Floppies were already outdated and useless when Apple dropped the drive. USB also gave a way for consumers to move their media to a new format.

NO SUCH OPTION EXISTS FOR FW 400!

Fire Wire is not an outdated or useless storage format. It is a valid and useful method for accessing drives, media equipment and transferring data.

Don't compare USB to FW. It's not the same situation.

Apple, you've jumped the shark with this one.
I'm done buying your hardware.

When Apple removed the floppy drive it was possible to get an external floppy drive with a USB connector. When they removed SCSI you could get either a firewire or USB to SCSI adapter.

There isn't any viable firewire to USB converter for the Mac and there probably won't be, due to differences in the protocols. Even if they do come out with a converter it'll be woefully slower than real firewire.

I have a bonus check burning a hole in my pocket and it was earmarked for a new Macbook. However, I can't afford the Macbook and replacing my video camera, firewire disk drives, etc. So I guess the bonus check will be going towards an HD TV and a Blu-ray player... B-)

John

Lets face it. This is Apple's "way".

The reason there is only one Mac with any real upgrade-path is that Apple is NOT about buying tech and keeping it limping along for years and years. They are about the latest and greatest ... and the future.

Their products are meant to be used, enjoyed, and then recycled when the next "latest and greatest" version comes out.

It's a lifestyle many folks are not comfortable with. Those that are still using their parents old console TV in the living room (at least till Feb. 09) for instance.

There are people who buy a car, pay it off, and drive it into the ground before buying another one... and then there's Apple: If you're going to be making car payments - might as well be on this years model instead of last years. A new car every year! (and never be without that "new" smell)

I'm talking in extremes to make it clear - Firewire is EXACTLY the same as Floppy drives in that respect. It IS time to say "buh bye" - and the other manufacturers will be five years behind AGAIN in doing so. Cutting edge, versus trailing edge.

While this doesn't surprise me, it does sadden me. Back in the day I was always proud to tell my Windoze friends, "Yeah, I can still do that on my 33Mhz Performa". It was great to see people's reaction to the fact that I could still use old technology so effectively. Until the advent of OS X, you could run most Apple software on most Macs (with the exception of the jump to PPC). Even with OS X, Apple still provided an inroad for people changing over with Classic. Microsoft used to dump loads of customers and make lots of software obsolete every time they had an OS upgrade. Apple was the company that "thought different". Their loyal customers were important. While I see this as an honest attempt to be market savvy, I see it as a sign of Apple becoming more business oriented than customer oriented. That's fine; they're a business. I'll continue to use my Clamshell iBook proudly.

I will miss target disk mode more than anything else about firewire. It has been a boon for moving data and troubleshooting that no other system could ever match. There is nothing that works that way in the new MacBooks or the MacBook Air.

It's as simple as that.
USB is fine for a few gigs from a camera or a memory stick or an iPod.
FW is better (faster and more reliable) for sustained transfers like audio, video, and backups.
It was short sighted to throw it out. If you want to move on, go with one USB and one FW800.
I'll hang back with my '07 FW MacBook.

Guess you'll all have to buy MBPs, or stick with what you've got then, problem solved. Personally I wouldn't touch any notebook that still uses integrated graphics at this price point regardless.

All the arguments about "moving on" and Apple being about new tech miss the point. The point is about all the devices people already own that become unusable because of such a drastic and selfish move. That kind of selfishness, aggravated by a total lack of warning because of secrecy, is truly Apple's way. Another example of why, though I use and appreciate the value of an Apple computer (Strictly because of OSX), I truly dislike Apple, and believe they actually have little or no respect for their customers. As they move more into the mainstream, and need more than just the "fanboys" to support them, this will come beck to haunt them.

And while we are at it, why is Apple reportedly removing threads on this subject from its discussion forums?

The comparison with the omission of floppy disk stations is a show of ignorance, I would say. FireWire is in no way an outdated technology. The only problem with it is that it didnʼt catch on as much as Apple had hoped, but it is still more reliable than USB when it comes to video. And besides, there are a lot of consumer video cameras out there which has only FW. I bought one less than 2 years ago and now I am supposed to go MacBook Pro? I thought the MacBook was the consumer model?

Apple made a mistake here. Some people has mentioned Marie Antoinetteʼs "Let them eat cake"-response to the misery of French farmers and although that one may be a myth, one suspects that such a move might come from the fact that the persons making decisions at Apple, have lost track of the reality ordinary people live in. Ordinary people cannot throw out hundreds of dollars just because the cheaper model doesnʼt support the peripherals they have purchased over the years, Neither can they just buy new peripherals just like that. Ordinary people save up to be able to afford a MacBook and then they are slapped in the face like this.

Maybe it is just a minority, but I didnʼt think Apple could afford to piss off any of their user base and potential new customers. And old timers might eventually get a little fed up of this, too and begin to consider alternatives. The bad thing is that there are not so many...

If any.

So where are the cakes, Marie Antoinette?

How out of touch can someone be? The country and worlds financial markets are in shambles, record numbers of folks are unemployed and/or underemployed, and Apple stock value has recently tanked.

To suggest that someone simply go our and purchase a new $500 camera is absurd!

In the past when Apple removed the floppy, there was already something better to replace it. When they removed SCSI, there was something already better to replace it.. The same is the case with the ADB port. However, this time they simply dropped the ball!

They should have introduced the new USB 3.0 port if they wanted to drop firewire. That would have been inline with their past actions. This time they failed! They failed their customers, and they failed themselves!

I agree that the new video cams do use USB 2 but I am not concerned with that personaly. I have a number of external Hard Drives that are firewire. My 4 month old iMAC 24" uses them as does my 15" G4 Powerbook. I must admit Apple's stock dropped in my book when I saw that there was no firewire on the new 13". The computer would be excellent for my use but without firewire to access my externals or to use the laptop as an external from my desktop MAC it is useless. Just curious, does anyone in Cupertino think these this through or are they all caught in "the cloud"? Is Apple preparing to alienate it's base prior to a self created crash and burn?

1. Most Windows laptops do not come with FireWire, especially the cheaper models. Those users have faced this for a long time.

2. Most consumer-level camcorders sold today use hard drives, flash drives, or DVDs. Very few use mini-DV; those are the only ones that have to use FireWire. They use FireWire because they have to transfer uncompressed video in real time. The more "modern" camcorders store compressed video and transfer it as files. They can transfer video a lot faster than real time.

(Remember that the MacBook should be considered a consumer-level or basic laptop. No pro doing audio, video, or photography should be using a MacBook, for many reasons.)

3. Besides a few camcorders, what devices today use FireWire? Answer: some external HDs, DVD drives, etc. However, not many external HDs are available with FireWire only; I've seen many more that have only USB. Those that have FireWire usually also have USB ports.

4. EXACTLY the same protests were made when Apple dropped SCSI, ADB and serial ports (no one mentioned those) for USB. When I moved to an iMac, I ended up giving away my two SCSI hard drives; SCSI scanner; SCSI CD-burner; ADB keyboards, mice, trackball, and joystick; two serial-port printers, and more. (I was able to continue using my LaserWriter PS 4/600 because it is an AppleTalk printer and would work with an ethernet-to-Localtalk converter.) I expect that not many here who would use only a MacBook (not MacBook Pro or iMac) have as much invested in FireWire peripherals (except camcorders) as I did in SCSI peripherals (my SCSI HDs cost about $1,000 (1GB) & $1,500 (2GB); the scanner cost over $800; one inkjet printer was over $500), especially in "constant" dollars, given that those were bought 1992-1998. (Some of us remember the days when a 32 *MB* RAM board cost $1,200; My Centris 660AV--25 mHz, 4MB RAM, 80 MB HD--was almost $2,500.)

4. Your current Mac won't suddenly stop working because a new MacBook came out. You can continue using your current hardware with your current Mac.

5. There are plastic MacBooks still available, both new and refurbished.

6. You CAN transfer video from a FireWire-only camcorder to the new MacBook. If you can't figure out how, be a bit more imaginative. (It does not involve "FireWire-to-USB" conversion.) If you need a hint, check this.

USB has no concept of peers on the bus, it's client-server.
As such TargetDrive mode is not directly possible, although Apple may come up with some trick that switches the port from one mode into another.
If they had done that, the troubleshooting aspect would have been taken care of, even though a $30 SATA-to-USB cable may help out in the worst of cases, but only going forward, since hooking up e.g. an older notebook which is in target drive mode will not work.

But that's only have the story. FireWire has strong support for isochronous channels, i.e. media streams.
Just about *all* professional or pro-sumer audio recording interfaces are either internal (PCI, ExpressCard) or FireWire, and for good reason.
With recent increases in processing power, a MacBook is perfectly adequate for professional mobile recording, and then some.
Audio and Video pros are basically forced to buy a considerably bulkier and heavier 15" MacBook Pro where a simple MacBook would have been perfectly sufficient for their needs.

Yes, FW400 is outdated. That's why FW is designed to be backwards compatible. It's time to move to FW800, FW1600 and FW3200, standards for all of which exist, but have not found their way into Apple hardware, except for FW800.

I'm all for moving forward, but that means upgrading to a newer, faster FW version, but not giving up essential capabilities that USB just doesn't have, regardless of interface speed.

The problem here is Apple just flat out drop a perfectly good technology and offering no good replacement for it on the Mac Book. When apple dropped legacy ports before they offer the new next thing that was better at the time. Fire Wire 400 bests some things of USB 2, like higher continuous date transfer raters, low cpu overhead, etc. Also why has FireWire all the sudden become a Pro only thing again, it started out on the Power Mac G3 and then went to all iMacs and basically every mac since then. Now there is Fire Wire 800 and now its seems Pro / Highend only and thats how they want to keep it seems. Does not make sense.

There are too many products where the firewire version is superior to the USB version. In the past year I have purchased the Apogee Duet firewire audio interface and the Canopus ADVC 55. As far as I know, there isn't an audio interface currently being made that matches the quality of the Duet that works on USB. The Duet is quite a recent product - and as marketed as a consumer device (or for serious hobbyists/amateur musicians) - will suited to the new MacBook. These products are just too good to replace with inferior USB versions to work with the MacBook. I don't want to get a MacBook Pro, because it's bigger, a lot more expensive, and as a 2nd computer I don't need such a high spec model.

I find it amusing that Windows folks, in the past, have derided the Mac for HAVING firewire on them {"But I don't want to pay for a port that I am not going to use! Nobody uses Firewire! Apple should just give up on it!"). Now that they have dropped it on one model, suddenly it is a disaster.

Yes, I use Firewire. No, I don't think they should have gotten rid of the port on the Macbook. But I don't think it is a disaster for the vast majority of users out there. Most external hard drives with Firewire also have USB2

For getting video off of a DV camera, you could use this.

While I was only half considering downgrading to a MB, the firewire issue killed that. I'll stick with the new MBP, or perhaps the most recent MBP just replaced. Save a bunch of cash, suffer the video but keep the range of peripherals and see what happens with FW.

I know there was a rumored release of higher sped FW, though for the life of me I can't understand dropping FW400 from both models.

Apple is not dropping firewire from its line. It's removed it from one model, probably as a concession to design and price. If firewire is critical and price is a priority, the plastic white macbook is still available for $300 less than the new macbook. If you have to have the latest design AND firewire, cough up an extra $700 and get a macbook pro (plus about $14 for a FW800-400 adapter, if you need it). If you absolutely need firewire and you absolutely need to pay $1300, then I'm sure there will be plenty of refurbished last-generation MacBook pros around for a while. Life is full of tradeoffs; accept it. And if this really represents a shark-jumping move for you, my advice is to take some time off and find your spiritual center. Your priorities may be slightly misaligned.

Judging by the fury here and on macblogs everywhere the Firewire issue is clearly bigger than Steve or Apple expected.

I think many of us feel Steve has let Mac users down BIGTIME!

Removing Firewire is a cynical move to force users to buy the far more expensive MacBook Pro.

In reality, for me the new Mackbooks are dead in the water without proper support for Firewire ..I have devices that use it which I will not simply throw out and the loss of Target Disk mode is a massive retrograde step.

Steve listen to your customers ....ignore them at your peril... the core group neeidng Firewire is the very group that has pushed Apple into every university, art studio, music studio across the country. They may be on 10% of Apple users but they are the key group.

Apple just stopped being cool today...

The only problem with your analogy is that Firewire is not being replaced by some new bleeding edge technology, it is just being taken away. Firewire in it's most basic instance is a superior technology over USB.

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YodaMac wrote:
I'm talking in extremes to make it clear - Firewire is EXACTLY the same as Floppy drives in that respect. It IS time to say "buh bye" - and the other manufacturers will be five years behind AGAIN in doing so. Cutting edge, versus trailing edge.

You hit my grievance on the head. I have several iPods, a few of them older. I use them all. The older ones use Firewire. With Apple's move, I cannot use these older ones.

Moreover, Target disk mode has saved me too many problems to mention. For instance, with Firewire I could easily repair both my own and friends Macs. It was always nice knowing that any modern Mac had it installed. Firewire isn't about high end audio and video, as it clearly was used in initial iPods.

The computer for the rest of us, seems to be becoming the computer for those with enough money to buy the top of the line model.

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Guest wrote:
All the arguments about "moving on" and Apple being about new tech miss the point. The point is about all the devices people already own that become unusable because of such a drastic and selfish move. That kind of selfishness, aggravated by a total lack of warning because of secrecy, is truly Apple's way. Another example of why, though I use and appreciate the value of an Apple computer (Strictly because of OSX), I truly dislike Apple, and believe they actually have little or no respect for their customers. As they move more into the mainstream, and need more than just the "fanboys" to support them, this will come beck to haunt them.

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Guest wrote:
Apple just stopped being cool today...

This won't stop the new MacBook being the right machine for my child to use at college next year, but it would inconvenience me. Looks like another case of laming a consumer machine to pump sales of a pro model, you could always buy a $499 POC and use a Firewire card in the PC slot...

My Canon XL2 cost more than my Mac - a lot more, and I don't expect to replace it any time soon, if ever. However, my concern is that removing FireWire is in the future of ALL Macs, then I won't be able to upgrade to the newest model next year. I would have to replace a $4,000 camera, an $800 DV deck, and a couple of external FW drives.

Oh yeah, and what about those drives? If forced to use USB, then am I forced to abandon SuperDuper as well?

It's stripped down, like the boss.

If Steve thinks his statement, "new HD camcorders start around $500" is the great easy solution, Apple should knock $500 off the price of the new Macbook to compensate for its lack of FW.

If you read closely, the software that comes with this as well as the drivers are for Windows only. I guess you'll have to use Bootcamp and Windows too. Save the money and just get a PC then. Or maybe Apple should drop the prices a little more just to offset the cost of replacing all of your Firewire stuff. The guys at Microsoft and their customers are having a real laugh about this.

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iJack wrote:
My Canon XL2 cost more than my Mac - a lot more, and I don't expect to replace it any time soon, if ever. However, my concern is that removing FireWire is in the future of ALL Macs, then I won't be able to upgrade to the newest model next year. I would have to replace a $4,000 camera, an $800 DV deck, and a couple of external FW drives.

Oh yeah, and what about those drives? If forced to use USB, then am I forced to abandon SuperDuper as well?

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dposxfan wrote:
If you read closely, the software that comes with this as well as the drivers are for Windows only. I guess you'll have to use Bootcamp and Windows too. Save the money and just get a PC then. Or maybe Apple should drop the prices a little more just to offset the cost of replacing all of your Firewire stuff. The guys at Microsoft and their customers are having a real laugh about this.

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Intruder wrote:
I find it amusing that Windows folks, in the past, have derided the Mac for HAVING firewire on them {"But I don't want to pay for a port that I am not going to use! Nobody uses Firewire! Apple should just give up on it!"). Now that they have dropped it on one model, suddenly it is a disaster.

Yes, I use Firewire. No, I don't think they should have gotten rid of the port on the Macbook. But I don't think it is a disaster for the vast majority of users out there. Most external hard drives with Firewire also have USB2

For getting video off of a DV camera, you could use this.

Quote

gslusher wrote:

Quote

iJack wrote:
My Canon XL2 cost more than my Mac - a lot more, and I don't expect to replace it any time soon, if ever. However, my concern is that removing FireWire is in the future of ALL Macs, then I won't be able to upgrade to the newest model next year. I would have to replace a $4,000 camera, an $800 DV deck, and a couple of external FW drives.

Oh yeah, and what about those drives? If forced to use USB, then am I forced to abandon SuperDuper as well?

Why would you think that ALL Macs would lose FireWire, as long as there are pro-level camcorders and audio gear around that use FireWire? (Actually, even if FireWire was removed from the MacBook Pro, one could get an Expresscard to add it, just as many Windows PC users do now.)

Maybe, but at $2000 to $2500 the MBP should have firewire. If it didn't then the price, you would think, would be lower too. Hey, less features should equal less $$. The average 15" PC portables aren't priced in that range. Any that are have firewire.

I wouldn't think that you would want to do serious video editing (which an XL2 implies) on the LOWEST level MacBook, with integrated/shared graphics memory, etc. With that sort of camera, you should be running Final Cut on a MacBook Pro or a top-level desktop computer.

As for the HDs, you can easily get a triple-interface enclosure that has USB 2, FireWire, and eSATA. (Again, many HDs are USB-only, as they are marketed to Windows PC users, many of whom don't have FireWire available. Go to your local Circuit City or the like and check the HDs on sale.)

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dposxfan wrote:
If you read closely, the software that comes with this as well as the drivers are for Windows only. I guess you'll have to use Bootcamp and Windows too. Save the money and just get a PC then. Or maybe Apple should drop the prices a little more just to offset the cost of replacing all of your Firewire stuff. The guys at Microsoft and their customers are having a real laugh about this.

The software and drivers for WHAT? You didn't indicate or quote. In any case, what would stop vendors from writing software and drivers for the Mac? As I wrote before, though, there are ways to get video from a mini-DV camcorder onto a computer without FireWire.

Again, folks, it seems that some of you are too "young" in the Mac world to recall the transition from SCSI, serial ports, and ADP to USB. (NOT to FireWire, as that came later. The first iMacs and iBooks did not have FireWire, only USB 1 ports.) Your "$800 DV deck" pales in comparison to the two SCSI hard drives I gave away. One was 250 MB and cost over $1,000, the other was really huge--1 GB, and cost even more. Add an $800 SCSI scanner, $500 serial HP inkjet printer, $400-500 serial Apple ImageWriter printer, $200 ADB keyboard, $150 ADB trackball, and ~$150 ADB joysick that I couldn't use when I moved to an iMac. All told, in today's dollars (the gear was bought between 1992 and 1999, I think), the SCSI, serial, and ADP equipment I GAVE AWAY cost the equivalent of over $6,000.

Getting rid of FW entirely on the macbook was simply a mistake. Sadly I think due to pride or a failure to understand their users, Apple will probably not make a change. But they could make an additional fee+BTO option for the MacBook with FW400 instead of, say, the lower-power USB port. This should not be difficult for the company that made the iPhone.

And, please, don't tell me it is an enormous financial burden. FW800 is in the Pro. Since the macbook has no PC slot, this makes it closed and this makes the FW omission more meaningful.

The idea that I should, say, buy a new MacBook and therein stop using my slew of FW drives and buy a new camera to replace my $3500 Panasonic is ridiculous. Sorry - bottom line is this move makes used Macs/Macbooks much more appealing. They are cheaper than MB+camera+drives and the *good* (think manual control) HD cameras are a lot more than $500. I'd prefer to wait on buying a new good camera AND a new Mac.

And what of the education market? Remember them? There is probably a fair amount of legacy drives and systems. So the answer is - too bad? I suppose Apple could ditch FW on the upcoming iMac and complete the neglect of their current users.

Used Macs are looking much better, now. Unfortunate since otherwise the new machines look good, if glossy displays aren't an obstacle (I much prefer matte, but maybe a tack-on filter will make it feasible).

They say Apple has chosen form over function (ports on one side = lost ports?). But the cool part of Macs has been getting function AND form. Remember "macs just work"? I was one of those who felt so, and between my wife and I we have 5 macs at home+work. But their appeal just went way down. The writer whose son has a $400 hp with FW + more USB ... drives it home.

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dposxfan wrote:
The Pixela cable's software and drivers are for Windows only. Look it up yourselves. They must have left the Mac version out because, up til now, all Macs had firewire and no need for the cable in the first place. I agree with some other comment. Don't drop a feature unless you have as good or better replacement. Hey if USB 3, put it in place now. Not just USB2. I have one of the last iPods that had both USB and firewire. Sometimes when I'm transferring files from my Mac with USB it loses sync and I have to unplug it and re-sync it and start all over. With firewire it never fails.

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Anonymous wrote:
The idea that I should, say, buy a new MacBook and therein stop using my slew of FW drives and buy a new camera to replace my $3500 Panasonic is ridiculous. Sorry - bottom line is this move makes used Macs/Macbooks much more appealing. They are cheaper than MB+camera+drives and the *good* (think manual control) HD cameras are a lot more than $500. I'd prefer to wait on buying a new good camera AND a new Mac.

[quote="gslusher"]1. Most Windows laptops do not come with FireWire, especially the cheaper models. Those users have faced this for a long time.

(Remember that the MacBook should be considered a consumer-level or basic laptop. No pro doing audio, video, or photography should be using a MacBook, for many reasons.)

What do you mean "no pro doing audio, video or photography should be using a Macbook". I run a large music school and many of our 1300 students use macbooks. They go on to play and produce hit records using this same gear. What do you know about being a pro. I just played 4 sold out nights at the Hong Kong coliseum (12,000 per night) using a Macbook to run the loops and backing tracks. What kind of 'pro" work do you do. Apple, bring back firewire or make a 13" macbook pro.

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Anonymous wrote:
Apple is not dropping firewire from its line. It's removed it from one model, probably as a concession to design and price. If firewire is critical and price is a priority, the plastic white macbook is still available for $300 less than the new macbook. If you have to have the latest design AND firewire, cough up an extra $700 and get a macbook pro (plus about $14 for a FW800-400 adapter, if you need it). If you absolutely need firewire and you absolutely need to pay $1300, then I'm sure there will be plenty of refurbished last-generation MacBook pros around for a while. Life is full of tradeoffs; accept it. And if this really represents a shark-jumping move for you, my advice is to take some time off and find your spiritual center. Your priorities may be slightly misaligned.

The facts are this:
USB = slow
Firewire = fast
Mac Book = consumer
Mac Book Pro = well, pro.

Apple doesn't want us using the MacBook to do high end stuff.
Jobs want's us to cough up the extra dough for the Pro.
No more doing it on a budget.
The avg consumer doesn't care about firewire, only us more sophisticated folk who are really using the true capabilities of these fine machines.
Apple is throwing us under the bus.
sad day....

Well, unfortunately, it does appear that the converter is XP only. It now appears on one of the pages ("No, it is not Mac compatible")

Very sad.

It took some time to read through this all and still, nobody seems to understand why there is no FireWire on MacBook.

New MacBook Pro and MacBook are practically identical. Slightly bigger screen, slightly better graphic options. If that was the only difference, who in their right mind would spend $700 more for a laptop that is only slightly bigger and negligibly better?

Performance benchmark tests have confirmed that the new MacBook is as fast as MacBook Pro. If it also had FireWire, MacBook Pro wouldn't sell at all.

To drive the point home: FireWire was eliminated from MacBook because otherwise, the computer was as good as MacBook Pro. With such a price difference, they would never sell MBP.

Everything else, at this point, is unimportant.

but my five super-fast firewire drives prevent that. I guess I'll get a refurb MacBook Pro instead.

Wish Apple had at least gone with a FW800 port.

I have to tell you I work with audio on a professional basis. All this talk about USB (even USB3 for that matter) being "as fast" as firewire is ignorance and is meant for the average consumer who wants to dump their mp3s, holiday snaps, etc onto a hard drive. It has nothing to do with "moving on" that is so often referred to towards previous technologies.

As any professional can testify: firewire is a completely different kind of technology - specifically for audio and video. It is for this reason that I wouldn't buy a USB interface even if Motu, Apogee or any other high end audio interface did offer USB on their top models. Which they know would be stupid move. Only the cheapies like M-Audio would offer USB.

Apple's decision-making process could harm them in the end as it was the creatives who got Mac into the world in the first place. Upset them and hybrid hardware computers will be the future and once more the people will prevail, in the same way that open-source pulls a zap sign at arrogant corporations.

I want to decide if I want matte or glossy, firewire or not. These are not silly concerns. So, if ever there a gap in the market for an entrepreneur...give the people what they want, when it is obvious that these are basic important matters that cannot be compared to older technology.

oh, and further to all those saying its all better according to Jobs: anyone recall his decision to drop "mic ins" on the Titanium? Quickly changed his mind;) Apple can lose its aura too.

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Anonymous wrote:
I have to tell you I work with audio on a professional basis. All this talk about USB (even USB3 for that matter) being "as fast" as firewire is ignorance and is meant for the average consumer who wants to dump their mp3s, holiday snaps, etc onto a hard drive. It has nothing to do with "moving on" that is so often referred to towards previous technologies.

As any professional can testify: firewire is a completely different kind of technology - specifically for audio and video. It is for this reason that I wouldn't buy a USB interface even if Motu, Apogee or any other high end audio interface did offer USB on their top models. Which they know would be stupid move. Only the cheapies like M-Audio would offer USB.

Apple's decision-making process could harm them in the end as it was the creatives who got Mac into the world in the first place. Upset them and hybrid hardware computers will be the future and once more the people will prevail, in the same way that open-source pulls a zap sign at arrogant corporations.

I want to decide if I want matte or glossy, firewire or not. These are not silly concerns. So, if ever there a gap in the market for an entrepreneur...give the people what they want, when it is obvious that these are basic important matters that cannot be compared to older technology.

If you are referring to the 17inch Macbook Pro - it is too big. I need the 15inch (or even 14 will do) for live performances as well. Anyway, who says the 17inch won't undergo same shoddy treatment as the 15inch so called 'Pro'.

I wanted to buy a new 15inch Macbook Pro but will have to look for the last model available that still had two firewires and a matte screen. Possibly even second-hand as I can only buy in a months time.

What a disappointment.

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Anonymous wrote:
If you are referring to the 17inch Macbook Pro - it is too big. I need the 15inch (or even 14 will do) for live performances as well. Anyway, who says the 17inch won't undergo same shoddy treatment as the 15inch so called 'Pro'.

I wanted to buy a new 15inch Macbook Pro but will have to look for the last model available that still had two firewires and a matte screen. Possibly even second-hand as I can only buy in a months time.

What a disappointment.

Your a moron!!!

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YodaMac wrote:
Lets face it. This is Apple's "way".

The reason there is only one Mac with any real upgrade-path is that Apple is NOT about buying tech and keeping it limping along for years and years. They are about the latest and greatest ... and the future.

Their products are meant to be used, enjoyed, and then recycled when the next "latest and greatest" version comes out.

It's a lifestyle many folks are not comfortable with. Those that are still using their parents old console TV in the living room (at least till Feb. 09) for instance.

There are people who buy a car, pay it off, and drive it into the ground before buying another one... and then there's Apple: If you're going to be making car payments - might as well be on this years model instead of last years. A new car every year! (and never be without that "new" smell)

I'm talking in extremes to make it clear - Firewire is EXACTLY the same as Floppy drives in that respect. It IS time to say "buh bye" - and the other manufacturers will be five years behind AGAIN in doing so. Cutting edge, versus trailing edge.

Enough with the f*****g trolling already!

why on earth most of you idiots out there complain about how apple stop using firewire 400? It is time to move on! Firewire 400 is like party like it was 1990. Most of you are to ignorant and stupid for not searching if there is a firewire 800 9pin to firewire 400 6pin, and you know what people? THERE IS ON SO STOP THE BRICKING CRYING!!

Here is the link for those morons out there who don't know how to use the search engine for other 9pin to 6pinand 9pin to 4pin
http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-800-1394b-cables.htm#9-9