New iMac

I see the new iMacs have only USB 3 ports. Are adaptors available so I can connect my old usb 2 devices eg - printer, iPhone 4 ?

No adapters needed, the USB 3.0 ports are backward compatible.

Thanks so much for your reply. My decision is made now !! Pity about the " no optical drive " but don't use it so much anyway.

There are four USB 3 ports, two Thunderbolt, one ethernet. No firewire. And yes, the USB 3 ports are backward compatible.

Thanks for that info. Much appreciated.

chscag said:

...two Thunderbird...

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I'm thinking someone's been drinking too much "Thunderbird"!



- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I'm thinking someone's been drinking too much "Thunderbird"!

- Nick

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HA, beat me to the response to "Thunderbird" ;D

chscag said:

.....No firewire

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I didn't notice this earlier today. I wanted one of these, but I have 4 external Firewire drives. Not ready to replace all with Thunderbolt.

That's what's known as a slip of the old brain. Come to think of it, "Thunderbird" ports on an iMac would really add to its value. ;P

JohnCL said:

I didn't notice this earlier today. I wanted one of these, but I have 4 external Firewire drives. Not ready to replace all with Thunderbolt.

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I suppose spending $29 on a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter is unacceptable.

Lightcraftsman said:

I suppose spending $29 on a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter is unacceptable.

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Not at all. Forgot about that little gem!

People will interpret the lack of a dedicated FW port as the "death" of FW, and perhaps it is -- but given that the Thunderbolt port can be almost any other kind of port you want, those with FW peripherals need not worry in the near term.

JohnCL said:

Not at all. Forgot about that little gem!

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I have six FireWire drives. If the new iMac had only one Thunderbolt port that would be a deal breaker, but with two TB ports the adapter solves the problem. Most of my FW drives are getting old (one died last week), so I'm going to start replacing them with TB drives.

The 27-inch iMac looks like the best bang for the buck as a PhotoShop workstation, but I'm going to wait until Apple announces the next Mac Pro to make a buying decision. As much as I like my 21.5 inch iMac I am still uncomfortable with the idea of the hard drive being sealed inside the computer.