We’re all aware that FireWire’s on the way out – at least on the consumer Macs. Seems a shame – we like Target FireWire Disk, we use video cameras, but here’s a chance to watch Jobs introduce FireWire in 1999 at the January Mac event.
"What is FireWire? Think of FireWire as USB, but rather than running at 12 megabits-per-second it’s running at 400 megabits-per-second," said Jobs then. "And it’s already an established industry standard," he added.
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RIP.
Today, firewire is way too slow (or too expensive in the case of FW800) to connect external HDD. They should have included combo-USB/eSATA ports on the MBP..
“firewire is way too slow”
Ignorant nonsense.
You mean the ~50MB/s speed is slow – where USB HDDs also working at? Because it’s the same as FW except USB ones have lower peak period.
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(or too expensive in the case of FW800) to connect external HDD.
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FW800 expensive? Same cable, pal.
Another nonsense. There’s no single disk that could warrant a 100MB/s interface.
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“They should have included combo-USB/eSATA ports on the MBP..”
Even bigger idiocy: eSATA was DOA, more than anything else ever been introduced.
I like USB but now how the fuck am I supposed to capture from my HDV cam? Over USB that doesn’t exist on any better camera, only available on home-user AVCHD jokes?
What a retarded decision from Apple, indeed.
Looking at that video made me realise what an enormous growth computers have gone trhough in the past 9 years. It’s only been 9 years!!!
My bets are on a hologram-screen-projector in 2017!
…realize…
…realise…
The proper spelling of the word is “realise”. “Realize” is the alternative American spelling for a lazy culture who rarely spells anything properly.
o rly?
“REALIZE”
“The proper spelling of the word is “realise”. “Realize” is the alternative American spelling for a lazy culture who rarely spells anything properly.”
Stop spreadeing your uneducated utter BS – it’s enough only to take a look at BBC and you’ll realiZe you’re in dire need to finish that high-school…
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?tab=ns&q=realize&order=relevance&uri=%2F&go=toolbar&scope=all
I love these comments… pride in your home is fine, but this is just ignorant. You do know where we Americans learned English, don’t you? Check the OED, please. The two variants have existed side-by-side since their first appearance circa 1611–in England. Our spellings are just as old and valid as yours. Why do people even fight about this?
I do speak and write British English, but this is far from idiocracy. The actual greek root is IZO (iota, zeta, omicron). To be more etymologically correct, one should spell realize, with Z. This standard spelling is recognised by both Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries, and this form is used in international publications, outside the UK.
The british variant, ISE, is due to the normand french invasions, which made english a latin lexicon language, and borrowed from it this frech-like forms: organise, realise, emphasise, etc.
Yet, this is not the same as the greek YSE (upsilon, sigma, epsilon), for words like “analyse”, “catalyse”, etc. This one is the classical etymological root. The difference is that in American English, Z is standard for all those variants. In BrE, one must use YSE, and opt for ISE or IZE.
The other differences (oe, ae, -re, ou, etc.) remain untouched.
Finally someone has provided thorough and accurate information. Settled.
Yeah, it’s much less work to spell realize with a ‘z’ than with an ‘s’. Stupid lazy Americans.
By leaving out firewire, Apple has made a major turn in consumer products orientation. It was them who made home video editing a trend, by using firewire and iMovie + iDVD almost 5 years berofe any similar consumer-oriented solution appeared. And now they are dropping it.
Either they have come up with something better, or they are simply telling us “go buy a 2K$ Pro if you want to edit home videos”, which is at least kinda annoying…
Everyone has become a “professional photographer” in the last few years. Blogging about one’s cats is serious business. Jobs and Co. realise this and are catering to the herd’s new found love of over saturated photos and glossy computers.
The masses care not for firewire. The masses care very little for functionality. If user comments on the other tech blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget are any indicator, most people are more concerned with throwing away their one year old Macbook so they can have a new shiny one. The difference in performance is negligible between last year’s and this week’s Macbook. But that is not stopping people from going gangbusters for what can only be seen as a marginal technical update.
Steve Jobs once said, during his absence from Apple, that if Apple was his company he’d milk the Mac (a horrible computer at the time) for all it was worth and get on to the next big thing. It seems as though he is doing that now, except he is milking numerous Apple user’s obsession with pretty technology that they’re willing to pay a premium for.
You are right, why should someone buy a new MackBook just because the graphic performance is 5 times faster, includes DDR3 Ram and a faster bus?
And that stupid LED screen. What’s the point on that?
I am a photographer myself and use Capture Pro to “instantly” transfer pictures to my MacBook as I am shooting them (via USB) and believe me, the difference between the 2 laptops are ENORMOUS.
I do agree though that the dropping of Firewire support on the MacBooks is ridiculous. Not for connecting devices (there are several FW to USB hubs available) but for the Target disk mode.
And this feature should not be a professional privilege only.
He sure was coughing a lot in that video. No wonder he is sick now.
Wonderful logic: coughing causes sickness. Haha, forgive my sarcasm – I had to.
Today firewire is too slow !!! that’s a joke ? you have no choice than usb on MB !!! This is slow.
I won’t buy a MB only for this reason.
I won’t buy a MBP because for this price blu-ray should be there.
Welcome to Sony world probably with OSX on it.
Bleugh – Blu-ray’s a deader format than FireWire.
Never assume the masses are stupid, no matter what the people who actually post on Engagdet/wherever come across like – most readers don’t post, you should never assume they are thick. They’re not. Arrogance toward the mass – that’s stupid.
Save firewire (waves silly flag, feebly, moves on)
I noticed that Steve was stilling wearing his waiter’s jacket. Must have rushed over from his part time job to do the keynote.
Getting rid of firewire in the MB is just fine with me. Everyone I know who has a MB doesn’t even know what firewire is. The even get the letters mixed around up USB… UBS…
I think it’s a great move. And even a better move by putting a firewire 800 port in the MBP.
Remember when Apple removed the floppy disk drives from all of the computers and we all thought they were crazy?
If your friends call USB UBS they are indicative of the average Mac user. It is stupid to say that because it makes sense for them not to have Firewire, it makes sense to remove it from the product.
“Remember when Apple removed the floppy disk drives from all of the computers and we all thought they were crazy?”
We had optical drives, a vastly superior product. The idea in that case was to move the industry forward away from an outdated and unneeded technology. Firewire is not outdated or unneeded. And USB is not an adequate replacement.
In lieu of all this, I agree with Apple removing the FW 400 port from the MacBook. They just forgot to add in the FW 800 port.
Getting rid of firewire in the MB is just fine with me. Everyone I know who has a MB doesn’t even know what firewire is. The even get the letters mixed around up USB… UBS…
I think it’s a great move. And even a better move by putting a firewire 800 port in the MBP.
Remember when Apple removed the floppy disk drives from all of the computers and we all thought they were crazy?
i can see that video professionals feel betrayed, but surely they realize they’re a niche market. this was a business decision, not a personal affront. besides, like they said on tuesday, half of new mac sales go to former PC owners. like most of those, i own no firewire peripherals, and never have. i’m quite sure my girlfriend and roommates don’t even know what that port is for–and we’re all graduate students, not the uneducated masses (or whatever that pretentious dick wrote). firewire just takes up space, and adds cost.
Correct me if I am wrong but I can’t imagine that a FW port is that expensive to incorporate in a computer. What are we talking here about? $5
Stripping down features just because “users don’t know what they are anyway” sounds like Dell’s philosophy to me. I use the Target Disk mode on my Mac a lot and it quite often saves my butt!
LOL, I just found out that Apple owns Firewire! So I don’t think money is the issue here!
I completely disagree with removing a superior technology from a product because 50% of the people who buy it don’t know what it is used for at the time of purchase. First, what about the other 50%? Also, are you suggesting they are incapable of learning what Firewire is used for? Is it improbable that they will find themselves in need of a Firewire port? USB is not an adequate substitute for Firewire.
I also don’t understand your claim that video professionals are the only users who have a use for Firewire. This is simply not true. Firewire provides a host of functions not possible with USB, and the speed is unmatched.
I’ve always found firewire to be way more solid than USB. Admittedly I’m one of those ‘video professionals’, but not having firewire at this moment in time, is a dealbreaker. On shoots, I’ve had many a nightmare using small bus powered USB drives, never with firewire. Also, there are a load of pro bits and pieces that rely on firewire – AJA IO, Digidesign stuff, DVCPROHD decks, Sony JH3 / J30 etc. As Apple phase out 1394, it’ll be interesting to see if (or how successfully) these manufacturers throw their weight behind USB.
we apple addicts are the biggest winers.. this is a badass machine… so, no firewire – are you upset it didn’t come with a floppy drive? specs change. USB is overwhelmingly more common.
Still upset? get the pro! Or an adapter / cable…
The designers at apple have to make decisions – you can guarantee this isn’t the first conversation / debate about this – I imagine this went on for months inside apple.
Asking if we want floppy drives on our MACs is basically stating that USB is better than FW!!! Which it isn’t!
This wasn’t a design decision, they had enough space for a port (check the pictures). This was a decision to differentiate the Pro from the Consumer line.
I need FW for my work that means I will have no other option than to spend $400 more on a computer than I would rather like to keep.
Asking if we want floppy drives on our MACs is basically stating that USB is better than FW!!! Which it isn’t!
This wasn’t a design decision, they had enough space for a port (check the pictures). This was a decision to differentiate the Pro from the Consumer line.
I need FW for my work that means I will have no other option than to spend $400 more on a computer than I would rather like to keep.
“USB is overwhelmingly more common.”
What a compelling argument. Forgive me for being rude, but you’ve warranted it; you’re an idiot.
I don’t understand why this is being compared to when Apple left out the floppy drive from iMac. To make that analogy apply, Apple would have had to leave out the optical drive in favor of the floppy drive. USB is not an adequate substitution for Firewire.
“…you can guarantee this isn’t the first conversation / debate about this – I imagine this went on for months inside apple.”
So simply debating about it ensures that they made the right decision? I was unaware that decision-making was so simple.
Here is a link to the online petition to get Firewire back on the MacBook and MacBook Air.
http://www.petitiononline.com/MB1394/petition.html
back to the english spelling thing, sorry
i’m english and i totally agree with the americans on this, when you actually look into it, you discover many different spellings were considered acceptable in england right up until the beginning of the 20th century, and it was only then that we settled for the spelling we now use. it’s really just conceit to think that one version is superior to the other, as an example think of all the different english accents there are in england alone, is one more correct than the other?
oh and no firewire sucks big time!
So the way is to dare the price of the Macbook Pro. However, it is much better now, and the price is some shorter, so it is better to try it that has a wider screen than the Macbook. By the way, the MBP has two video chips. It is worth of paying it!
I think that the firewire adapter use issue won’t be a huge problem. See the specifications on the spec page of the new Macbook!
http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html
** Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps) ** (left side of the page)
FW adapter -> USB != Firewire.
As much as we all love the rumors posted here, i think that firewire is not out, its just mere speculation, maybe they just removed it from their low end mac but they left it on the macbook pro, for all the people that actually use it, anyways firewire is still needed by a lot of users so i dont think its out
It’s funny that he unplugged the hard drive without ejecting it (unless the old Mac OS didn’t work that way) because Macs get angry now if you do that…