Actually, I think the true purpose of notebook and laptop computers was simply to make them portable. Having an all-in-one unit is, of course, most desireable but, as Apple has often been the leader in innovation, eliminating something that is on it's way out, even seemingly prematurely, I believe, is a good thing. A USB modem is tiny and, for those who absolutely want the option to take it along, it's available. The overwhelming majority of users don't use modems these days. So, I guess, in Apple's eyes, the modem's going the way of the floppy drive. s ----- Original Message ----- From: Dane Trethowan To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by theblind Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 12:28 AM Subject: And where's it gone?
Hi! Well I was wondering if and when this would happen, I was reading the Mac column in our local paper which is published every month, apparently, the new Macbook (don't know whether this is all the models) have done away with the internal 56K modem so I'm curious to know from any list members out there who own one of these marvelous things, have you found the absence of the internal modem an annoyance or has it been that you couldn't give a damn because you're using airport to its extreme <smile> I personally feel that an internal 56K modem (however little used) is still highly useful when needed. Take this morning for example, for some unknown reason, the ADSL service went down however I had no trouble connecting to the Internet using my ISP's dial-up connection, true I couldn't do any of the broad-band stuff I'm used to but I could at least check my email, chat and the like and (when I work out how), I'm planning to use the Ibook exclusively to send faxes, I already use it to receive faxes so the 56K modem is handy for me. I suppose the only concelation for Macbook owners is that they can purchase a small USB modem to use, hmmm, yet another plug-in accessery, wasn't the idea of the notebook computer to illiminate all of that? <smile> Cheers
