Oct

16

No More FireWire For Mac!

posted in hardware, by Codrut Nistor


It's so sad to see various technologies going into eternal oblivion before making any impact on the industry, but that's life. For example, who is still wondering what is AMR? Just for the record, also known as "audio/modem riser," this was an expansion slot found on Pentium III, Pentium 4 and Athlon motherboards, probably only used by 0.01 percent of those having such motherboards. Even I still have such a mainboard, in a computer that I keep for emergency situations, and I never used that slot. Now, what about FireWire?

No, I won't get into the details regarding what is FireWire, because there's something even more interesting to say - what's going to happen with it. Before moving on to tackle today's subject seriously, I have to make another confession -
I have no idea if my AM2 mainboard has FireWire, and I couldn't care less about that. Of course, I could check the manufacturer's website and see if I have such a thing available, but... what for?

I guess Apple ended up facing the same question, when they decided what to remove from the new MacBook Pro and MacBook computers. Guess what? No more FireWire for Mac, of course! Don't ask yourselves why, after all Apple took away the optical drive from the MacBook Air and nobody died. I am sure this move could help some accessories manufacturers to come up with "USB to FireWire" adapters or something similar... or not, I am not working in the field, so I can't tell that for sure.

Since I mentioned the MacBook Air above, I should also add that the lack of FireWire is widely considered to be one of the biggest downsides Apple's thinnest notebook has, so the big question remains - if Apple decided to drop FireWire for Mac notebooks, why did they do it?

I can't really answer the question above, so maybe you can help me. First, they dropped iPod's FireWire support, in 2004, and now they are leaving no more FireWire for Mac notebooks. I only hope they won't do the same to the USB ports, because that would really be a tragedy!

9 Comments on “No More FireWire For Mac!”


1

iPod Problems, Apple?, on October 16, 2008

[...] for some information, what would you like to know? Speaking for myself, I could easily go for "why remove FireWire," but I won't. The engine that really pushed Apple through the first years of this decade and [...]

2

Marvin, on October 16, 2008

Isn't USB2 just as fast or faster--and more ubiquitous? If so, why firewire? More to the question, why waste precious laptop surface space on obsolete technology? I appreciate Apple's willingness to evolve. I remember my PC buddies laughing at my G3 because it didn't have a floppy drive. Silly Neanderthals.

3

Marvin, on October 16, 2008

Ok. so, after looking around on the Interwebs a bit, I notice that the general consensus on this issue is that, while USB2 is theoretically faster, Firewire tends to be notably faster in practical application. But, apparently, the difference isn't enough to tip the issue of convenience. USB2 is on everthing, Firewire is not. Apple decided to go with an industry standard instead of clinging to their own, albeit, better technology.

4

Steve Jobs Has Spoken!, on October 17, 2008

[...] 290, 55); showInitialOdiogoReadNowFrame ("129104", "1171", 290, 0); Considering that the lack of FireWire ports could be considered the worst problem the new MacBook Pro and MacBook notebooks have, it's no [...]

5

Codrut Nistor, on October 17, 2008

The idea is that some professionals - who use Macs - also use various FireWire devices. If Apple is dumping a few - but precious - clients for the masses, that's not quite a good idea. OK, remove FireWire, but at least keep it as an option, or as an external adapter(wouldn't it be hilarious to have a USB FireWire external adapter?)/

6

MacBook Problems, Reloaded, on October 25, 2008

[...] Pro notebooks from Apple? If you don't, then let me give you just these two words to think about: NO FIREWIRE! The good part is that Steve Jobs himself answered a user enquiry about this move, but now I just [...]

7

Apple, Get Ready For The USB 3 Release!, on November 18, 2008

[...] you probably know, Apple decided to remove FireWire support of the latest MacBooks, and most users weren't exactly happy with that decision. While I won't say anyhing related to that decision now, today I will have to ask one simple [...]

8

mayhew, on April 27, 2009

Firwire should never have been dropped. Speaking from a professional standpoint as a videographer/filmaker... this sucks.

9

Mac’s Getting HDMI? | Mac Gravy, on March 01, 2010

[...] Removal of Firewire is a major mistake  on Apples’ part. [...]

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