So you’ve gotten rid of the FireWire 400 port and now you’re migrating all your machines to the mini display port?
Hey, Jobsy can’t help that we’re still operating in 2005, or that we think FireWire400 is perfectly useable or don’t want to invest hundreds/thousands to upgrade old drives…
Again, the lack of Firewire 400 on the MBP can be solved with a simple FW800>FW400 cable for like ten bucks, or with an Expresscard which is nice because it lets separate HDs run on a different bus anyway. BUT this means something far more significant to the Macbook audience (or those of us who are the goto guy for all of our friends who fuck up their Macbooks): No more target-disk mode. It has been the first and most important step in diagnosing problematic macs since its inception and is also the cleanest, most efficient way to transfer systems and / or large amounts of data. My guess is that Apple will make these new computers USB targetable, but A) lame and 2) if they don’t, super lame! The dual-channel adapter is nothing new, Apple’s had the ADC to DVI adapter since the Cube but if this “Mini Display Port” doesn’t become the standard, like ADC, the format will become instantly archaic.
Well, Apple has a history of assuming standards a bit on the early side. And yes, I was thinking bummer about the no FW400 on the MacBook too. However, thinking about it I only use FW400 for burning the odd DVD, and with a built in SuperDrive, well… Can you connect a FW400 camcorder to a USB 2.0 though? Not that I have one, just curious.
The problem with USB 2.0 is that it’s not as fast as firewire in practical use. You can’t capture video to it reliably. You can daisy chain it onto the FW800 drive. The frustrating thing is that this is a concious decision on apples part to discontinue a port that is incredibly popular among a lot of their pro users. A port, that absent, will make iMovie that much more frustrating to use for all the home video users. It would have added 5-10 cents to the cost of each laptop. I can’t see any reason to have gotten rid of it.
