The $700 FireWire Port

Let's face it--I love my Macs. And when Apple introduces new models, I get all drooly and my hands twitch around my credit cards. The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros introduced today are certainly drool-worthy: cool new milled-aluminum enclosures, way, way faster graphics, faster processors, etc. The MacBook even gets the backlit keyboard I've been lusting after. Oh, and they dropped the prices. Sweet!

But as Steve says, there's one more thing. The new MacBook? No FireWire port. No way to add one. Too bad, so sad. You want FireWire, get a 15" MacBook Pro.

The new MacBook. Notice the missing FireWire port.

So here's the deal. I use a wonderful little camera for planetary photography, the DMK21AF04.US. The "F" in that string of alphabet soup stands for FireWire. Sure, The Imaging Source also sells that camera in a USB 2 version. But you know what? There are no Mac drivers for it. And no matter what the USB folks say, FireWire has better sustained transfer rates. It's a fact, you can go look it up.

So what do I do? I put my credit card back in my wallet. Sorry Apple--you lost me this time around.