"I also like the convenience of having a powered Firewire port... "

Yeah, why IS that so impossible on a Windows laptop? And 4-pin instead of 6-pin, too! It drives me crazy to have to either use an AC adaptor on a firewire laptop drive or plug into the USB port just to get power! The beauty of firewire is that it should be just one wire!

Is this really beyond the PC-compatible notebook engineers?

and speaking of engineers, who is the genius who designed that flimsy firewire connector, breath hard on it and it pops out, gaff tape is expensive.

Just a word of caution and this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but for some reason we've heard of more than one VCR / camera being fried connected to a Mac's firewire port.

4 pin firewire ports are unpowered, the extra two pins on the six pin connections are for the power. Bear in mind that the majority of firewire devices only have 4 pin connectors as they use too much power to run off the bus.

The interesting thing about the Apple laptops is they've scrapped the 1394b port, claiming that the USB 2 port is faster than the firewire port, figure that one out. I for one much prefer firewire 800, not so much for the speed but because the connectors are way more robust.

Bob.

How much memory in each? Thanks!

It is entirely possible to have a powered 6 pin, just that no one does it due to cost/royalties.
FWIW, guess who built and partially designed the first Powerbooks and still builds parts for them?
Four letters.

Why the hell can't they build something like the powerbook for the PC platform?

The 4 pin connection can actually prevent you from frying things. For instance, I went through two ADVC100's in a week because the things didn't protect themselves from the bus power on a 6 pin firewire cable.

Rob Mack

Imagine that Core Duo processor running at 2.67GHz. And then imagine it 20 or so percent more efficient than it already it. That's what Conroe is going to be like.

- Mark

Imagine that Core Duo processor running at 2.67GHz. And then imagine it 20 or so percent more efficient than it already it. That's what Conroe is going to be like.

...and imagine you have heard and lived with every Intel CPU announcement since the 4004. ...and remember all the times the new architectures didn't work properly when released.

At this time, after having fired a lot of executives, there is a LOT of pressure on Intel to say ANYTHING that can reduce the customer flight to AMD.

They may pull off a quick Conroe release, but don't bet your own money on it.

Conroe could work right out of the chute, or it could take until spring.

I think they will try very hard, but they have been in this situation many times before and it wasn't always funny to be one of their manufacturer customers.

Seems like some smart company could just make a laptop with one 4-pin and one 6-pin firewire port. (Hint, hint...anyone from any four-lettered company listening?)

This isn't some unknown company with no products making a press release about their latest vaporware product.

This is Intel allowing one of the largest hardware review sites an hour with the actual working product.

Really quite a different situation than talk.

We'll see.

- Mark

When is Conroe expected to come out? Early 2007?