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New Apple Portables To Drop FireWire Support?

Hogwash!

FW is faster than USB when using a hard drive.

Does this mean iLife '06 will have USB camera support in iMovie?
 
Macrumors said:


He also claims that the new Intel PowerBooks will lose FireWire 400 ports, and only retain a single FireWire 800 port to appease video professionals.
Click to expand...

... total bs.

Powerbook owners are the biggest users of Firewire (for external drives and target disk mode mostly) and such a move would just alienate most of their user base.
 
cantthinkofone said:
why wouldnt the ibooks have firewire :confused:
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I guess the argument could be made to cut costs, but it really can't cost Apple that much do that. The only reason I could maybe see this happening is a faster USB is in the near future.
 
No, No, No, No, No! I refuse to believe this!

I've never seen a camcorder that uses FW800. Apple will not drop Firewire! Never!:mad:
 
I say its bull..... It just doesn't make sense for Apple to abandon a technology it has supported and promoted for so long. They dropped it on the iPod but that certainly doesn't mean they will on their comps...
 
I HIGHLY doubt the credibility of that site. I mean apple pretty much preaches the use of firewire through their isights and ipods, and I highly doubt that they would give all of their previous loyal customers the shaft
 
This just seems brain-dead.

As everyone has said, no FireWire means no support for digital video, no video import into iMovie.

Just about all Windows laptops have FireWire 400.

It's not the time to be killing off FW400.
 
masterapple04 said:
I was 8 years old in 1995, and can only remember FireWire since the first iMac.
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The first iMac didn't have fw. The second didn't either. It came late in the "DV" version. You can connect fw400 to 800 though, as mentioned above, via an adapter.

Oh, and this story is still BS.
 
wont happen

i highly doubt this will happen, there are too many consumer devices out there with firewire, it has become an industry standard in so many things, hard drives, cameras, computer-computer, apple would be very unintelligent to drop one of the technologies they fostered and patented.
 
This doesn't sound like something that apple would do. All of their other models have firewire and nearly all video camera (including iSight) use it. I highly doubt that they'd remove it.
 
really lame

My video camera is FW only.
My Eyesight 500 is FW only.
My external HDs are FW only (three of them).
I could more easily do without USB than I could without FW.

This is really lame.

One thing I can think of is that maybe Apple is dropping FW400. Maybe there will be two FW800 ports/buses. FW800 connects to FW400 devices simply by using a cable with the appropriate connector on each end. That would be OK by me.

Is there a place to send feedback to Apple about PB designs?

edit: Following the contact us link on Apple's site leads to a page where you can send feedback to the PB hardware team.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/powerbook.html
 
Unless they phased out firewire 400 in exchange for firewire 800 ports on ALL the Macs (which would be cool with me provided they shipped FW400 adaptors), I'm totally against this.

No form of cost cutting would be worth it, none. That move is so ... ugh.. stupid!

I thought it was bad enough they dropped it from the iPod, but I hope this isn't true :)
 
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! That would be horrible!!! I was looking forward to finally getting an iBook and being able to use it to edit digi-video. Hell, OS X is only good for digital video. Other than that, there's not much going for OS X other than the apps themselves if you have an XP comp with proper driers.
 
USB 2.0 will allow the case for the iBook and PowerBook to be thinner and lighter also it will reduce cost as it will be integrated on the Intel Mobo.

That being said there is a good chance that FireWireless and USB Wireless is the next thing to be implemented. Can you imagine not having any wires to sync data and have it super fast.

There will be some wired system in place to charge the iPod or whatever 3rd party add-on you have, however can you imagine how thin these notebooks will be. :eek:

I am looking forward to it, as it will also boost battery life, only keep the essentials on the road. I use to favour FireWire, however if it comes in a wireless edition I am all over it. ;) :)
 
EricNau said:
It will never happen...
Most/all digital camcorders use Firewire 400.
Click to expand...

I don't think this will happen. FireWire is a big part of Macs, and even it it wasn't, not including FireWire on an iBook would make iMovie all but worthless. Seriously, without a FireWire port, Apple might as well not include iMovie or iDVD with an iBook, because almost no one will be able to really use them.
 
I bought a FW800 external drive to take advantage of the speed of FW and now they want to drop it, BS! :mad:
 
Wow. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry:

Cry if it's true.

In the meantime, laugh:
1) Because I have never ever seen something on the front page have 50+ negatives (or positives) and zero positives (or negatives). It's unanimous!

2) Because we've been having this debate on iPods for a while now--maybe they want to make the iBook more compact and cheaper! USB2 is nearly as fast! Only a small group of people are affected because they have USB2. Yay USB2--Firewhat?
 
Is this just about the bottom iBook?

I don't believe this either. Just Page Two It! :)

1. Camcorders and iMovie and iDVD.

2. iSight.

3. Huge family of FW400 products, and pro uses such as audio.

4. FW400 faster (except in bursts) than USB2.0. FW800 faster still--and it doesn't end there.

5. Firewire is bootable. Troubleshooting, backups, etc.

6. FW target disk mode (and the assistant app for easy migration to a new Mac).

7. Camcorders and iMovie and iDVD.

8. FW hubs built into all Apple displays.

9. You still need multiple things connected at once, so they'd only have to add more USB ports anyway.

10. Removing FW from iPods (I miss booting too!) was a reasonable business decision that doesn't impact most people and doesn't relate in any way to some larger "abandonment" of Firewire. The irony: people complaining about the lack of FW on new iPods are often the ones stuck using USB 1.1 on an older Mac. And why WAS Apple late to use USB 2.0? Because of their commitment to Firewire.

11. Firewire LAN networking in OS X.

12. Other rumored FW devices from Apple in the recent past: Asteroid.

13. Firewire is Apple's OWN technology (and name).

14. FW has been catching on with PCs too. (And does Apple make fees when companies use Firewire?)

15. Camcorders and iMovie and iDVD.

But I can see how this COULD be a distorted "quarter-truth"--if LoopRumors is right (big if) about Apple prepping a sub-$500 stripped-down iBook.

THAT machine might be the one that doesn't have Firewire. The rest of the lineup? FW is here to stay. I can imagine pro models MAYBE going 800-only... as long as some adapter is provided. Some support for FW400 must remain.

The balance of Firewire demand vs. cost is VERY different for a computer than for an iPod.

(PS: Woohoo! All negative votes! :) )
 
Mac_Freak said:
I bought a FW800 external drive to take advantage of the speed of FW and now they won't to drop it, BS! :mad:
Click to expand...
Well you're in luck as it appears they are going to keep FW800. For everyone else, you're screwed.
 
I dont believe this at all. There is no logical reason for them to drop firewire. Also dropping firewire completely destroys the "Digital Hub" concept, and I guess if this is true the iMovie is out the window.
Saying apple will get rid of firewire is like saying they will get rid of an ethernet port, its just crazy.
Also for those who dont know, You can buy a very simple cable to convert FW800 into FW400, 800 carries the pins to do 400.
I guess people think that just because Apple does not have firewire on their ipods that they will drop it on the rest of their line.
 
Apple dropping FW support on iPods is sad, but at least it made sense in the business model.

Apple dropping FW support on Powerbooks don't make much sense ... they won't make the powerbooks thinner and more appealing, plus the people that buy the powerbooks use FW in some form or another. This is unlike iPods where the majority of owners are PC users, and hence FW is not a priority.

I believe this is an overreaction to the drop in FW support in iPods. If this turns out to be true, Apple has made a bad decision.
 
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