Last week Apple released updated versions of the Macbook and the Macbook Pro.  Many wonderful things were added, but a couple things were taken away, and though it will likely only affect a ‘small’ userbase comparatively, it still hurts some of us:

- Firewire.  The Macbook has no Firewire port.  Sure, you can use USB for most things, but there are firewire cameras, hard drives and other things that people have already invested quite a bit of money in and it truly sucks that we have to dump that hardware to ‘upgrade’ to a new machine.  Considering Apple was pivotal in its creation and popularity, it’s not only sad, but very ‘un-Green’ for this to happen.

- Expresscard/PCCard slots.  The Macbook has no expansion slot.  A pity, since you could have put Firewire or even External SATA in that.

- Mini DisplayPort.  For me, this is the worst ‘upgrade’ possible.  They took away the option of an adaptor that exports S-Video or Composite output.  This invalidates me to use this machine for VJing, a plethora of people doing live video work, or people wishing to play movies to TV.  One can only hope someone can create an affordable adaptor or converter.

Daniel from Roughly Drafted Magazine speaks out on the subject in detail.  I can only hope he is incorrect in his findings.

UPDATE: There is now a petition for considering Firewire in future Apple products.