New Macbooks

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pezking

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No firewire AT ALL? What are Apple playing at? And surely if you're gonna remove firewire, you'd increase the number of USB ports?!

Only Firewire 800 on the Macbook Pro...

Kiss goodbye to having a supported Pro Tools system on a Macbook or Macbook Pro. Or maybe that was Apple's plan? (No I'm not naiive enough to think that was the [only] reason behind it)
 
FW 800 works just fine with any Digidesign (or any other) audio interface. You just need a 9 to 6 pin cable (you can find them many places for $10-30). Actually, its always been more consistant doing it that way on the MBP models with 400 and 800 ports.

And Apple is just differentiating the lines. Most users don't need or use firewire, most of them don't have a clue what its even used for. Professional or power users would make use of it, so it's on the Pro model. Makes sense to me.
 
I don't know why they dropped FireWire 400, but it doesn't really surprise me given various comments on these boards. The powered FireWire 400 connector design is apparently too easy to torque (or worse, insert backwards), causing power to hit critical electronics, thus resulting in equipment damage (logic board failure, device failures, etc.). A few years ago, Apple put in self-resetting fuses in an attempt to fix the port shorting problem, but that also limited inrush current and caused a bunch of non-spec-compliant devices like the Presonus FireBox to stop working off bus power. There's definitely good reason to move to the FW800 connector exclusively. It's just a fundamentally more robust connector design.

If you are interested in buying a MacBook with FireWire, there is some good news. At least for the time being, the previous generation white MacBook is still available from the online store. I don't know how long that will continue, but that does provide a 13" FireWire-capable design at least for now.

My advice to everyone concerned about the state of FireWire would be to send feedback. Let Apple's hardware team know what you think, and give a thorough explanation of why FireWire is important to you. If the decision is going to change your future purchasing, let them know how and why. Remember that when the MacBook Pro came out without FireWire 800, lots of pro users screamed about it and Apple listened and brought the port back in the next model. It certainly can't hurt to try.

Better yet, go out and buy one of the white MacBooks through the online store. If Apple sees enough people choose the FireWire-laden white MacBooks over the new aluminum MacBooks and sees enough feedback to correlate that trend with the removal of FireWire, that will likely get somebody's attention. Even if it doesn't get FireWire back on the MacBook, it will at least provide ammunition for people at Apple to argue that there is sufficient demand for a 13" pro model.

Worth a shot, anyway.
 
what new macbooks? the airs? they don't have firewire... but the plain white or black macbooks do... or mine does. is there a new macbook or something.
 
getting rid of firewire, and making a more expensive laptop than their priors in an economy that's going downhill?

aiiiish :confused:
 
I was planning on buying a new one just cause the one i have is the original all white macbook with 1.83ghz core duo upgraded to 2gigs of ram but just because of the no firewire I am not going to upgrade cause I just bought me a firewire drive even though I also can use usb with it I'm not going to.
 
RD423 said:
I was planning on buying a new one just cause the one i have is the original all white macbook with 1.83ghz core duo upgraded to 2gigs of ram but just because of the no firewire I am not going to upgrade cause I just bought me a firewire drive even though I also can use usb with it I'm not going to.
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Yes indeed sir. That'll show them awful rapscallions whose boss :)

But seriously guys don't take yourself so seriously. Apple won't lose significant sales to the guys that have firewire audio drives.

Life and technologies move on. Roll with it.
 
Joseph Hanna said:
Yes indeed sir. That'll show them awful rapscallions whose boss :)

But seriously guys don't take yourself so seriously. Apple won't lose significant sales to the guys that have firewire audio drives.

Life and technologies move on. Roll with it.
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Yeah I know, more goes into my decision than just the firewire thing because the only thing I have that is firewire now is my external drive and it does have usb capabilities as well. Its really there is not a major jump in technology that makes me want to upgrade. Now I do know that the new core 2 duo stuff is better than my core duo but all of my apps run fine for now so I probably won't upgrade until some major changes or mine just dies on me. Hell I still use my old powerbook g4 as just my everyday carry around laptop.
 
RD423 said:
Yeah I know, more goes into my decision than just the firewire thing because the only thing I have that is firewire now is my external drive and it does have usb capabilities as well. Its really there is not a major jump in technology that makes me want to upgrade. Now I do know that the new core 2 duo stuff is better than my core duo but all of my apps run fine for now so I probably won't upgrade until some major changes or mine just dies on me. Hell I still use my old powerbook g4 as just my everyday carry around laptop.
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I know right? My Quicksilver G4 which I bought in what....2001? It's still my everyday office computer and I want for nothing in that capacity. Day in and day out for 8 years without a single day of not running like a top. World class value by any standard.

Unfortunately not so much the case these days..
 
Joseph Hanna said:
I know right? My Quicksilver G4 which I bought in what....2001? It's still my everyday office computer and I want for nothing in that capacity. Day in and day out for 8 years without a single day of not running like a top. World class value by any standard.

Unfortunately not so much the case these days..
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Not so much with laptops ever. I've never had a laptop last three years without requiring at least one significant repair, and by five years old, they're just plain hopelessly worn out. Frankly, the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the folks pushing the netbook devices are right---a laptop should be three things: small, cheap, and disposable.... :)
 
Actually, my main everyday laptop is a Toshiba P4 from 2003 and it runs like a champ. I also have an IBM Thinkpad that I believe is a Pentium 133 that still fires up and can surf the net and run old office apps (a little underpowered for anything else anymore). I think those old IBM Thinkpads were about the toughest things ever built. I used to work support for a huge company that had about 200 of them and they never broke on us (unless someone dropped them). And Ive been personally very successful with Toshibas as long as you go with their higher end models (I own 2 others as well).

The funny thing about Apples (this is coming from an Apple certified Value Added Reseller for Pro Audio and repair) is that some people think they're higher quality than anything else, but every year when consumer reports shows repair %, all the major manufacturers are about identical. And I can vouch for that on a first hand basis as well.
 
Yea I'm not so sure I've ever doubted the hardware quality comparisons between a reputable bundle of PC parts or even a reputable PC manufacturer and Apple. Pardon the pun but that's Apples to Apples :)

However for the recording software code writers here it has (at least historically) always been easier to nail down the Apple code and hardware than writing for the endless combination of PC parts out there. Anyone Tech supporting DAW's in the early days will testify to that.

That said there have been a ton of very bad PC parts distributed in the world and some horrendously poor attempts by manufacturers as well. HP for a while had a run of boat anchor PC's. As far as percentages/consumer reports goes, it would interesting to see how the data was compiled. I could be wrong but a cross section of G5's vs a cross section of HP's and the percentage was the same???:eek:

Anyway the point here is Horses for courses. My quad core PC runs soft synths much better than my old G5. A combination of being forced to but new PCIe cards (three of them) and buy a new quad Mac just to upgrade my current soft synth situation made the jump into a $1500.00 PC a no brainer. It was however a long and tedious learning curve to get it right. Who knew my Bios was under powering my ram.
 
I mean, I guess it would make sense if they're assuming that most audio people are going to get desktop systems, but I think a lot of us don't because it's cheaper not to (when did that happen? laptops used to be more...). Personally, I'm glad to have the previous MBP because my hard drive and interface both need firewire, so one port just wouldn't cut it. Assuming that USB isn't good for recording, which I am told is the case.
 
dgatwood said:
Not so much with laptops ever. I've never had a laptop last three years without requiring at least one significant repair, and by five years old, they're just plain hopelessly worn out. Frankly, the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the folks pushing the netbook devices are right---a laptop should be three things: small, cheap, and disposable.... :)
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Obviously you never owned a mac, my powerbook g4 can even run protools 7.4 and its only like 1.33ghz processor and 768mb of ram. so if I wanted to I could use it. The only thing it can't handle is my video editing.

Thebig cheese..

You can use usb stuff for recording but not the best, at home for mixing i use the mbox 1. works fine but as far as hard drives i would go firewire a client of mine had his hard drive start saying last night that the volume is not record enabled and we don't know what to do so I'm actually about to start a new thread asking for help on that.
 
RD423 said:
Obviously you never owned a mac, my powerbook g4 can even run protools 7.4 and its only like 1.33ghz processor and 768mb of ram. so if I wanted to I could use it. The only thing it can't handle is my video editing.
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*laughs* I've exclusively owned Macs in the laptop space except for one cheap PC laptop that somebody gave me. However, I carry my laptop around constantly, which means my laptops get a lot of wear. I also have a habit of choosing some of the more problematic models (PowerBook 145, Wallstreet (G3), G3 iBook).

I've had two that have been fairly reliable: my old Pismo (G3) and my current MacBook. The Pismo didn't start having problems until it was about two years old, and the problems didn't start getting serious until about four. The MacBook is currently solid after a year and a half.
 
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