ipod on mac with USB but no Firewire

[Beakster]

Hi,

I have an old Powermac G3 266MHz. It came with no USB or Firewire ports, but I bought a USB 2.0 PCI card so I could use my Digital Still camera.

The USB ports work fine under OS X 10.1 and I'm planning to buy an iPod. Do I need to buy Firewire ports for my Mac to use the iPod or will it work with USB provided I buy the dock to USB cable.

The reason I ask is that the adverts all say USB PC only. When I connect the iPod to the USB port will I see it like I see my digital camera, as a removable drive, and will I be able to drag mp3 files over to listen to, as well as video files inorder to move them around.

Also will iTunes work with the iPod connected to the Mac by USB in the same way it would it it was connected by Firewire?

Thanks
-Beakster

 

[tomf87]

Re: ipod on mac with USB but no Firewire

Originally posted by Beakster
Hi,

I have an old Powermac G3 266MHz. It came with no USB or Firewire ports, but I bought a USB 2.0 PCI card so I could use my Digital Still camera.

The USB ports work fine under OS X 10.1 and I'm planning to buy an iPod. Do I need to buy Firewire ports for my Mac to use the iPod or will it work with USB provided I buy the dock to USB cable.

The reason I ask is that the adverts all say USB PC only. When I connect the iPod to the USB port will I see it like I see my digital camera, as a removable drive, and will I be able to drag mp3 files over to listen to, as well as video files inorder to move them around.

Also will iTunes work with the iPod connected to the Mac by USB in the same way it would it it was connected by Firewire?

Thanks
-Beakster

The only thing I found was on Apple's support site:

"Syncing with USB (certain versions of Windows-only) requires..."

So it appears you must have firewire on the mac. Interestingly enough, they say the firewire has to be built-in, so I'm not sure it would work with an add-in firewire card.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

Apple want you to use their own FireWire standard as opposed to USB (hence the windows-only). I think there are work-arounds for "built-in" requirements. For example, Panther requires built-in USB but there are some patches that have been released that get around that. I'd check though before you invest in a firewire card or iPod.