Actually, there is no Firewire support of ANY kind on the MacBooks. Only on the Pros.

VERY stupid if you ask me.

wait what?

How in the hell will I target mode boot them then? Over USB?

How often do you really need to do that? While it's very neat, it's also very rarely done.

All the time, I work IT for a living I target mode boot something every day.

I guess if such a level of service access is necessary, they'll have to be booted off of an external USB drive.

yeah but I have a lot of FW drives already, it is just annoying.

It's annoying, yeah. USB isn't as fast. The only reason I'm not reacting more negatively is that my drives are FireWire+USB, though their USB ports are avoided whenever possible.

Tell me about it. I've saved many a computer with FWTDM, and it's so handy I can't justify losing Firewire over it.

Plus, I got a few Firewire camcorders I use on occasion.

So I'll be sticking with my old MacBook.

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I am dying to know: Has anyone heard Apple give anything resembling an "official" reason for dropping FW on the MacBooks? I’m at a total loss as to why they did this. USB is soooo sloooow by comparison!

I was about to purchase one, but now I’m tempted to refrain.

I just read off dig, that target mode is not possible on the Macbooks

http://apcmag.com/Content.aspx?id=3085

This is one thing I really hate about Apple. They don't give their customers the choices they want. They just build the product and say, here ya go!

You're right, it would be annoying to use an adapter. That's why I would recommend not using one, and just getting a new cable with FW400 on one end and FW800 on the other. They can be purchased cheaply online.

Trevor

I still don't get why they removed 400 altogether, and only left 800 on the Pros. This would have worked a lot easier if the FW400 plug was the same as the FW800.

I think Apple is trying to further divide the gap between 'regular people' and 'professionals'. Or something.

Or maybe this is like the same thing a decade ago when Apple removed floppy drives from all of their Macs. Perhaps Apple is trying to move people to Firewire 800?


And I'm reading about DisplayPort, and it sounds like there's a mini-war going on between HDMI and DisplayPort. There's a bunch of companies supporting each.

Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Texas Instruments, Molex, AMD and Nvidia support DisplayPort.
Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, Philips, RCA, and Sony are supporting HDMI.

What's interesting is that it seems mainly computer-related companies are supporting DP, while most TV manufacturers (although they might make some laptops too) are supporting HDMI.

Both connectors are similar, although

That doesn't sound far from the truth, ThreeDee. Possibly Apple is trying to differentiate the models with the lack of Firewire because the Pro and regular MacBook look and act the same.

Especially so with the departure of integrated graphics on the MacBook.

I am wondering if it is because most consumer MacBook users (i.e. not us) used FireWire for their video cameras but more video cameras now use USB or those solid state cards.

I’m not tech savvy, but...
...why not equip Macs, especially the MBP and desktops, with eSATA ports?
Isn’t it about time? Are there any disadvantages? Aren’t there major speed differences between this and FW400 / FW800?

eSATA is still kind of new I think. My new case for my new PC I am building has one, and is the first computer I have ever owned that has that port on it.

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Tom, if I remember correctly, I purchased my three quad-interface (incl. eSATA) external disks well over two years ago.

USB has been out for what, decade now? They still make PS/2 connections for keyboards and mice, and USB is superior.

Two years is a pretty new technology in terms of being mass produced. In retrospect 2 years is old when you are 'cutting edge.'

Hahahaha

I haven't seen mass adoption of eSATA yet. Nor have I with DisplayPort.

What I'm thinking is this: Didn't Apple do this when DVI wasn't as known as it is now? Didn't Apple ALSO do this with USB?

Looking back in history, this move to use DisplayPort seems less and less surprising.

If they ditched firewire, how are you supposed to transfer all of your stuff from your old mac with the assistant on your new mac?:confused: