Rush Limbaugh: Okay, Apple, where’s my Mac Pro with Thunderbolt?

In those two years, massive improvements in data-transfer technology have been invented, created. One of them is called Thunderbolt. It’s a data transfer protocol that is much faster than USB, much faster than FireWire. Every Apple computer in the last year has it. The top-of-the-line Apple computer never has had it. I have been waiting. There has been no word. In fact, there were rumors that Apple is going to discontinue my computer. It’s not their biggest seller. It is their most expensive.

It’s used by video professionals and graphics professionals who need a lot of processing power. I don’t need all the power it has, but I want it. So, I had it. I have a lot of data. I have a lot of video files. I have a lot of audio files. And even though the Mac Pro comes with eight terabytes of built-in storage, I only have two of those terabytes actually available for storage because the other six I use for backup. I have two different backups. One is their Time Machine backup, and I’ve unified two of the four hard drives into one four-terabyte drive.

It has four two-terabyte drives in it. The other two-terabyte drive I use for the other backup. So I’ve got two terabytes, and it’s on the verge of always being filled. So what I wanted to do was get an external RAID array, and I have them. I’ve had ’em in there for two years waiting. It’s called Promise’s Pegasus. There any numbers you can get, but you can get ’em from anywhere from four terabytes up to 12 terabytes that connect via Thunderbolt, and they become external storage for whatever you want to use it for.

I was gonna use it for storing all of the audio and video because I’m always up to the edge on my two-terabyte hard drive. I know it sounds weird to have eight terabytes in the machine and use only two, but backup is crucial. Power failures where I live — power surges, glitches — happen. The data is too important. I’m backed up everywhere, as insurance. So there’s a way around it. But there was no Thunderbolt, and I didn’t want to connect via FireWire or USB because it takes ages to transfer data.

So I’ve been waiting … and I’ve been waiting. And in these two years, word leaked out that maybe they were gonna discontinue the computer, but they never said anything. A bunch of Mac Pro users actually started a Facebook petition simply asking Apple just to tell them: “Are you gonna modernize it or you gonna get rid of it? Our business depends on it. To hell with your secrecy! It’s not like you have any competitors here that you gotta keep this secret. Just tell us!”

And they wouldn’t.

They had as many as, I think, 16,000 or 17,000 signatories to this Facebook petition. So yesterday was the Worldwide Developer Conference, and there were rumors leading up to it claiming that there would be a refresh. And everybody was singing “Hallelujah!” and “Hunkadora!” and everything. Then the Worldwide Developer Conference happens, and they don’t say a thing about it. So we all go to the Apple Store after the keynote address is over and we find, “Whoa, looky here! They’ve upgraded! All right! They’ve upgraded the Mac Pro.”

And I started look at the specs. And they’re not even using the brand-new, latest-available chips that came out in March! The upgrade is insignificant. There is no Thunderbolt in their top-of-the-line machine. And I was ready to come here today and say, “Steve Jobs would have never permitted this. What in the world are they thinking?” Your top-of-the-line computer, if you’re not gonna get rid of it, why not…? I mean, Thunderbolt’s been out a year. Why can’t you include it? Anyway, I was going through all this, and I’m fit to be tied ’cause I’ve been waiting to expand.

There are other options. I could go iMac. It’s not as fast. It does have all the internal storage, but it would work fine. I could connect my external drive to it and solve my problem, but I’ve been waiting. So last night on an Apple blog I discover that David Pogue, who is the tech blogger and writer at the New York Times, posts a little piece that says an Apple executive told him that the Mac Pro and the iMac are both being redesigned and face major upgrades. But not until next year. I said, “Ah, well, here we are back to where I started two years ago: Waiting.”

But Apple hasn’t officially said this.

It’s just some nameless exec talking to the New York Times, and we know how that can go. It’s the New York Times. So now I don’t know what to do. I’m sitting here with a two-year-old computer, which is unacceptable. The upgrade is not worth it. It doesn’t make any sense to do it. (interruption) What I have now is 12-Core. The speed bump is not that big. It’s not. Without the Thunderbolt, without USB 3, without some of the other little things that other Macs have. The MacBook Airs, these things that cost 900 bucks have Thunderbolt!

I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the marketing. I don’t. I know they may be redesigning it. They’ve got their explanations, but they never tell anybody. So I’m sitting here not knowing what to do. And I don’t want to wait a year! But here’s something I know: If I go ahead and do something as a substitute (get another Mac), and they do upgrade it a year from now, I’m gonna sit there and say, “Why didn’t I wait?” And I’ll get it anyway and I’ll find some homeless guy to give my system to. Like Snerdley.

(sigh)

Well, look, I could spend all day talking about this. The 15-inch Mac Pro, apparently it’s to die for. It’s just great. There’s nothing like it. Apparently it’s gonna wipe out all the other competition. That’s fine. That computer’s gonna cost close to four grand if you max it out. A 15-inch laptop is gonna cost four grand if you load the thing up. So I don’t know how many of them they’re actually gonna sell at the maxed-out configuration. So, anyway, I’m sitting here and I have no clue what to do.

And Apple will never tell you what they’re gonna do with this, even though they don’t have to guard this one with secrecy. There aren’t any competitors at the Mac Pro line that they gotta keep secrets from, but still… So I’m sitting here frustrated as I can be. I really want Thunderbolt! (laughing) For those of you… I know you think I’m nuts, and they offer it on every computer. But they don’t offer it on a computer that is wicked fast and can handle all that I put a computer through. The computer is my life. It’s my primary form of communication.

Now, let me give you another analogy here, folks. Here I am, El Rushbo of the EIB Network. I have money that I am willing to put into play. I want to put my money in play. I don’t care what Apple’s gonna charge for this new computer; I just want it. But I don’t know if they’re even going to make the thing. As such I don’t know that I’m gonna spend another penny with Apple until I do find out whether or not they’re gonna do it, and they may not tell me. I don’t know. I got money sitting around here. It’s on the sideline. In a way, my little, quote, unquote, problem is a microcosm for what’s going on throughout the American economy, as small business and other business sit around and wait until they find out what’s gonna happen with taxes and health care and Obama and the presidential election.

I don’t think it’s a stretch. I’m sitting on money I am willing to spend, that I want to spend, but there’s uncertainty out there. I don’t know if it’s gonna make sense for me to spend it on something I’m really not crazy about getting instead of waiting for what might be coming. I don’t know. In fact, I’m a little bit afraid to spend something on what I don’t really want because what if they do make what I want available? The same thing is happening throughout our economy. Businesses large and small are sitting on growth. They are standing by. They are idle because they don’t know whether Obama’s gonna be reelected, and then they don’t know what their taxes are gonna be. They don’t know what the punitive costs of hiring people are gonna be. They don’t know what their health care requirements are gonna be. They don’t know. So they’re sitting around, and they have no clue how to spend their money yet.