Why the hell did they take away Firewire support? :(

Phate

Phate

Phate

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WHY did they do it?!


I've always preferred Firewire over USB - I don't care what it says on paper, Firewire is a damn site faster than USB. It's a fact.

I had to restore my phone earlier so I'm resyncing everything and it's just taking an age! and it's very frustrating! :(

Please Mr Jobs - give us Firewire support for the iPhone and iTouch.

Many Thanks
Phate

/rant over
 
Firewire costs more for the chips and the license. So everyone picked USB. Apple were very stubborn about the whole thing to the point where machines as new as 2003 didn't have USB2.
 
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Phate said:
Nobody does :(
Click to expand...

Now that just isn't true.

I assume they removed it and went USB because it was something that everyone had - in both PC and Mac. People are also a lot more comfortable, even now with 'USB' than they would be with Firewire.

It would be a nanny-ing approach to it but it wouldn't surprise me.
 
Caged said:
Firewire costs more for the chips and the license. So everyone picked USB. Apple were very stubborn about the whole thing to the point where machines as new as 2004 didn't have USB2.
Click to expand...

I'd pay more for an iPhone that supported Firewire tbh. Plug it in, sync it up and go in minutes rather than hang around waiting...1....2........3........4.......5......
 
But Apple want to sell their products to the widest possible audience, and in the miniscule margins of the desktop PC, the added expense for Firewire just wan't worth it, hence USB support.

I agree though that being Apple they could have gone with a USB/Firewire option like the old iPods, but then that takes up space and power.
 
Slogan said:
Now that just isn't true.
Click to expand...

<3

I assume they removed it and went USB because it was something that everyone had - in both PC and Mac. People are also a lot more comfortable, even now with 'USB' than they would be with Firewire.

It would be a nanny-ing approach to it but it wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...

But all Mac's come with Firewire anyway, so why not have support for both.

Apple being bastid's to be honest.
 
For Macs it would have been perfect - but how many PC owners would have bought a new shiny Apple product, taken it back and found no where to plug it into their setup. I think the reason to go USB was because even in the lowest of low end PCs - it's likely to have one or two places for the cable to go. I'm assuming the iPod's input there wouldn't be able to do both types of cable.

Combined with Caged's reasoning that the licensing and hardware was more expensive (which I wasn't aware of) makes sense.

What way did the Firewire work on the old iPod? Was it pure Firewire to Firewire or Firewire to a mini connection?
 
To be fair to USB 2, it can go very fast, but most chips are just rubbish at it. The NEC chips that appeared when it was introduced in 2000 were very good (and pricey) compared to integrated solutions that exist now.
 
Aren't I394 developing a 3.2GB FireWire interface to compete with USB 3.0?. USB 3.0 will be 5GB though, but I'm guessing with the lesser overhead FireWire S3200 or what ever its called will keep up?

XD-3
 
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Think firewire was supported up to the last 4th Gen iPod models, the chips were taken out because they took up too much space.

USB for the iPhone/Touch isn't that bad unless your dumping loads of music/video onto your device.

I have to agree though, backing up my Mac laptop via Firewire 400 is so much quicker then USB.
 
Didn't Apple kinda invent Firewire anyway? USB is supposedly faster against Firewire 400 (USB2 is 480MB/s theoretical), but USB transfers in bursts, whereas Firewire is consistent, so for external hard drives and soundcards, firewire be 'da bomb' if you will.
 
Draeconis said:
Didn't Apple kinda invent Firewire anyway? USB is supposedly faster against Firewire 400 (USB2 is 480MB/s theoretical), but USB transfers in bursts, whereas Firewire is consistent, so for external hard drives and soundcards, firewire be 'da bomb' if you will.
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A lot of external hard drives are e-sata or gigabit ethernet now anyway which is better than usb 2 and firewire 800. My pc actually has an external SataII data and power connector for connecting standard hard drives even!
 
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Draeconis said:
Didn't Apple kinda invent Firewire anyway? USB is supposedly faster against Firewire 400 (USB2 is 480MB/s theoretical), but USB transfers in bursts, whereas Firewire is consistent, so for external hard drives and soundcards, firewire be 'da bomb' if you will.
Click to expand...

Firewire is also "intelligent" using direct DMA transfers between devices as befits a replacement for SCSI aimed at the A/V peripherals market. USB2 requires the CPU to supervise all activity and mediate all the activity so your keyboard can interrupt the HDD.

I'm keeping my 3G iPod. It just works and uses either interface.
 
I'd love a FireWire equipped iPod / iPhone anytime soon, but it's not going to happen.

I too have had to wait an age while it syncs all my library (all Lossless) to an iPod :(
 
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