New MacBook Pros

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

It'll be nice when we can replace our towers with a portable. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer

http://www.apple.com/

[Frodo]

It'll be nice when we can replace our towers with a portable. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer

http://www.apple.com/

Nope. We're not even headed in the right direction. No firewire, no expansion slot.

If your whole life revolves around USB2 and wireless everything, then this machine is ideal.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =9&t=32128

[tyronehowe]

Hmmm this is worrying.

Apple are turning into Microsoft – i.e. later products don’t contain what was in earlier products.

The new 15 “ MacBook Pro dropping Firewire 400 support but keeping Firewire 800 support? That’s odd surely. You have to buy a 17” MacBook Pro to get the slower FW 400 port – huh??

A boost in the maximum memory would have been welcome.

At least (for now) the white MacBook is still available with a FW 400 port, but the new MacBook does not have any FW! Some very odd marketing decisions there.

[tyronehowe]

Ok I’d better retract some of last post!

I didn’t realise that you could buy a cheap adapter cable to plug FW400 devices into your FW800 port.

Still, would have been nice if Apple could have included the adapter!

[Shooshie]

Many devices now are coming with the 800/400 cable included. Firewire 800 is a little bit like having 2 Firewire 400 ports. And there's certainly nothing wrong with supporting Firewire 800! It's FAST!

The twin graphics cards are interesting. You can switch to the low-powered one or the high-powered one. It will be interesting to see which one boosts DP's performance the most. I don't see this as a bad move for the MacBook Pro. But the plain MacBook is no longer an option for MOTU users until they get USB2 support for their interfaces.

Shooshie

[Aramis]

No FireWire ? Are you certain ?

Aramis

It'll be nice when we can replace our towers with a portable. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer

http://www.apple.com/

Nope. We're not even headed in the right direction. No firewire, no expansion slot.

If your whole life revolves around USB2 and wireless everything, then this machine is ideal.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =9&t=32128

[gearboy]

I am really really really unhappy with Apple for dropping Firewire on the MacBooks. Seems like the focus groups that they put together to figure out what to keep and what to drop and what to add didn't include any professionals. I suppose that's what the "Pro" in MacBook Pro means. It seems that just when the less expensive laptops got up there in speed, firewire was dropped in order to make all of the audio and video folks have to pony-up the extra cash.

Regarding FW800 only on the new 15" MacBook Pros... there is also a card slot which you can add a second firewire bus. What I do on my Powerbook is run the drive off of the card and the interface off of the internal fw bus. You can do this vice-versa. Having a card is a necessity with a MacBook Pro or Powerbook imho. However, what I am wondering is if the fw port is going to give folks problems with their audio interfaces. I've heard that folks are having problems out there, something to do with apple switching something FW chipsets? Again, I've heard, not experienced.

I feel like the sky is falling every time that Apple releases a new computer since the MacBook Air came out (with the exception of the Mac Pro... well... price). I hate that feeling.

Jeff

[michkhol]

The new 15 “ MacBook Pro dropping Firewire 400 support but keeping Firewire 800 support? That’s odd surely. You have to buy a 17” MacBook Pro to get the slower FW 400 port – huh??

I'm sure both ports in the old MacBook Pro were running off the same bus. So the new one is just one connector short.

[Aramis]

I agree with that !

Aramis

The new 15 “ MacBook Pro dropping Firewire 400 support but keeping Firewire 800 support? That’s odd surely. You have to buy a 17” MacBook Pro to get the slower FW 400 port – huh??

I'm sure both ports in the old MacBook Pro were running off the same bus. So the new one is just one connector short.

[gearboy]

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

[rockitcity]

...Regarding FW800 only on the new 15" MacBook Pros... there is also a card slot which you can add a second firewire bus. What I do on my Powerbook is run the drive off of the card and the interface off of the internal fw bus. You can do this vice-versa. Having a card is a necessity with a MacBook Pro or Powerbook imho...

Adding a card to a Powerbook only gives you more ports. There is still only one Firewire bus. Don't believe me? Check your system profiler with your card and devices attached-you will see only one FW bus. And, if you want to get FW 800 speed out of your Powerbook, you can't have anything FW 400 plugged into either the Powerbook or the card. You have to plug your FW 800 drive into the FW 800 port and daisy-chain your interface off a dual-interface drive (or use a FW 800 to 400 adapter cable after the drive).

I did extensive testing on this with my Powerbook G4. Same situation holds true for my imac 24" intel. So, dropping FW 400 ports from the new Macbook Pro is no great loss as far as performance is concerned. Now, no FW support at all on the Macbook makes that model unusable for digital audio at this point in time, so it's not a consideration for audio Pro's.

Bob

[jayjo19]

It'll be nice when we can replace our towers with a portable. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer

http://www.apple.com/

Nope. We're not even headed in the right direction. No firewire, no expansion slot.

If your whole life revolves around USB2 and wireless everything, then this machine is ideal.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =9&t=32128

Actually they put firewire 400 and 800 back into the new macbook pros. And the expansion port as well.

Seems like it would be manageable (is that the correct word?) to work on a macbook pro, assuming you're using firewire 400 for your interface, firewire 800 for your drive, and the expansion port for let's say a uad. or even use it for a pci 424.
Speaking of stability and comfort, I wouldn't track an album or a "big band" concert on a laptop, just too much hassle.

[kwiz]

It'll be nice when we can replace our towers with a portable. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer

http://www.apple.com/

Nope. We're not even headed in the right direction. No firewire, no expansion slot.

If your whole life revolves around USB2 and wireless everything, then this machine is ideal.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =9&t=32128

Actually they put firewire 400 and 800 back into the new macbook pros. And the expansion port as well.

Seems like it would be manageable (is that the correct word?) to work on a macbook pro, assuming you're using firewire 400 for your interface, firewire 800 for your drive, and the expansion port for let's say a uad. or even use it for a pci 424.
Speaking of stability and comfort, I wouldn't track an album or a "big band" concert on a laptop, just too much hassle.

The 400 & 800 are only on the "17 model.

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

I've been trying out a eSata card (in the CardBus/34 slot) connected to two drives eSata drives on my older MacBook Pro. Works pretty nice and frees up the firewire port for an audio interface. So the new MacBookPro should be ok for what we do if you use eSata Drives.

The regular MacBooks have gone the way of the MacBook Air... Nice, light eMail and web browsing machines, but not usable for pro applications requiring firewire..

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

It'll be nice when we can replace our towers with a portable. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer

http://www.apple.com/

Nope. We're not even headed in the right direction. No firewire, no expansion slot.

If your whole life revolves around USB2 and wireless everything, then this machine is ideal.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =9&t=32128

Actually they put firewire 400 and 800 back into the new macbook pros. And the expansion port as well.

Seems like it would be manageable (is that the correct word?) to work on a macbook pro, assuming you're using firewire 400 for your interface, firewire 800 for your drive, and the expansion port for let's say a uad. or even use it for a pci 424.
Speaking of stability and comfort, I wouldn't track an album or a "big band" concert on a laptop, just too much hassle.

To my knowledge the expansion port is just a ExpressCard/34 slot. To use a PCI card you would have to buy a Magma Chassis or something that gets you from the ExpressCard/34 to PCI.