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Steve Jobs: No USB 3 any time soon
- unicornporn 16y agoNo USB 3, no TRIM for their SSDs and no Blu-ray. Yay.
- yatsyk 16y agoI don't have any bluray and don't miss about them. Apple has iTunes which could be considered as competitor to bluray distribution. But there is no substitution to USB3 or TRIM now.
- Derbasti 16y agoWell, TRIM seems to be pretty redundant these days. The latest generation of SSDs (Intel, Sandforce) work just fine even without TRIM due to intelligent block management and aggressive garbage collection. As for Blu-Ray, I don't really see them taking off just yet and honestly don't see a point in preferring them over digital distribution. AND, I would gladly dispense with optical drives altogether if I could get a smaller, lighter laptop instead. Remember how Steve Jobs said that they would never build a netbook--and now there is the 11" Air.
- GHFigs 16y agoRemember how Steve Jobs said that they would never build a netbook--and now there is the 11" Air. What he actually said was: "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk."[1] Notice also how the Air is not in the same price bracket as netbooks, does not have the same performance profile as netbooks, and not referred to by the manufacturer as a netbook. [1]:http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b4156000345421.htm http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b41560003...
- frou_dh 16y agoIf only we knew how much it cost Apple to make each Air.
- masklinn 16y agoAccording to very unreliable BOM analysis (http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=3245509&olo=rss http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?ne...), $718 It's unclear whether that's total cost to manufacture or only the price for the parts. It's also unclear how they estimate things like the unibody shell. In any case, that strikes out any chance of "sub-500" as it's very likely an under-estimate.
- frou_dh 16y agoThanks. Sounds too high to me for the small Air, but what do I know!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- b3b0p 16y agoRegarding your Blu-ray comment. There are many reasons to prefer it. 1. Much higher quality video and audio than you can get from digital distribution. 2. Many people still don't have access to the bandwidth that makes digital distribution easily possible or worth it. Now there are bandwidth caps being put in place by some ISPs making this less desirable. 3. Tangible. You cannot resell that digital copy. You can trade, borrow out, sell that Blu-ray you bought at Amazon or where ever when ever you want. 4. DRM. With the Blu-ray physical copy, you can do whatever you want with it. 5. Price. Digital distribution are priced near or above the tangible version in some cases and it's lower quality and has zero tangible and re-sellable value. One example: Toy Story 3 Right now you can pre-order the Blu-ray which comes with the digital and DVD version also for just under $25. The HD version on iTunes can be pre-ordered for $19.99, which is of course much less quality in audio and video than the Blu-ray. Also, you can't resell it. If this keeps up I honestly don't see how digital distribution will be preferred. I'd love to get rid of all the optical disks and cases, but not if it continues on like this.
- jsz0 16y agoYou can add USB3 to MacBooks with PCI-E expansion -- the older 15" MBPs, all 17" MBPs, all Mac Pros. Since Intel has decided not to support USB3 until 2012 it's obvious they are going to push a USB3 alternative soon which will win because Intel dominates the PC chipset market. Apple is probably fully aware of this and doesn't see any reason to support USB3.
- zdw 16y agoExactly. USB3 currently requires an extra chip to implement, and Intel isn't going to release an on-chipset USB3 controller in the immediate future, if roadmaps are to be believed. Apple packs things tight in their laptops (where high speed expansion is most needed) - adding an extra chip would cause design challenges. See also why Apple is staying with the Core2Duo in their 13" and smaller laptops.
- bbatsell 16y agoThe reason Apple has stayed with C2D on the 13"ers is because Intel has disallowed manufacturers from using any integrated graphics chipset other than Intel HD Graphics, which is very poor compared to Nvidia and ATI's chipsets. Since the 13" is too small to support a discrete graphics card, they have to stick with a C2D and an Nvidia 320M.
- leoc 16y agoThe alternative rumour/speculation is that Intel's holding back so it can use USB3 support as a selling point for Sandy Bridge systems.
- metatronscube 16y agoMakes sense since Apple has been working with Intel on light peak which would replace USB3. Apple is just thinking a few steps ahead.
- nailer 16y agoExactly. and Apple wants to have a single video out, so HDMI (which is limits in resolution) won't do.
- tomlin 16y agoWhen Apple follows standards they are a few steps ahead, and when they sidetrack them in favour of an non-standardized tech they are still thinking a few steps ahead? Am I the only one who thinks Apple is treated slightly differently when it comes to...anything? I'm not pro-anything, but sitting on the sidelines, it seems as though Apple is always right regardless of what they do, how they do it, or reasoning behind the decisions.
- sjs 16y agoThey're not always right, but they usually do things for a reason. Like how they've stuck with Core 2 in the 13" MacBook, 13" MBP, and MacBook Air. Most other companies throw every new interface and bus in their machines without much thought. There's a reason most other computers are larger and have worse battery life. edit: It also depends on the crowd you're in as well. If you ever read any overclocking and general hardware enthusiast forums you'll see that Apple is always wrong and behind. It's all about perspective, and different people care about different things. I used to want to upgrade everything all the time, tweak this and that, etc. Now that I want a machine that's more like an appliance I see more value in Apple products. I'm not going to buy an Apple desktop to overclock for a gaming rig, but I wouldn't consider any other notebook at this point in time.
- pluies 16y agoIt's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. If everyone else in the industry, including Apple, was to support USB3 then Intel would probably have to support it too. Anyway, it's sad to see Intel holding back on standards because it doesn't fit their own agenda.
- cletus 16y agoI listen to Macbreak Weekly. Alex Lindsay (founder of Pixel Corps and a regular) constantly bemoans the lack of USB3 for professionals and that it's actually a problem for what he does (as in there are USB3 peripherals he uses). But Intel is not supporting it so I think Apple's hands are tied until they do. It does seem like a strange thing not to support until of course you factor in Intel pushing their own alternative (Light Peak?). Intel supports many things long before there's a point to them (eg DDR3 when it had no tangible benefit over DDR2 (initially) and cost 4x as much). I used to think that Blu-ray would come to Apple when it was sufficiently cheap. I've changed my mind on that. I think there's a fair chance it never will. I can see optical drives disappearing altogether. If you want one, it'll be a USB peripheral. Some Macbook owners replace the optical drive with an SSD (or their normal HD with an SSD and the optical drive with a spindle HD for storage). I would actually really like to see a Macbook that came as standard with two hard drives. As it is, Intel is updating their (excellent) X25 HDs at the end of the year (or early 2011). My next MBP will probably get one of those (150 or 300GB).
- illumin8 16y agoYou can purchase a 3rd party USB3 interface, so if you really need it for a certain peripheral, it's available.
- wmf 16y agoIntel doesn't support Firewire either, so Apple added a chip. They could add a USB3 controller (on the larger Macs where presumably there is room) if they want to; they just don't want to.
- iwr 16y agoSo what do you do if you require high speed external storage now and not two years from now?
- thewileyone 16y agoSteve says, "No USB3 any time soon." " ... but look out for the new Apple BUS, which allow for fantastical connectivity for any BUS enabled device to plug into the computer and act like it's a part of the computer. You can add more things to the BUS and they'll act like part of the computer! Folks this is thinking differently!"
- easp 16y agoYou mean "apple desktop bus," which let you attach multiple low speed peripherals to your Mac as early as 1987, back when the best you could do on a PC was PS/2 ports? Apple ditched that when they adopted USB 1. Or are you saying computers should have room for internal expansion, even though most customers these days won't use it? Or...