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Size matters.

I bet it's got seven Firewire ports. Did I mention I love spitfires?

great news I have some more time to save for the old one with mat screen.

Oct 15, 08 - 10:17 am Comment from: spaceMan

Hmmm.... I just noticed that the 15" MacBook Pro offers the 128GB Solid State drive as an option.... didn't see it there before.

I was wondering where the 17" are...

Seven firewire ports? It should give one to the MacBook

Heh heh heh.

You all wanna bet that the new macbook pro 17" a few months from now will NOT have any firewire ports?
I say it won't.

Isn't it obvious by now that Steve has decided to give up on firewire? He is going to force the entire apple market to convert to USB 2.0.

Oct 15, 08 - 10:33 am Comment from: jonahan

@Olternaut you mean like the new Macbook Pro's don't have firewire? .... Oh wait..

Actually I'd rather see the "refreshed" 17 inch delayed forever. The black frame around the screen looks ugly and cheap. Apple computers start to look more and more like Dell computers. If it continues like this, I will have to stick to my current MB Pro forever ...

@ Mike Nevin

Yes - 7 Firewire 3200 ports MINIMUM.

Far to Greedy though. Give one back to the MacBook Immediately! I Insist.

My bet is FW800 on the 17".

You can add FW400 or FW800 with an ExpressCard.

Apple should really add an ExpressCard slot to the MacBook. Then users can add FW or eSATA or whatever they want.

Oct 15, 08 - 10:47 am Comment from: Bitjockey

Apple needs SOMETHING to announce at MacWorld in January!

I've learned to hold off buying MY Christmas present until mid January

Arrr - meant to say

Anyone up for buying a domain and starting a petition to Apple...

http://www.weresmyfirewireportgone.com

A few million names should do it.... after all, every other post would appear to be on this topic for the last 20hrs.

Speaking of Apple making a small slip - where's ZuneTang™ got to?

Did anyone watch the keynote? I heard Steve Jobs say that the firewire 800 port would support firewire 400 peripherals with an adaptor. What's the big deal? Onward and upward, right? I'm just pissed that it doesn't have a floppy drive.

I'm waiting for the new 17" too. I can't wait to go and have a look at the new 15" to see how it's going to be. My current gen 17's case is a squeaky as a trailers screen door.

Oct 15, 08 - 10:58 am Comment from: ABQ Peter

i've had a 17" powerbook g4 for three years; i like it, but i am going to buy a 15" this time; it is too much of a hassle trying to use a 17" on an airplane. the extra screen space is nice on the 17", but if the person in front of you tips back you can't read the screen anyway,

Oct 15, 08 - 11:04 am Comment from: Willie G

It's amazing to me how many of you do not know what you are talking about.

Apple did not give up on firewire, they just ditched the 13-year old FW400 standard. The newer, faster FW800 is still in place. I only wish the the MBP had 2 of them to supplement the absence of 400.

This isn't the first time Apple has left old technology out of a product before that it became completely useless. I still remember how everyone scoffed when they stopped putting floppy drives in their towers...

The 17" MBP will be the first MBP to have Intel's quad-core laptop processor. Well worth waiting for!

@ Lord Fontleroy

Zune Tang switched, he's busy making imovies while watching apple TV and talking to his mom on an iphone about the new series of "90210" that he bought from itunes in HD.

Oct 15, 08 - 11:30 am Comment from: Altivec Guru

My wish is for a 17" MBPro with Quad-Core 3.0 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, larger battery capacity, and high-DPI LCD. Maybe EC/56 instead of EC/34?

I'm waiting for an upgrade to the Mac mini!

Oct 15, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: Altivec Guru

There's already a FW800 port on the new MacBook Pro. What more do you need (besides an adapter to use FW400)? An EC/34 has 2.5 mbps available and can provide you with two or three more FW800 ports, plus an extra USB 2.0 port, simultaneously...

Oct 15, 08 - 11:34 am Comment from: MizuInOz

I have had 17" since the first one came out. Will not consider downsizing - that said, I also have a MBA - but it is more for quick meetings where I need to give a "little" presentation and use the "wow" factor of the Air!

For the longest time, I only had the 17"er... could even drive a 30" display with it.

FW 800 - want two ports - as has already been mentioned.

I think the response at the Q&A;about the 17" said it all. Quick answer. No elaboration. They know the demand and desire for it is VERY strong.

Cheers.

I'm with 'conservative mac user' and 'Jeff'.

I predict pros will be heading for the 17" MBP in droves now they know that it will get an nice reflective screen upon its refresh.

Also, the price of used MBPs and even PBs will be nice and healthy as others (like myself) will be sticking with the laptop that doesn't require a FW adapter or a dark room.

That's ok, as I'm very sure the new one will sell like hotcakes, that is until they take the thing to a location shoot and find no way to see past the glare. Been there, done that, if you haven't, shut up. Or better still, take your MacBook out side and try to use iPhoto.

So, for now Apple does give you a choice.

Oct 15, 08 - 11:49 am Comment from: Predrag

We had some twenty stories on MDN recently in which commenters complained about the lack of FW on MB. However, they were the same 40 people who commented in all these stories.

I am not convinced that FW will be missed (or even noticed) by the buying masses.

There will always be a small number of us who will miss FW, ability to capture DV, hook up our FW devices (external drives, hi-res scanners, multi-channel audio interfaces) or the target mode. For the majority of those masses, though, USB2 is the only port they've used so far and will continue to be sufficient in the future.

Okay, people... all of you saying that what's the big deal, there's FW800 on the MBP:

They're referring to there being NONE on the new regular MacBook (not Pro).

I'm not commenting on the situation, just clarifying for those of you who still don't understand.

Oct 15, 08 - 12:08 pm Comment from: Macintosher

@Predrag

Precisely correct. I'm glad you said so. I'm an Apple Developer and I've never used FireWire on my MacBook in its life. And I have dozens of peripherals. So there.

It's amazing to me how you think you know everything and have no problem telling everybody else how stupid they are.
You're nice and brave in an anonymous forum, in person you're probably a worm.

FW is no longer available in the new MacBook, leaving everyone who has FW based peripherals out in the cold unless they spend $2000 on a laptop. It was a deliberate decision and it's left many Apple fans frustrated. If Apple wanted to drive adoption of the newer, faster standard they should have included FW800. Because they didn't the obvious conclusion is that they are simply attempting to drive sales of the 15" model, not move the industry up to FW800.

More to the point here, the fact that you seem to think that yours is the only perspective and everyone else is a fool only makes you look foolish. You're entitled to your opinion, but to discount everyone else's view as dim-witted ignorance makes you a prat.

The prat's where it's at.

...before that it became completely useless.

Like your English.

MW: school
As in, go back to.

http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_willieb.htm

The removal of FireWire is Apple's sh*ttiest marketing move yet.

I'm totally with U on the ugliness of the new machines. Perhaps we should do something like this:

OPEN LETTER TO JONATHAN IVE

Dear Jonathan Ive,

Put the new MacBook Pro next to a "classic" PowerBook G4, and be honest with yourself for a moment. Do you really think this new machine is an aesthetic improvement over the original design?

I, and many Mac users with me, don't think so.

Many Apple products are rightly seen as important steps forward in the history of industrial design. The new MacBooks, however, are a significant step backward!

Given your track record, we firmly believe that you could have come up with something much better. And we hope that you will do so in the near future.

Sincerely.


(Anyone has got Ive's address?)

Firewire is a god send for me.
The company I work for purchased a MacBook Pro for me to use at my request. The catch this is a company computer and not for personal use. So with the aid of FW 800 and a 1TB external HD I Boot to what is essentially a free Mac for use at home without corporate IT having to know a thing about it.

Jeff,

You said:
"Firewire is a god send for me.
The company I work for purchased a MacBook Pro for me to use at my request. The catch this is a company computer and not for personal use. So with the aid of FW 800 and a 1TB external HD I Boot to what is essentially a free Mac for use at home without corporate IT having to know a thing about it."

Smart you are!

- Doga

Oct 15, 08 - 01:18 pm Comment from: John Crawford

Bollocks!

where on earth is the new 17-inch unibody macbook pro?