Slap

I didn't think about it but, yeah, it kinda is. Another way to think about it, however, is that they might not have planned on putting it on the new mini but with the backlash over the MacBook they added it. Maybe the next revision of the MacBook will have it as well.

One can dream.

I think it is a smart move from Apple in order to move the Mini line, and making profit at the same time. Good way to jack up price on this model.

eSata or FW800 - offering a choice to Mac enthusiasts, since both are very much the same in boot time, with eSata a slight advantage.

cheers ...

i dont think so at all.

most of the FW 800 devices are fairly static anyway and not much that people will really carry with them everywhere. so for the average (and lets face it they build it to the average) user will not see a difference in it being there or not.

pro users may but most full pro users will have a laptop for the road and a desktop where most of the real work is done. makes sense to put it on the desktop, though to me putting it on the mini seems more odd than not putting it on the macbook

Fidget gotta disagree with you in full here as one of those 'Pro' users

Before I begin, let me state that I will probably be buying the Mac Mini, as it has nearly a perfect feature set for me. That being said...

The loss of FW on the laptop was a huge deal for me. In particular because I, and many others, quite often WILL use it on the road, and in particular will use macs, because they provided a powered FW port. Many audio interfaces will be powered off the 8 Watts that Macs provide, and for this reason the Macbook was the laptop of choice for many touring professionals. It was nice, small, and self contained, we didn't need graphics for audio, and could power our audio interface.

It isn't a matter of having a seperate desktop, most of us do. IN fact that is why I will be picking up the Mini sometime this summer is to replace myworkstation that died a while ago. It is a matter of having the feature set we need where we need it. Here are a couple of usage scenarios I have been involved with myself that I need a laptop that can supply FW and prefereably powered firewire....

A) Playing back from a laptop sound effects for a theatershow
B) Playing backing tracks for a small band to play with on stage
C) Operating a synth on stage
D) Voice Over Recordings at a remote site
E) Small musical recordings at a remote site, or even large track count recordings of live shows
F) Analyzing Rooms with SMAART

Those are off the top of my head, I am sure I can come up with more.

Seablade

Ok that rant aside, the fact that this machine has FW and the ability to support Dual Monitors means I will probably be picking it up myself. The additional USB ports don't hurt at all lately as I seem to be running out quite often. The thing I need to decide is how I am going to handle a Hard drive in it though, as with only a single FW bus and no option for expansion it means I might be limiting myself there somewhat, but on the flip side i have been meaning to try recording to my NAS and seeing how stable it is at high track counts. At the moment I have been able to get 30MB/s transfers to it, which isn't far off FW400, and gives me plenty of room for audio tracks if it is stable, but at that point it might just be better for me to use a USB drive, not sure. My track count varies so much from project to project though that it might be an issue in the future where both of those options are to limiting...

Seablade

seablade, it still comes down to the average user... most users are not audio professionals and thats a big difference. they are becoming less of a "pro only" company and more of an average users company.

the vast majority of them still will never use firewire.


on a side note, there are good odds i would buy a new mini myself to use as a media center for my lcd TV

Yep, pretty much sums it up. The FW port on the 13" means that it is now a good choice for audio professionals....

So about that 'space' reason given before, add a FW port and a SD port?

Seablade

Yea the SD slot is kinda questionable in my opinion. While many cameras are going to SD, both photo and video, the more professional cameras may or may not. For instance my DSLR still uses Compact Flash(And xD but lets not go there. And it is not alone, many DSLRs even, in the entry level to an extent, use SD.

It does make some sense in context of Ars's comment on it, which was they have questions on whether Apple is going back to a single laptop line. In which case they are aiming for something for the average consumer with SD camcorders and cameras. Course even then the logic of it as opposed to a multi-card reader is fun. So in the end, I am going with a gimmick no matter how I look at it, because you ahve the option of either pulling out the SD card and sticking it in the Mac, or plugging in the USB cable. Don't get me wrong, the former is a nicer option in many ways, but not enough to justify much for me personally anyways.

All that being said, the 13" MBP is now a doable option for audio professionals on the road again that don't need the graphics. I am VERY happy with me 15" MBP and glad I was forced to buy it when I did, before the Unibodies hit as I wouldn't get the 15" now, I would rather get the 13" or go up to the 17". That is saying something since i am not a fan of overly large laptops. But still very happy with my 15" MBP, to the extent of I just ordered an Intel X-25M since I got it on sale at Newegg, along with a nice 16:9 Samsung monitor and 4 gigs of Ram. Going to be replacing my battery and DVD drive soon as well(For repair purposes on those).

Seablade

Actually I kinda like the idea of having a SD slot in the macbook. This would help greatly with many normal photographers out there, me included.

The question is how great the support from this slot will be. It would be nice if it can support many versions like the Sony notebooks.

cheers ...

What do you mean, many versions?

To my knowledge you have different formfactors that need an adaptor, and two different versions of the basic SD, SD and SDHC. Out of which I would expect all of those to be supported(The mini-SD and micro-SD via adaptor as mentioned above)

Seablade

Sony offers 2 slots (SD and Memory/Memory Pro). It would be nice that Apple offers one slot that supports both versions, like a multi-in-one adapter card.

cheers ...

Ahh, then it wouldn't be an SD card slot

No that would make a lot more sense, but apparently isn't the case. That is what the expresscard slot is fo... oh wait.

Seablade

for an "average" type consumer, such as myself, the new 13 inch is prettymuch perfection. the only complaint i could have is the lack of an expresscard slot. but thats a minor thing as a whole.

and im loving the upgrade price for snow leopard

I too would rather have seen extra USB ports instead of an SD slot. I can understand why the dropped expresscard though. How many people actually use it compared to other things like, SD cards?

I just wish they offered the 9600 video in one of the 13 inch laptops.

Also, I wish they would get rid of the plastic one completely and just have them all called "MacBooks". Though, now everyone can say they have a "Pro" if they buy a Unibody machine, so it was probably all thought up by psychologists in a ploy to get more sales.

Well if you are talking about the professional level, many As noted above, even DSLR cameras still utilize Compact Flash in many cases, so the SD card is limited there, and the expresscard can be utilized to add eSATA for HDs, a multicard reader, or good audio interfaces(off the top of my head RME and Apogee both have expresscard solutions, which I wouldn't hesitate to get).

That is the thing, and the reason I think Ars might be on to something, for the professional market the MBP was supposedly aimed for, SD instead of expresscard makes absolutely no sense.

See my previous comments about ArsTechnica and single line of laptops.

I personally would probably rather two lines, but haven't fully made up my mind.

Seablade

Canon is transitioning their pro cameras to use either both CF and SD or just SD. And their consumer line cameras all use SD. An SD slot is a lot more useful than CF simply because the vast majority of camera users will be using SD cards, and most of the new pro cameras are using SD as well.

As far as express card goes, Apple said that less than 1 percent of their users take advantage of the expresscard slot. Everything is USB or Firewire now. Some things, like your eSATA can't be done over USB or FW, but pretty much everything else can, including your high end audio stuff. It just doesn't make sense to include an expresscard slot when only a tiny portion of overall users take advantage of it. Again, the space would've been served much better with extra USB or FW ports.