Look out, this is going to be the next item to command top prices.
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Ebay listing that made me chuckle
- Thread starter Alex_K
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Somehow, owing to it being on sale for 16 years (and for none of the parts being particularly proprietary), it might take a while to get up there.
The world is full of SuperDrives and the chinese sell even DIY case for the internal ones. And you almost buy a MBP with a working SD for the same price the external Apple SDs cost new.
Really? There was the royalties on use of the TB1/2 protocol which made it prohibitive for third parties to produce the same thing for much less (and to make any money from it). Moreover, nearly all uses of the miniDisplay TB1/2 port were by Apple (or designed and manufactured to, directly and principally, support Apple’s products).
In the big picture, the TB1/2 plug, via the miniDisplay port, stuck around for a scant few years — on models released between 2011 and 2015 (and lasting on existing products through 2019, only because of the 2015 iMac, until 2017; 2014 Mac mini, until 2018; and the the Trash Can, until 2019) — versus the USB-C styled ports of TB3/4 onward, which have been around on new products for nearly ten years (starting with, I think, the late 2016 Touchbar-era MBP, which signalled the death of miniDisplay TB ports five years after they first appeared).
There was also the much shorter window Apple made the functionally proprietary TB1/2-to-FW dongles available for sale. Even were one to factor the “seven-year support” window Apple like to tout before yanking support, the Trash Can, packed with TB2 ports, should be supported through at least late 2026; part of that support should include TB1/TB2 products sold by Apple.
But here we are. And by the best of guesses from other discussions around the January/February 2024 window, the TB-to-FW dongle hasn’t been on sale since, best guess, late 2023 or the very, very start of this year. If the premium is this high for used dongles for being gone only a few months, then I reckon it was probably a mistake for Apple to discontinue availability so soon. It if meant online-only availability (instead of stocking brick-and-mortar stores), then this should have been extended to cover the seven-year support window for the last TB1/TB2-equipped Mac, the Trash Can, to be taken off-sale.
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Heck, even if it’s not an Apple-design aluminium enclosure, some kits which used to ship for ODD-to-HDD conversion came with a simple, thin, USB enclosure (for users to continue use of their SuperDrive outside of their original locations). I still have mine from the 2011 conversion I did for my 2011 13-inch MBP, and its form factor is thinner than the aluminium Apple enclosure. Downside: it’s plastic. Upside: I’ve used it maybe a dozen times since 2011.
Yes, mine came with such a kit too. I used it to my 2012 MBP 13". The external case is not very high quality but works. I sometimes get disks stuck inside as the opening is not sitting 100% correctly. I need to grind it bigger some day.
SD seems quite power hungry, I also have Apple original external SuperDrive and with both drives I have trouble with not enough power coming out of USB-port, especially if anything else is connected. So, I have to use powered USB hub/switch to avoid problems.
My external Samsung DVD-RW has an USB cable with 2 inputs so you plug both of those to the computer and the drive works without a hub, Dell at work has the same style. And I've also seen drives with 2 USB cables, one providing power only and another for data.
Samsungs & Dells way:
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That is a violation of the USB specification, but everyone does it.
Even if they couldn't have met Apple's price point, they could have produced a TB-to-FW thingy, as several companies (e.g. Delock, Kanex, Sonnet and Startech) sold TB-to-Ethernet/eSATA/USB3 thingies like this one — but they did not. That’s my point.
Yes, but that didn't stop companies from producing a whole lot of peripherals.
Ironically, Sony‘s one-off implementation stuck to USB ports like the Light Peak prototypes.
Unless you need it to be compact and/or bus-powered, you can pick up an old TB dock that includes FW for a fraction of that. (Or maybe the prices for these will soar now too…)
Both the TB controller and the FW chip were available to other manufacturers though.
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I can only speculate that there are a number of music producers who have a stock of FW interfaces that they still want to keep for whatever purpose even today. I remember watching a documentary about Jeff Lynne maybe a decade ago or less and it showed his home studio where he did all his music composing/production etc. Pride of place was a PowerMac G5 long after it was obsolete. I suppose as all of these are now slowly weaning themselves off legacy hardware, current choices no longer provide a FW port and so the demand for FW adapters, while not off the scale, is still there and will be for as long as they want to use those interfaces. They won't necessarily want to fix what isn't broken for them.
You can get a glimpse of the G5 DAW on a ACD over the shoulder of somebody at 55:36 in. There are better views elsewhere if my memory doesn't fail me.
You can get a glimpse of the G5 DAW on a ACD over the shoulder of somebody at 55:36 in. There are better views elsewhere if my memory doesn't fail me.
I like the ability to scroll horizontally and vertically simultaneously. It's nicer than using the keyboard arrow keys for viewing zoomed-in images in Preview.app for example.
Actually, it seems to constrain the scrolling so you can only do one at a time - if you try diagonal, then it will choose horizontal or vertical but not both.... it's still faster than the arrow keys.
I have the wired version and the biggest problem is if a cable or anything gets under the cable near the top of the mouse then mouse clicks don't work.
The Magic Mouse might have the best horizontal+vertical scrolling and you don't have to worry about dirt getting into the scroll ball.
The drag surfaces under the Mighty Mouse and Magic Mouse are terrible. A normal mouse has 4 small points of contact using low friction feet. The Apple mice have several inches of scraping plastic to gather dirt like a snow plow.
You don't say? From a recent listing, which made me wonder why sellers don't even do a modicum of cleaning before pressing the OK button.
You really have to wonder what goes through their minds, the lack of self-awareness. When I think of how many times that I've had to clean up stuff from eBay with surgical wipes and a toothbrush, I'd be embarrassed to even give things away in that condition, let alone sell them and not bother to observe the most basics facets of presentation.
When one parcel arrive and I shared photos of the contents with enthusiasts, I was semi-jokingly warned that a Hazmat suit would be required.
Not that I'm a germaphobe or anything but I do get the IPA out for anything second hand. You would be surprised at the amount of ugh coming off seemingly clean objects, especially book covers.
I’ve never tried using India Pale Ale for cleaning. I’m more a Guinness fan, but would nae waste that.
Al
Never got the Guinness love. It's a grim pint and not even any use for cleaning.
As a child, I thought a family friend was winding me up when they told me about meths drinkers.
(I'm a teetotaller myself.)