Firewire on Macbook

Funny, I work for a company called Macmedia and we have had to buy a bunch of 15" previous gen. macbook pros to sell at $1599 to clients. Seems like a better alternative for those who need firewire.

If you REALLY want Apple to reconsider their decision to remove Firewire and Target Disk Mode from the new MacBooks, you can provide feedback by going to:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html

Go there and register your concerns about the issue. If enough people complain about it, they will fix it. It happened with the iMac G5 and the Ambient Light Sensor issue. Enough people complained and they dropped the ALS in the next design revision.

Pass this URL on to everyone that is concerned and have them provide input.

You can also call 1-MY-APPLE and ask to speak with the consumer relations division. When enough people make enough noise, Apple will fix the problem

Here's my thoughts on the macbook firewire issue:

For those who need it : (the music and video and tech IT (target mode - etc.) community etc.), Firewire is STILL a VERY NEEDED/USEFUL technology. Since the usage for Firewire in this community FAR OUTWAYS the incredibly trivial cost of adding a firewire port, and to not even be superceded by something else (eSata port), it seems it was a ridiculous omission on Apple's part to leave this out.

I will also post this on the feedback page.

Maybe this is just me but if you knew you were going to discontinue something as big as firewire how about a warning? Say in two years we will discontinue support for firewire please start making the switch over. Please be aware that the next MacBook coming out will not have it and then when they release it people wouldn't be shocked. Not a big deal to me but people sure seem irritated and with the market share of apple (yes growing but still not a majority) you would think they would want to cater more to their customers. Even Microsoft warns you before they phase something out...

Again I think Apple is great and I see why Steve decided on this but the delivery was bad.

-Tucker

Bad isn't even good enough to describe.

Not a word from Apple about what we should do or use.
Not a word that they even removed it or why.

I am beginning to wonder Apple even knows they removed the firewire port on the MacBook because they haven't mentioned it to anyone.
I bet someone messed up in the design and didn't realize they forgot the firewire port until after 100,000 of the new aluminum cases were already manufactured.

Why hasn't Apple mentioned anything to their users? Why?
Not a peep... Nothing...
Here one day and gone the next without any warning or explanation on what we could use instead of firewire.

It appears they just don't care at all about their customers...

Joseph Kriz

Saying they don't care about their customers might be a little harsh. I also doubt they just forgot to add it, then again that would be a huge mistake (someone will lose their job if so). I thought Steve said there wasn't a high enough adoption rate for it and with many of the new device manufacturers going to USB 2.0 they decided to get rid of it. Again warning would have been nice. I still wish it had Blue Ray or HDMI but I have been waiting how every many years now to buy a Mac and I am not waiting any longer.

-Tucker

No way would Apple remove Firewire! All the good stuff is Firewire.

The firewire port is a faster way of connecting devices to your Mac, such as hard drives, video and audio equipment. A Firewire connection also allows you to boot into Target Mode, which basically turns your machine into a hard drive.

Target disk mode has saved my rear several times on every machine I have owned.

Firewire 3200 is on it's way, sony has iLink, most Pro cameras can only work with Macs via Firewire.

Ziatron,

They no longer include a firewire port on the new MacBook.

It gone.... Look at the new MacBook here:
http://a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/2041/1469/store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/macbo ok/img/gallery-big-02.jpg
Do you see a firewire port? Nope...

People are speculating that the iMac is next. What machines after that?
Apple sure isn't telling anyone anything about anything... Just like they don't care...

Joseph Kriz

Maybe the only "safe" way is a Mac Pro, that way a PC type Firewire card could be added.

Most people who have rightly complained that the new MacBook is missing the firewire port must have at least had it in mind to acquire a new MacBook either soon or sometime in the future. Everyone of those will not now buy the new machine, including myself for this reason. I have too much cash invested in Firewire peripherals. That’s my bottom line, and I think this may well prove to affect Apple’s bottom line too. The argument that the Pro machine has Firewire does not hold water in this context. It is the new ally Macbook I want, whatever my reason for not choosing the Pro.

I count myself lucky that I still have my MB 2.4 with its firewire port. In my opinion, this is the worst decision that Apple could have made regarding a product refresh. It has certainly cost them £1,149.00 of my cash today.

Hi, my thoughts on Apple's decision to design the new MacBooks without the standard FireWire Port.

I am a bit surprised, but mostly disappointed that Apple has not included the standard FireWire Port on the newly designed MacBooks. Right now I have the older MacBook 2.2 GHz and I have a LaCie FireWire 60 GB HD, no USB port, a Tascam FireWire Audio interface, Canon DSLR, and getting a new FireWire CF card reader soon. Most high end audio interfaces are FireWire, such as the Apogee line. Not sure if they offer a USB port or not, but I think not.

I will not be able to buy the new MacBook for this reason. I think Apple has made a serious error, leaving out the FireWire port. I'm sure other MacBook owners will be disappointed as well. Apple, put the FireWire port back in please, there are many external peripherals that use it exclusively. And I still don't think USB 2.0 is faster than FireWire, at least my own experience.

What can I say, only that I will have to look at other options when I start shopping for a new laptop.

I was hoping to be able to buy a Macbook with firewire around christmas, so i waited for the release of the new macbook all those roumors were talking about. My main hobbies regard music and video. I have spent a lot of money on an audio interface with FW and of course on a DV camera by working overtime for months and being patient. Chopping the FW off the new macbooks forces me either to consider to buy a MBP, or to buy a PC laptop running Vista or even capable of running OSX86. I find Apple's move very annoying. It is the kind of move Microsoft did by forcing everyone to upgrade their PCs just to be able to run Vista. I will not be forced neither to sell my Audio and Video equipment, nor to spend twice the amount of money for the MacBook Pro.

The option of buying an older mac is not really an option. Faster graphics are a must if you run CPU-hungry applications on a system with shared memory graphics.

congratulations, you just lost 1 customer.

PS. A Macbook Pro with just 1 firewire port is a joke.

Right... Me? Still in shock. :/

I'm switching PowerBook g4 to a new macbook and I just wonder how the ** should I transfer my data by Migration Assistent.

It appears I need 2 computers now (PB is dead)to use one - new macbook. Brilliant idea..

Yoota wrote:
Right... Me? Still in shock. :/

I'm switching PowerBook g4 to a new macbook and I just wonder how the ** should I transfer my data by Migration Assistent.

I used a Time Machine backup of my old MB to a usb drive. Using that to set up the new MB was one of the options and it worked quite well. I never used a firewire drive with the 2006 MB because I wanted compatibility with other computers which had no firewire (a PC laptop and a Dell desktop) for transferring images, MP3s and such.

Phil

Phil, thanks, good idea. The problem is that the motherboard of pb is dead, so the only thing i can do is transfer the date from pb hard drive as an external drive by web/usb/firewire. And for this i need another computer (as i do not have any usb external hdd case for ata)...