What are your thoughts on the new MacBooks and MacBook pros with Thunderbolt Intel technology?

It’s pretty lame that their screens didn’t update to what the Airs have.

Yawn…

… Well I thought it was pretty cool

I’m actually really unimpressed. It’s nice that it’s faster and all, but considering my level of usage the extra speed does nothing for me. Also, the battery lasts 3 hrs less than originally. I was really hoping to see the casing get lighter and thinner like the Macbook Air, but didn’t happen. All in all, I just don’t see the point in upgrading my current MBP (2009 model).

I don’t think Thunderbolt is anything special until it becomes more than an Apple/Intel technology. Until I can actually buy a hard drive that works with it it’s useless to me. And I don’t see development of products that support it getting very popular at all until other PC manufacturers pick it up. Plus, I don’t think very many people need 10gb/sec speed, which may just result in it being a big gimmick. I give it about 2 years before it goes the way of the firewire and mini display port.

Also, I don’t have that kind of money.

Well that would reduce my iPhone syncing time from 1 hour to 1 second.

some more info i just found

“Thunderbolt allows for high-speed connection of peripherals such as hard drives, RAID arrays, video-capture solutions, and network interfaces, and it can transmit high-definition video using the DisplayPort protocol. Each Thunderbolt port also provides up to 10 Watts of power to connected peripherals.”

“Thunderbolt is also bi-directional, meaning it can transmit and receive data at the same time.”

“since Thunderbolt supports data, video, audio, and power, you can use a single Thunderbolt port—and thus a single cable—to connect many of your peripherals.”

@rawrgrr, the problem is that iPhones don’t have thunderbolt. Maybe the 5 will.

The Thunderbolt ports are simply a “breakout” cable for PCI Express devices. That’s what I picked up anyway.

@Qingu That’s true and maybe it will. Fingers crossed!

Let’s run this through the galactic translator, shall we…

“Thunderbolt allows for high-speed connection of peripherals such as hard drives, RAID arrays, video-capture solutions, and network interfaces, and it can transmit high-definition video using the DisplayPort protocol. Each Thunderbolt port also provides up to 10 Watts of power to connected peripherals.”

Sounds great. Now exactly where do I get a RAID array, video-capture solution, network interface, or HD Video device that has a Thunderbird connection? (answer: since the connection is totally proprietary, currently you can’t, and even if they do exist in the future they will not be a cheap commodity party) Regarding power, how many portable devices out there need 10 watts to power them??? Even if they did, unless the battery comes with it’s own backpack the usable time between recharge if you are sucking that much power is likely to be pretty darned low.

“Thunderbolt is also bi-directional, meaning it can transmit and receive data at the same time.”

Great, you can talk to nothing in both directions at the same time!

“since Thunderbolt supports data, video, audio, and power, you can use a single Thunderbolt port—and thus a single cable—to connect many of your peripherals.”

Gee, I’ve been able to do that with a USB cable for years.

@YoBob Gee thanks for that

I’m just looking forward to the future is all, this is a big leap (especially for power users)