The new MacBooks don't have firewire, get over it.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:09 am

The complaint is a valid one.

Apple are being pricks about a bad business decision. I wouldn't bet on them changing it either, they will expect the audio card manufacturers to design a new interface just for their freaking platform and then they'll claim it as a revolutionary idea and screw the existing fanboys and their MOTU Ultralites, they will suck sh*t out of Jobs' behind anyway and just buy a MBP.

You can get 600 dollar PC laptops with FW interfaces, and given that Apple have invested in their own pro audio software, Logic and partnerships with Apogee etc. you'd think they'd want to have that exposure on all of their machines. It just defies total logic and common sense from a company who's mottos are 'it just works' and who supposedly are based upon simple, easy to use common sense hardware and software. Erm, memo to Stevie J - it doesn't 'just work' anymore.

A lot of musicians on a budget will now take their business to Dell, Toshiba, HP, Compaq etc. I wouldn't bet my house on them not re-releasing the model with FW, but usually Apple just tell people to 'get over it'. Tell that to my freaking wallet. It makes the new Macbook sans FW as useful as a door stopper for most people. DOn't Apple realize that audio is a niche market they;ve dominated for YEARS. Screw digital cameras, the majority of people using FW in a Macbook are pro audio/midi users.

There has been amazing music made on the basic macbook, yes a MBP is better suited for bigger, more intensive projects, but many people could get by before. Unless they are going to drop the pricing on a MBP by 300-400 bucks, it's just an insane decision.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:44 am

leedsquietman wrote:The complaint is a valid one.

Apple are being pricks about a bad business decision. I wouldn't bet on them changing it either, they will expect the audio card manufacturers to design a new interface just for their freaking platform and then they'll claim it as a revolutionary idea and screw the existing fanboys and their MOTU Ultralites, they will suck sh*t out of Jobs' behind anyway and just buy a MBP.

You can get 600 dollar PC laptops with FW interfaces, and given that Apple have invested in their own pro audio software, Logic and partnerships with Apogee etc. you'd think they'd want to have that exposure on all of their machines. It just defies total logic and common sense from a company who's mottos are 'it just works' and who supposedly are based upon simple, easy to use common sense hardware and software. Erm, memo to Stevie J - it doesn't 'just work' anymore.

A lot of musicians on a budget will now take their business to Dell, Toshiba, HP, Compaq etc. I wouldn't bet my house on them not re-releasing the model with FW, but usually Apple just tell people to 'get over it'. Tell that to my freaking wallet. It makes the new Macbook sans FW as useful as a door stopper for most people. DOn't Apple realize that audio is a niche market they;ve dominated for YEARS. Screw digital cameras, the majority of people using FW in a Macbook are pro audio/midi users.

There has been amazing music made on the basic macbook, yes a MBP is better suited for bigger, more intensive projects, but many people could get by before. Unless they are going to drop the pricing on a MBP by 300-400 bucks, it's just an insane decision.

Agree. Look at Steve answer...
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08 ... ewire.html

pierce200 · Post by **pierce200** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:48 am

The FW issue is peculiar. Befuddling in fact.
Is there a confused head shaking emoticon?
Steve was cooler when his face was puffy.

yoshitosser · Post by **yoshitosser** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 7:54 am

Tarekith wrote:Wait, you mean there were other threads about it? Doh, sorry, if I had seen those I would have posted there instead.

Apology accepted. And there was me thinking you were just being a cunt. How wrong I clearly was. Smiley.

Peter Package · Post by **Peter Package** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 8:04 am

2 more for the Cattle Brained Boys Club.

robin · Post by **robin** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:54 am

This is potentially the beginning of the end for Firewire.

The indignation is also from people who've been waiting for a small MBP (not a huge 15" laptop), when it arrives Apple drop the ball. As commented above, it would have been better to drop gigabit ethernet.

We'll probably see more USB2 audio interfaces on the low end now.

nonnus · Post by **nonnus** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:59 am

i have to agree with all the ranting

it might be noisy if you are not interested in the issue

for all i care this is all just a huge mediatic stunt from A

since the alleged "uninteresting" keynote this is the hot tech issue of the moment,
all mac media and some more is just pumping news everyday

we have have stevie answering mails on a regular basis to keep us well informed !

but,
and this is important:

if everybody goes along with the "its done and you better accept it asap" attitude
or even worse,
start ebaying and craiglisting their perfectly usable gear just to get shiny toys and follow the word of the lord

they will actually confirm they can do whatever they want without any consequences,
firewire will be dead from all macs soon if they wish to
and whatever they decide will go next even if it happens to be something you care or depend on

we live strange times were consumers seem to have no saying about what they are intended to consume

not true, our money matters alot to this ppl

i would love to see their reaction if no new shinybooks were sold in the 1st day,
not even one,
for fun it would even be nice if any sales would of refurbs

i bet new versions would be announced the very next day
along with a nice campaign about how they learn with their mistakes and are now soft green instead of plain green...

unfortunately something as simple, civil and organized as this is never going to happen so massive ranting that wont stop after a couple of days and even huge selling numbers is our second best option

needless to say, all this imho...

robin · Post by **robin** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:02 am

nonnus wrote: i would love to see their reaction if no new shinybooks were sold in the 1st day,
not even one,
for fun it would even be nice if any sales would of refurbs

I think you over-estimate the size of the market that needs FW.

It's a shame I know.

Crash · Post by **Crash** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:23 am

Firewire will likely die in the long run, it didn't succeed early enough on a broad front and too many good alternatives have come up meanwhile. You will need to keep your old computers in order to connect your old audio/video/whatever gear (think of old parallel printer ports).

Audio vendors with talented driver implementation teams will either write good USB2 drivers or even more likely wait for USB3 and then change the connection ports on their hardware.

heavensdaw · Post by **heavensdaw** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:14 am

All this just makes me realize even more clearly that as consumers we are being led along in the direction these multi-national companies want..

I'm for the time being happy that I bought my MBP and the majority of my gear, last summer, so at least I'm not having to worry about it now..

Basically, I don't trust these companies... They are there for themselves nothing else.

I've seen this this before, many times especially with 'ports' and OS's..

My advice fwiw is, if you have a system that works now, look after it, get as much use as you can out of it and try not to get caught up in the 'you need this' 'new' piece of gear hype.....

Hd

jonny72 · Post by **jonny72** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:24 am

I couldn't agree more that everyone needs to get over it, the number of threads and posts all over the interweb is just plain stupid and won't achieve anything.

Having said that, my problem with the MacBook Pro is that its a desktop replacement as far as I'm concerned and that's is something I don't want. I'm not the only person that wants a small and powerful laptop that isn't a pain in the arse to carry around.

A 13" Pro without the dvd drive and dedicated graphics card (use the space for a bigger battery) is what I'd like to see, I wouldn't even mind paying a Pro price for it. Dropping the ethernet for a FireWire port would be good as well.

robin · Post by **robin** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 12:20 pm

jonny72 wrote: Having said that, my problem with the MacBook Pro is that its a desktop replacement as far as I'm concerned and that's is something I don't want. I'm not the only person that wants a small and powerful laptop that isn't a pain in the arse to carry around.

A 13" Pro without the dvd drive and dedicated graphics card (use the space for a bigger battery) is what I'd like to see, I wouldn't even mind paying a Pro price for it. Dropping the ethernet for a FireWire port would be good as well.

It's very unlikely but I'd like to see this too.

I think Intel has had a big hand in all this....

kaffein · Post by **kaffein** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:11 pm

The problem is that I wanted to upgrade...

Aluminum (Check)
Backlit Keyboard (Check)
New nVidia GPU so I can dual boot xp and play real games in my backyard?!? (Check)
Not a single firewire port... (FUCK!)

They essentially made a laptop that no musician could use... (Most USB interfaces suck, they are not even an option...)

Though there is this bad boy...
http://www.zzounds.com/item--MTU828MKII
Thut, Thut, Thut...

kaffein · Post by **kaffein** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:30 pm

...and I'm having second thoughts...

I think being able to play Team Fortress 2 while taking a dump, far outweighs the money I'd have to save to buy a higher quality usb 2.0 I/O.

Next thing you know, apple will ditch USB as well...

Ahh brain going to explode.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:59 pm

Not surprised here, and IMO not worth crying about.

Apple have always been ahead of the game regarding outdated standards (SCSI, floppies), and in the end, the foresight prevailed. Watch the number of USB peripherals that follow.

Firewire is still on the new MBP. It's also available as ExpressCard/34.