One of the much debated issues of the new MacBooks is the lack of FireWire. People were complaining about it but all Apple had to respond was that the USB will be the new FireWire… sort of!

Buy why did that happen? I didn’t have the opportunity of taking a new MacBook apart yet but others did. After analyzing the design of the new models they concluded that Apple’s way of doing things meant that at least a port was going to be sacrificed. And that was the FireWire.

Here’s the longer version of the facts: the body of the MacBook is made out of a single piece of aluminum. In it the hard drive and battery were designed to be easily accessible and replaceable. Therefore the motherboard had to be placed inside in such a position that it wouldn’t span the length of the notebook. That means you get three ports and no more. Stevie (maybe not him personally) chose an Ethernet port and two USB. Logially thinking about it, and despite the fact I’d want to throw rocks at Apple for the way it treated the poor FireWire port, this decision seems the right thing to do given the circumstances.

We’re just going to have to replace that FireWire port with USBs and WiFi connections. After all that’s the future of connectivity for future Macs and PCs.

via RB
, Gizmodo