 400 - it's the same six pins, plus three more.
Plus, even the models with two Firewire ports still had only a single Firewire bus, with (basically) an internal hub driving the two ports. You will not see a difference in speed between the new MBP with an external hub, and the old MBP's with their internal hub.
Finally - if you look inside the case, there is physically just no more room for any more ports. The CD-drive and hard drive take up all the space on the right side, and the battery and existing ports take up all the space on the left.
I don't know what the story is with the MacBooks - maybe there wasn't any room in those either. That decision seems braindead to me (should have canned Ethernet instead - it's a laptop, after all), but dropping FW400 from the MBP's wasn't.
Why in the name of all that is holy, would they drop the optical drive? Unless they are making a netbook but even then, is that the market for "500 ports" HAHAHA
This possibility has been the subject of much speculation ever since they came out with the MacBook Air and its external optical drive. Lots of people hate the idea, while others would welcome the move if it meant a lighter laptop.
True, think of the stink kicked up by the removal of the 400 port.. imagine the #@!@$ storm what would ensue upon the removal of the optical drive
God forbid it was done to the "Pro" model ;-)
God forbid it was done to the "Pro" model ;-)
Don't even give Apple such an idea. I kinda understand the dropping of firewire on the lower-end MacBook, but I think that move was a few years ahead of its time. There's no method of even adding one, so anybody with a firewire-only device will either need a new device or not get the MacBook.
I really think Apple needs to refocus on the low-end consumer a bit because not everybody wants to pay top dollar for the best stuff. Some people want the $1,000 laptop with slight compromises, which is why I'm glad they're still making the MB White. I worry that they'll get too greedy and ditch the Mac Mini, which was the first Mac I bought.