The Tech times, they are a'changing

[jducoeur]

Went to buy a new power cord for the Baronial iPod yesterday. The Mac store no longer carries Firewire cables for the iPod -- had to buy a USB cord and block instead. That may be the surest sign I've seen yet that Firewire has demised...

Comments

[serakit.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, my video camera still only takes firewire... And somewhere in my house, there is a firewire cable...

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Apple stores no longer carry POWER cords for machines as little as 5 years old.

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

I'd have tried the Microcomputer Center in Cambridge for switching. I was in there for an external DVD drive (which the Apple store also did not carry), and saw a stack of double-speed floppy disk drives the Mac. I'm pretty sure they'll keep Firewire alive for a while. :)

[jducoeur]

Huh -- didn't occur to me, but it's a sensible suggestion. They are an awfully good place to go for less-common equipment...

[laurion]

Do you _want_ a firewire cable for the iPod? As mentioned in another post, I now have one that I can't use....

[jducoeur]

Ach -- would have been useful, but now I've bought the replacement. Still, we might pair up your cable and my block -- at some point, that might prove useful...

Technical superiority

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Yeah, it's really a shame. Firewire is so much better technically (better speeds, more efficient use of bandwidth, arbitrary topologies), but it just cost too much 10 years ago, and now it's too late.

Although they have made mistakes recently, too—why on Earth does the 800Mb/s version require a completely different connector?

[laurion]

Sad but true. Firewire is far and away the superior technology, but IIRC, licensing fee wars kept it off of PCs, except in cases where you need that superiority (Digital Video and audio systems still tend to prefer firewire). Apple themselves have not only stopped selling firewire dock cables, but the newest iPods won't even work with them (I have a new iPod classic and an old cable). Of course, this is all part of Apple trimming every extra out of the iPod box (no dock, no sleeve, no wall wart, jus the cable and headphones) to keep margins. I'm sure that not having the firewire chipset on the inside also helps.

The other holdout of Firewire, external hard drives, is being pushed out by the encroaching eSATA, which even I will agree is superior to Firewire for the purpose.