You 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.
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.
The 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.
Well, 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.
Remember 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.
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.
Regarding 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.
When 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.
They'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.
Infallibility is a dangerous, if not deadly, attribute one could give any system.
I hope people should understand my point: I'm going to use the Canadian Health Care system as an example.
If you've watched Sicko (Michael Moore), you'd be under the impression that our Health Care system is tits. There are no wait times, everyone gets the transplant they deserve and we have a government that cares about its people first and foremost. Sadly, this is not quite the case.
Canadians believe that we have a great health care system, despite continual cutbacks, ten minute appointments, still a mostly paper-based family patient system, drug coverage cuts and some of the longest wait times in the world for cancer treatment. We slip down the "global list" quite often: http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html, http://www.thestar.com/article/526494
When our politicians are under budget pressure, it's our once grand Health Care System that sees cuts. No one is watching our precious Health Care System at the ground level.
There will be Canadians to defend it and offer it extreme fandom, ignoring the obvious decay. Not because we're specifically ignorant, but because a great Health Care system is part of our identity. We are not concentrating as to why we identify with it, just that we once did so we should always do so.
In the same way, Apple and Apple products can be apart of one's identity. With extreme fandom, Apple is less concerned about negative feedback. As an example of that, one could say that Apple was completely unprepared for the iPhone4 AntennaGate issue - even ignoring internal advisories about it's potential reception problems.
I hope to convey that, if you love a system, be more critical than you would be otherwise.
The problem with Apple is that people often have extreme opinions about them & their products, whether they love or hate them. Both sides are crazy.
There definitely are some Apple customers who look at them with a critical eye, and in my experience they are very critical of Apple. We expect the best from Apple products and don't hesitate to pipe up when Apple delivers less. We expect perfection but realize that Apple is still run by humans and the first revision of every product they ship isn't going to be made of unicorns and double rainbows. In fact many long time Apple customers never pick up the first revision of a new product, knowing it's going to have issues.
I don't think products from other companies are very different in that regard. But people jump and shout about every tiny detail about Apple products, whether it's good or bad. You have to take it all with a massive spoonful of salt, on both sides. It's unfortunate.
Apple has done a good job cultivating a user base that doesn't really care that much about the sausage making process. Whatever shows up on our new MacBook is what we're going to use. There's always a little Internet Riot over major changes but it fades once people realize it just doesn't really matter that much.
Yes, many people appear to feel they are right quite a lot of the time, that may be why a lot of consumers feel happy to part with their hard earned money (voting for them with their wallets if you will).
Apple does what it wants, and if that strikes a cord with the consumers then they will pay up, if its not what they are looking for they an go somewhere else. This will dictate where the technology leads us.
That's a bit oversimplified. The purchasing decisions that consumers make regarding Apple products are driven by the overall value of the complete product. That doesn't necessarily say anything about the individual components that make up each product.
For example, I suspect that people buy iPods despite the nonstandard Dock connector, not because of it.
It'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.
Steve 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!"
You 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?
I 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).
Intel 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.
