Apple Issues Firmware Upgrade For MacBook Pro

Lucas123 writes "After declining comment on an apparent downgrade to the serial ATA hard drive interface in its new MacBook Pros, from 3Gbps to 1.5Gbps, Apple today issued a firmware upgrade to fix a problem reported by 'a small number of customers' using drives based on the latest SATA specification. Apple warned that it has not shipped drives operating at the higher-speed specification, saying, 'While this update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5Gbit/sec, Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and their use is unsupported.'"

Comments

We don't offer modern technology?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the hell is intrested in buying a sata 1 drive these days?

Even newegg only sells a handfull of sata1 drives anymore... ok... 3... they sell 3...

Not quite the hardware i'd expect for a macbook premium price.. What a rip.

Re:We don't offer modern technology?

[ifrag]

Most Sata II drives should be able to fall back to Sata I. In fact, I've bought Sata II drives which have come configured as Sata I drives (apparently the user was expected to use the manufacturer boot utility to reconfigure the drive). My newer Hitachi drive came set as Sata II by default though so maybe Hitachi stopped doing that. Could be the difference between their consumer and enterprise series.

Re:We don't offer modern technology?

[Anonymous Coward]

My sata 2 drives can hit a max xfer speed of 85MB/s max. 60MB/s average sustained. With burst rates upto 120MB/sec.

The sata 1 drives in the same machine come nowhere close to those speeds. Not by half. NCQ on sata2 is well worth it. If you're moving to sata drives. you would be stupid to use sata1 at all.

Really tho i don't care. If i was apple i'd be selling people the obsolete sata1 drives i got at a huge discount too. It's not like apple fanboys would notice. Or even consider it a bad thing if they did. They are the ideal customers to screw over. that perfect mix of trendy wannabes with more money than sense. it almost seems wrong NOT to take their money.

GO APPLE!

Really?

[LBArrettAnderson]

The SSDs that they offer don't read faster than 1.5Gbps? I know many don't, but even I (an apple hater for life who has to use one at work) thought they'd offer something closer to top of the line. Most new MLC and SLC SSDs read at 200MBps+ (1.6Gbps).

Battery Life?

[SixGame]

I still haven't seen a battery life comparison between the 1.5Gbit/sec and 3.0Gbit/sec options. Does their marketing still hold true, and if not, what's the total change in battery life?

Apple updates a driver!!

[brunes69]

Post to front page.

In other news, Apple has decided to start offering decaf in the office espresso machine.

Re:Apple updates a driver!!

[Miltazar]

This is news because it points out that an expensive supposed "top of the line" laptop, and a very famous one, has downgraded their hardware performance. This is more of a confirmation that they did infact release it with Sata 1 when the system itself is capable of Sata 2. It's not just a "patch" its a part of a developing story about the new macbooks.

Also news gets posted about MS patches quite frequently, so I'd say this is about the norm.

Great for apple

[MemoryDragon]

It would be even nicer if they fixed the 3000 USD first gen macbook airs which are plagued by broken hinge problems and overheating:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1696844&tstart=15

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387729&tstart=15

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1931283&tstart=30

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1893302&tstart=15

Re:Great for apple

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

They did: You just register some customer information with Apple here and a fedex delivers your hardware patch within a week or so... It's the Apple way.

elp! They still haven't fixed my problem.

[AlpineR]

My MacBook Pro has one continually annoying problem:

Missing first keypress

If I haven't typed anything for about fifteen minutes, then the first key I press is ignored. This happens in situations where the OS is otherwise alert because of mouse movement, such as while browsing the Web. I click a text field, start typing, and ten letters in I realize that the keyboard missed the first one.

This is particularly annoying in cases where there's a little typing lag anyway, like typing in an search box with autocomplete. There's a short delay before the letters start appearing anyway, so the only way to type error-free is to wait a second every damn time to see if the first keypress was recognized.

Apple issued a Keyboard Firmware Update in February 2008 but it never fixed my problem and others have reported it made their systems totally freeze.

Does anybody else still have this problem? Or did you have it before and get it fixed?

Thank you!

[iamapizza]

Thank you for running this article informing me about a firmware upgrade for the MacBook Pro. It pleases me to no end that you are going out of your way from serving us with "news for nerds" and "stuff that matters" to do this.

I would, humbly, like to request that you run more stories about Apple's firmware updates or even rumors, product reviews and comparisons against other technologies, as I immensely enjoy perusing such unprejudiced information on a regular basis. It is gratifying to know that there are wonderful Apple-news websites such as Slashdot out there for the masses of us who have seen the light and can revel in the glory of their superior products.

Re:Apple products

[erroneus]

No one will white or complain. The measure of Apple hardware by Apple users do not compare their stuff with other people. In fact, Apple users don't seem interested in comparing their stuff with anything else unless it's another Apple computer. This could be a division of worlds, an isolation of philosophy, a philosophy of isolation or simple a belief that nothing compares to Apple because it is the best. But the end result is the same -- Whatever Apple decides and does is "[for] the best" and also "Steve knows best."

Some people really just don't get "Apple culture/thinking" but I think I do. There is a great deal of unquestioning loyalty when it comes to Apple products. I won't pass judgement saying whether or not this is a bad thing or a good thing. But Apple is more than just a computer company which is a statement that most everyone can agree on. It is an "exclusive club" that people can join simply by buying one and using it, or pretending to use it at Starbucks while wearing a turtleneck and a jacket with patches on the sleeves... for some anyway. For others, it is simply an expression of "I hate Microsoft [Windows] and this works for me just fine!" But Apple is more than just a computer company because it doesn't compete with other computer companies. It is its own game and they always try to keep the ball under control so that select few others can play.

Re:Apple products

[smash]

Apple stuff generally "just works". When you get older and want to simply get things done, rather than wanking over spec sheets or rooting around with software for the sake of it, apple hardware/software is attactive.

I've recently bought a mini to play with, and I have to say I'm a convert. My next general purpose machine is likely to be an iMac.

My mini is sitting on top of a quad core PC with 4gb of RAM and I'm spending a lot more time on the mini because it's more pleasant to use to actually get things done...