When I first heard about the new MacBooks the only words i seemed to hear were, “their aluminum, wait…their aluminum?!” Yes, they have a “Precision aluminum unibody enclosure.” Oh and they have a wicked graphics card: a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card to be exact, on their cheapest MacBook model…
But aside from a heap of fancy new design features and updated hardware improvements, there’s something that has all but disappeared from the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros… The Firewire 400 port…
But let me be clear: there’s really, really bad news for the MacBook. FireWire 400 is gone. There’s no way to add it back, because the non-Pro models lack ExpressCard. You can’t edit video from a DV camera, you can’t plug in audio interfaces from the likes of MOTU and RME, and you’ll have to do all audio, MIDI, and external storage through two USB 2.0 jacks. Oct, 14 2008, By Peter Kirn. Read more…
As an ol’ MacBook Pro owner and a die hard Apple fan, I briefly considered investing in a new MacBook Pro. But I think I’ll keep my FW400 port for now, and wait ’til Apple makes a smart functionality/usability decision instead of a “lets sacrific functionality for attractability” decision…
this does reveal a weakness of the Mac platform, which is that you are constrained to what Apple gives you in hardware choice. It’s worth noting that this is a definite mark in the plus column for standard PCs running Windows and Linux. That might not change your mind on OS choice, but there is still a choice, and each platform choice involves tradeoffs. Oct, 14 2008, By Peter Kirn. Read more…
Lets hope that next time Apple releases a new product they will at least give us the option to custom order additional FW ports or other customizable add-ons for that matter… Because if I remember correctly, Apple’s target audience is suppose to be creative multimedia individuals… The creative individuals that need the extra FW port for external devices…
The once dreaded PC just got a whole lot more interesting… Especially when I can customize it ’til kingdom come.
Sign the petition that’s requesting the return of the FW400 port to the MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
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