Comments on: Taking the Pro Out of the MacBook Pro

By: Hollywood 2.0 » Blog Archive » Is the IPhone killing Final Cut Pro?

Hollywood 2.0 » Blog Archive » Is the IPhone killing Final Cut Pro? — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:57:37 +0000

[...] I feel their pain, because its seems crazy when Apple calls something a “pro” model but removes commonly used access ports, or fails to innovate over several successive software [...]

By: Kaspar Strømme

Kaspar Strømme — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:42:59 +0000

FYI the new updates put FW800 back on all the MBP’s, even the new 13″. The old White MB has FW400 so all laptops except Air have FireWire.

FW in general is losing some of its shine, tapeless cameras work fine with USB2, and they are taking over the market. Apple has a history of dropping end-of-line formats before the rest of the market (think Floppy disk!!), but since FW is back again one could surmise they actually listened to the complaints this time.

ExpressCard is still available on the 17″. If you have a major investment in ExpressCard peripherals you buy a 17″ next time. SD cards are quickly becoming popular on semi-pro tapeless cameras so the inclusion is not too suprising. Probably costs less too. P2 card owners were similarly outraged when the PCMCIA slots disappeared, 3rd party vendors since stepped up and provided external readers.

By: Video Cinematic » Blog Archive » Is the IPhone killing Final Cut Pro?

Video Cinematic » Blog Archive » Is the IPhone killing Final Cut Pro? — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:40:25 +0000

[...] I feel their pain, because its seems crazy when Apple calls something a “pro” model but removes commonly used access ports, or fails to innovate over several successive software [...]

By: Philip Johnston

Philip Johnston — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:24:48 +0000

Thanks Larry, I fully agree…Apple are making a mess of the MacBook Pro and Mr Jobs should listen to us and not his wayward design team. Take my position, I use a unibody (last incarnation) as a prompter and if you are prompting you need to be able to change batteries and have a composite video out… fortunately I am able to buy a spare battery but I have no direct video out as has been in all laptops up to and including the MacBook Air. So I had to buy the mini display adapter to RGB then via a gadget in Maplin take the RGB out to composite video. Now you don’t even have the option to change the battery in the MacBook Pro…Apple you are in a mess.

By: Tom Parke

Tom Parke — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:44:23 +0000

I have a 15” DP 2.93 GHz MacBook Pro with the ExpressCard/34 port and I still cannot use it for editing with a G-Speed eSATA RAID (level 1) without it locking up the laptop. So, I am still looking for who can help after three controller cards, three cables, Apple Support, G-Tech Support, and numerous questions on various sites with no answers. It’s as if I am the only one who has this problem. I raised the Apple issue up the management chain with no solution except to mirror and reload all to my laptop (which I did). When traveling, all I could do was capture; editing was a nightmare! By the way, my last controller card was a FirmTEK, about $120, now a new Sonnet card will be out soon at $300. Who knows whether the more expensive one will work or not? I feel like Charlie Brown being fooled by Lucy Van Pelt everytime with the “pull the football away at the last second” routine.

I still use my Mac Book Pro to ingest Sony PMW-EX1 SxS HQ 1080p footage, but I am editing on a G5 DP 2.5 system. My G-Speed is a $900 paperweight right now.

Sorry ’bout all the venting, but, it is frustrating! Apple needs to meet the needs of filmakers/editors who do travel and want to edit HD.

Tom Parke

By: Mark F

Mark F — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:35:09 +0000

This makes DroboPro and its fast iSCSI connection look more attractive for MacBook Pro owners — just connect via that gigabit ethernet port. Apple wil not be able to remove it from the MBPros.

Disclosure: I work for Drobo, and we have a solution to Apple’s taking away FireWire 800 ports.

Larry replies: Mark, this is true. The new DroboPro (www.Drobo.com) connects to the computer via EtherNet, instead of Firewire. And, according to your website, this unit is much faster than the SD port on the computer. However, for editors that need BOTH a fast Internet connection for access to FTP sites, and a fast external hard drive, we still don’t have a good solution with the new MacBook Pro laptops.

By: nicolas

nicolas — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:27:24 +0000

Weird ! What about signing some sort of (collective) petition that would be sent to Apple ? I guess we all want the high-speed Express 34 cards and Firewire 800 back

- – -

Nicolas: I tend to be dubious about the value of petitions. Giving Apple direct feedback I think would be better – either by not buying, complaining to reps in Apple Stores, or sending feedback directly to Apple. Though, if someone has a petition going, let me know and I’ll spread the word.