[hmurchison]

Hell most PC ship non powered Firewire at that.



I always love new Apple hardware intros because it's a kick to read the various

opinions. Let's just say there's a wide dynamic range of logic displayed.

[Dan Frakes]

Wabbitguy said:

Pretty much makes the majority of audio recording interfaces with Firewire 400 obsolete. No idea how 800 to 400 adapters will be able to fill the void or if there are any gotchas there.

800/400 adapters have been around for years now and they work great. Any device that works with a FW400 port should work just fine, via an adapter or cable, with a FW800 port.

[tirmite]

WHERE ARE THE FREKKIN' FIREWIRE 800 HUBS?!?!?!?!?
Belkin discontinued their's. It seems to be an obvious opportunity for some 3rd part manufacturer.

[SamGumgee]

I choose FW400 over USB2 anyday for speed. Many people still have a misconception of the real world speed of USB. USB2 @ 480 just doesn't happen folks. Likewise, USB3 while gearing up to overcome that deficit will have a pcu overhead much greater then FW. It remains to be seen if it'll 'actually' do better then FW3200. It's really Apple's and the 1394 Trade Association's ball to drop even as the ubiquity of USB march on to proliferate the world.
(above comments applies to speed hounds and want-it-now peeps)

[uchuugaka]

This has been in the cards for a while!
It makes perfect sense, and here is why:
USB3 is a ways off from being released.
FW400 is great, but even it is bottleneckish with contemporary data storage and transfer demands. ( more than TB )
FW400 is old now, when it was first gracing macs, more than 10 years ago, HD capacities were in the single digit gigabyte range.
If you've ever tried to move big files, you'll know why this makes a lot of sense.
and FW800 is backward compatible with FW400, completely except for the shape.

[tony_d]

For me on my G4 PB, the only FW400 device is my Canon video camera (and a third gen iPod that i no longer use.) All my external HD have either quad or triple interfaces, I've always used FW800. So for me these changes are good. If I buy a new iMac (or MBP haven't decided yet) I'l just need an adaptor for my video camera. I am wondering if FW 3200 would be a firmware update or is it hardware?

[rsfinn]

Wabbitguy said:

Pretty much makes the majority of audio recording interfaces with Firewire 400 obsolete. No idea how 800 to 400 adapters will be able to fill the void or if there are any gotchas there.

How do adapters "fill the void"?

(1) Plug the FW800 plug end of the adapter into the FW800 port of the computer.
(2) Plug the FW400 device into the FW400 port of the adapter.
(3) There is no step 3.

Seriously, FW800 has been backward compatible with FW400 since forever. I have a number of FW400 drives happily plugged into the FW800 port of my PowerMac. I admit I haven't used an audio device but I can't imagine how there would be any issues.

Quote

Considering the close knit relationship between Apogee and Apples Logic Studio, guess their saying you need a Mac Pro or nothing now.

Just swell.

Why don't you talk to the audio device manufacturers first, before you jump off the bridge?

[WilfredLaurier]

Apple could solve the MacBook FireWire conundrum by offering FireWire over Ethernet. It was first added to the standard when FW800 was defined and the latest IEEE 1394c standard allows up to 800MBit/s over Ethernet just like FW800. This allows Firewire capability for the MacBook without having to waste space on an additional port. With 802.11n, the Ethernet port probably doesn't see much use anyways, so swapping on the same port shouldn't be a huge issue. It does require an adapter to convert FireWire cables to the Ethernet port, but Apple can sell that for their usual $19 to offset the cost of the more complicated Ethernet controller. FireWire still won't be as convenient as a dedicated port, but it'll still be available for those who need it by buying the adapter.

Adding it to the MacBook Pro will also give it the ability to have 2 Firewire devices connected again. If Apple is worried about product differentiation, all dedicated FireWire ports can be made FW3200, so that they are still more capable than the MacBook's 800MBit/s Firewire over ethernet.

[that1guy]

Come on Rob. I expected better of you. Firewire 400 is no more dead than USB 1.1 is. Everything will still work exactly the same, all you need is a 400-800 adapter, or a 400-800 cable.
Sensationalist articles benefit no-one, and just make Macworld look like Engadget. Just look the multitude of OMG How could they do this! replies so far...

[griffman]

That clearly wasn't the intent -- the intent was merely observational: "Hey, look, there aren't FW400 ports on Macs any more. That's pretty wild; they've been there for a really long time."

I, too, am surprised by some of the replies. This isn't like, for instance, the removal of the floppy drive or the death of the ADB keyboard connector. FW800=FW400 but faster with a different connector. Get an adapter, get a new cable, whatever, and that's the end of the problem.

I didn't intend to set off a maelstrom by any means; I just found it interesting to note that today marks (it seems) the official end of FW400 in anything except one lone carryover MacBook.

-rob.

[MacPro2007]

I had the bad luck of looking for a 24-inch iMac (in Aug. 2007) at the end of the production cycle. I was actually mad because I ended up settling for a MacPro. NOW - I'm sitting here thanking Apple for frustrating my limited foresight and for giving me hardware that is still up to date.
(I should explain: at the time, I thought the iMac was "just what I needed" and could afford. I thought the Mac Pro was "too much." If I'd gotten my way: I'd be right now thinking my iMac is out of date.)
FW-800? Bring it on!

[that1guy]

Why would you need one? Firewire 800 & 400 are dasiy chainable and the large majority of external firewire drives have two ports for that very reason. as long as the 800 devices are at the beginning of the chain everything will work just fine.

[KBeat]

that1guy said:

Why would you need one? Firewire 800 & 400 are dasiy chainable and the large majority of external firewire drives have two ports for that very reason. as long as the 800 devices are at the beginning of the chain everything will work just fine.

That's a simple solution, but I've heard that by doing so you reduce the speed of the entire chain to 400, limiting the speed of your 800 drives. I've also read that's not accurate. Does anyone have a definitive answer on this? For now I've made the effort not to mix the devices, but if it's not going to affect the speed of my 800 drives, I'd like the convenience.

[that1guy]

Indeed. Then we would have somwhere to plug in all our firewire 3200 external drives. You know the ones that are available for sale in every mom and pop electronics store....oh wait, my bad there isn't any.