Ravenwood - 02/25/05 06:00 AM
Apple is catering to Windows users with the latest version of their iPod music player and that has Apple purists upset. At issue is their support of the widely used USB 2.0 standard and scaling back of the Firewire technology which Apple pioneered. Apple users have responded with a whiny petition:
"We, as dedicated users and supporter of your hardware and software are completely dismayed at your recent decision to discontinue standard FireWire support for the iPod music player line," the petition states, going on to note that "It is very unfortunate that you have left your faithful out in the dark on this one."
In trying to cut costs, they will no longer be selling iPods with a firewire cable included, although the player will still support the technology. Apple users that want to use Firewire will need to purchase a cable seperately.
Oh the humanity.
Apple is shooting itself in the foot. The whiners have a point. Apple has tried for years to promote the advantages of its FireWire interface for high speed data transfers (such as loading many gigabytes of music on an iPod). The inclusion of a USB cable but no FireWire cable is stupid, especially since many Macs have FireWire ports but no USB 2 ports.
The PC vendors also should be spanked. They shun the superior FireWire interface because it was made by Apple. Apple stopped its miniscule FireWire licensing fee (25 cents per port) years ago, so PC makers have no good excuse for not using FireWire for high speed interfaces.
Posted by: Dr. T at February 25, 2005 8:05 PMActually, Firewire is pretty much on equal footing with USB 2.0. Both support about 400 Mbps. Both provide power for charging the device. The only advantage I can think of for Firewire is that it tends to have a more stable bit rate, whereas USB is kinda of up and down.
Posted by: Ravenwood at February 26, 2005 12:07 AMI've gathered that the licensing fees for Firewire (per every device built) are a little high, and that's the main reason USB has almost entirely displaced it from the market.
Posted by: markm at February 27, 2005 11:32 AM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
