“The absence of FireWire ports is certainly an inconvenience for some users. But it shouldn’t be considered a deal-breaker for most of us, anyway,” Peter Cohen writes for Macworld.
“FireWire has long been the preferred interface for some Mac users who want to hook up an external hard disk drive. It also caught on with camcorder makers, and that’s really why most people are upset. A lot of standard-definition (SD) video cameras have relied on FireWire for the past few years… FireWire also comes in handy if you’re transferring large amounts of data between machines,” Cohen writes. “A special operating mode called Target Disk Mode (TDM) lets you reboot your laptop (or other FireWire-equipped Mac) to appear to the host machine as a storage device.”
“Setting up a new computer? FireWire TDM is good for that, too. Apple’s Migration Assistant makes it a lead pipe cinch to transfer your user account information, data and applications to a computer connected using TDM,” Cohen writes. “But Migration Assistant also works computer-to-computer if you have an Ethernet cable, which is more readily available and cheaper than a FireWire cable. And new MacBooks—as well as most Macs that have been shipping for the past several years—have Gigabit Ethernet ports on them.”
“Connecting a camcorder is, admittedly, a bit trickier. And this is certainly a sticking point for the many Mac users who want to edit their own video [but] it may be an opportunity for you to upgrade your camcorder,” Cohen suggests.
Cohen writes, “FireWire’s absence is certainly disappointing and will surely be felt for a while by Mac users who had invested in peripherals that use the interface, but I suspect most people will make the transition, and will ultimately find that they’re not missing much by making the switch.”
Much more in the full article here.
@JEREMY (there, happy now??)
So, we’re childish and unreasonable and yet you b*tch about a typo and declare yourself the winner? You really are a genius. How foolish I was to make a point and use logic (which you ignore) and not just my desire to shut other people up. Thank you for being a model human being.
BULLSHIT!!!
Macs have gotten free facetime on TV for years — originally on Seinfeld, more recently on shows like House, Numb3rs, The Sopranos, 24, The Big Bang Theory, the CSI shows. I’m sure there are countless more.
Have you ever stopped to think about why this is, beyond the “Mac is Cool” factor?
It’s because Apple has always empowered the creative types to reach beyond their capabilities, to achieve more. (“Here’s to the crazy ones”, anyone?) In turn, the creative types, when they bloom into successful professionals, insist on featuring the Mac because that’s what inspired them to become what they are.
I say this as a stockholder and 22-year veteran of things Apple and Macintosh.
The omission of the Firewire port on the Macbook is a very unfriendly move by Apple, in that for the very first time, instead of empowering, Apple is restricting the things you can do with a basic Mac. The people who will be affected are the very people who have made the Mac the legendary creative computer that it is: the crazy ones. Young, creative kids in junior high, high school and college, who work on music or video projects in their bedrooms, who can’t afford a Macbook Pro but would sure love to get a Macbook, who would continue to use Macs throughout their career as successful musicians, screenwriters, actors, whatever. Because of their existing legacy Firewire equipment — audio and video hardware — the new Macbook is not an upgrade option for them. These potential customers are no longer in Apple’s marketing plan.
That’s very sad. Sorry to see Apple cashing in on its reputation and instead going for the big dollar. I guess that idealism is for sale just like everything else.
It isn’t a difficult decision to make! No Firewire, no Sale. I can really only say this because I can get along – quite nicely, thanks – with the retread model. You know the one, still in white plastic? 5% faster CPU? Half the RAM (I can fix that). $300 less expensive. That one. Now, SURE … I’d LOVE to have the updated graphics from the newest model – the one that’s more than a modest warm-over. And the bigger this, that, and the other. But, I don’t NEED any of those things. So, I’ll stay back here on the trailing edge. Not far. Just a bit. I do NEED the FireWire – and I can get it. No problem, no whining.
“In addition I use ProTools 002 to make music and that demands firewire. I don’t have the money for a MBP so, guess what, I’m not going to buy anything….”
You’ll edit Pro Tools on a 13″ monitor? If you really need FW, there’s always the White MacBook. It still has FW400 and is a sweet machine for $1K.
Just shut up and buy the MacBook and network it to your existing set-up. Why the hell do you need a laptop if you are creating in your bedroom? an iMac will do quite nicely. If it is a laptop why do you want to have a cable dangling and hooked up to all this stuff anyway?
The rudeness of some of the people here is really quite sad. Makes me wonder if you’re Windows converts.
WhooHoo: Can’t very well take an iMac to class now, can you?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Dialtone: Sure, the white one works fine, while it’s still available. Do you think that’s forever? Are you looking beyond next week? Do you enjoy getting screwed buying end-of-life technology?
The future of the lineup is the aluminum style, and the base model is sadly deficient. For those of you who need Firewire in a basic laptop, can’t afford $2000 for the MBP and don’t want to buy last year’s model, you understand what I’m talking about.
Tens of millions of video cameras – even the most modern Hi Def ones – us DV tapes for video storage and firewire only for video transfers.
Apple just said goodbye to tens of millions of people who own fire wire based video cameras.
And let me repeat this one more time so Mr. Jobs gets it real good…
Flash drive cameras and hard drive cameras use USB II for transfer to the computer… but iMovie and Final Cut are not capable of accepting the video files for editing as they come from the camera. They rely upon propriety programs from the camera manufacturers to convert the data to a codec that iMovie and FCP can use.
The problem is they drop frames and un-sync the sound.
They simply don’t work.
Don’t believe me… take your flash drive based Hi Definition video camera to your Apple store and say “Please put this video into iMovie and edit it” and watch the fun.
DV Tape-based video cameras use firewire and they work with no problems. That’s why there are tens of millions of them in use.
Steve Jobs… this is a big deal, because very few of those folks will buy your MacBook once they discover the computer is incapable of editing DV video.
@PC Apologist
Keep whatever you are using now and stop whingeing – unless you really want the new MacBook because it’s so beautiful.
If the iMacs have Firewire 800 then the new MacBooks should have it as well. They can both now be used beyond the consumer level for Pro use.
Apple needs to keep on converting Windows users but they also must not forget the faithful Mac users who got them to this point. All us Mac users who consistently empty their wallets for new Macs.
These are tough times and buying all new peripherals (new HD camera) is not in the cards for those who were planning on just the MacBook purchase.
Apple, add that FW port back on there!
I have a new $700 AVHD HD camcorder and the video comes in just fine into iMovie and it is quite a joy to use I just select whatever clip I want to import and bingo it is in – no more trying to import off tape scan wait import wait scan some more import wait.
Hell my DV camcorder started eating tapes and now i don’t have to worry.
I have a number of SCSI devices in my basement if anyone wants to buy them. Becauseof that I buy OWC HD’s that come with FW 400, 800, and USB 2.0.
MW-prudent
A lot of the camcorders out there record directly to DVD you know those little DVD’s that get stuck in the slot load drives …. Ah great I can’t use my MacBook for those either thanks Apple. My old iBook had a tray drive in it which worked with those small disks I guess I will have to keep it.
“but I suspect most people will make the transition, and will ultimately find that they’re not missing much by making the switch.”
Perhaps to hardware that has firewire, but may need a little push to run OSX. Heck I never even thought if doing so till now.
To Old Guy With A Beard:
I said it yesterday, and I’m saying it again: you are wrong about those USB2 camcorders and FCE/FCP/iMovie. There are no proprietary programmes, iMovie 08, FCE and FCP can import HDV and AVCHD video without any issues. It is the same as in iPhoto: you connect your AVCHD camcorder (with USB2 cable); click on the camera icon (in iMovie), thumbnails of your clips show up. You can review them individually before importing, choose which ones you want to import and click ‘Done’. They get imported (transcoded) into AIC (on iMovie) or Apple ProRes (in FCE/FCP). No frame dropping, no sound un-syncing. It just works. It’s a Mac, after all.
What amazes me the most here is that all the vocal comments seem to say that they are now left stranded. I don’t understand; did Apple just somehow remotely deactivate FireWire ports in your existing MacBooks? How are you stranded? If you are one of those who have one or more FW peripherals (miniDV camcorder, audio interface, HiRes scanner…), that only means that your current computer already has FireWire. So where is the problem?
Now, if you were holding off for the past six months on that iBook (or MacBook CoreDuo) upgrade, waiting for the MB refresh, now that the refresh is there, you have several options. You can pick from any of the refurbished existing models (MB, or MBP), which are cheaper than they were last Friday, or, if you MUST have a Mac that comes in a white box instead of a brown, you’ll have to add $700 to your budget and get a MacBook.
All the comments regarding the need for FW here are very subjective, and therefore legitimate (you can’t really offer as a solution a computer with bigger screen if small is the size they want). However, just like with glossy screen, they represent minuscule percentage of MacBook-buying population. As representatives of that group, you may be annoyed, but decision has been made for you.
You can imagine how left-handed people feel when virtually all mechanical can openers out there are designed for right-handed people. And they represent significantly larger percentage of can opener-buying population than the “Save the FireWire” group here.
No, Apple does not make the computer you want. You’ll have to look elsewhere.
Oh, and you know nothing of what this will do to Apple’s sales and your unfounded predictions may make you look foolish in another year.
Did anyone here notice how MDN has put several stories today that all point to lack of FW? Normally we call this kind of writing ‘hit whore’; out of top 5 most commented stories, four are of the ‘Save the FW’ type.
Obviously, we love to argue over this (myself included).
Well this proves that everyone wants a new MacBook – and I don’t see Apple forcing you to buy a new machine so there is absolutely no way you can be “stranded” they are not forcing you to buy.
SHUT UP
Thank you – Predrag
You hit the mail on the head. You would think that Apple is taking all of these peoples computers away and giving them a new one without FireWire. Their old computer is not obsolete they just want a new pretty one. That is why Apple is so successful.
You know, Microsoft has been ignoring their customers for years. It resulted in Vista. Is Apple starting down the road to its own Vista?
Like it or not — all you people who insist on yelling SHUT UP — we who are unhappy about the lack of Firewire are also Apple fans and customers. We have a vested interest in steering Apple to produce products we are willing to buy.
And as a stockholder, I have a vested interest in making sure Apple produces products that I think will be as successful as possible.
Grow up. Act like adults.
I’m amazed by all of the people that are saying that having a second computer (imac) is the solution. MANY people only have one computer. I used to have several computers, but my current MacBook had everything that I needed to replace them. Now I don’t have a desktop computer, why have one when my laptop can do everything? This isn’t going to stop my business or keep me from getting my work done, but it will keep me from upgrading. I was ready to click the buy button until i realized that fw 400 was missing. This hurts apple more than it hurts me. I’ll just have to wait until they release a 13″ that fits my needs. Otherwise I’ll keep this macbook until it dies and upgrade to a larger screen (even though I don’t want to).
I guess i could always buy a sony that has all the ports that I want and install a hacked version of OSX. This saddens me. I’d much rather give apple my money. It’s too bad they don’t want it.
This moving forward notion is total BS. You can’t move forward if they don’t provide you with something to replace what they think you don’t need anymore. Why couldn’t they have just waited til USB 3.0 came out? or better yet, why couldn’t they have added firewire 800?
The topic on Apple’s discussion forum titled “No Firewire; many possible problems” has 10,609 views and 386 responses:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1287
The Computerword article “Apple Users Rage Over Missing Firewire” has 29 pages of comments:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9117339
At MacRumors.com, the thread “New Macbook – No Firewire!” has 11.937 views:
http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=80
There are many more, all over the Internet, with similar levels of interest.
Obviously, this controversial topic has a lot of people very concerned.
So what am I supposed to do with my “CONSUMER” level audio interface made by apogee which is enodorsed on Apple’s website to work with Garageband?
I’m not a pro, music is a hobby, the MacBook is all the computer I need and can afford. I just need it to work with audio interface, camcorder and external drives.
Instead Apple gave me a big F U.
Here are some facts:
1. Firewire is not a “pro” thing–otherwise, why did Apple include it in the past in all Macs, regardless of cost or availability of USB 2 ports. I have a 2-year-old Panasonic DV camcorder that works perfectly fine. It is not a “pro” camcorder by any stretch of the imagination, but it does me fine for editing simple home video. Why should I have to get a new camcorder to get a MB (or pay $700 more to get a MBP), when this was something that was available before? It feels like the PC guy who says that if your peripherals don’t work with Vista, get new peripherals.
2. This brings up the second argument, which compares Apple dropping firewire in the MB to them dropping the floppy. NO. NO. NO. Floppies were obsolete, FW is not. And there was a work-around through external USB floppy drives. And floppies were being dropped to introduce new technology; pray tell, what new technology is being introduced in place FW in the MB? USB?
3. Apple has every right to differentiate between the Pro and Consumer laptops. However, this is not about the question of what rights Apple has. You do not differentiate by removing already existing technology; that is simply bad form. You differentiate by adding new technology to the MBP. In removing already existing, superior technology from the MB, Apple comes off as cheap skates.
4. It is legitimate for people working with firewire devices to demand a form factor that is less that 15 inches, especially as Apple provided that in the past. There is a simple compromise that Apple could do (and should have done). Incorporate into the Higher End MB either FW 400 or an express card slot–especially since they raised the price by $100. That would, in my opinion, solve the problem.
Peace