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Sonnet FireWire dongle gives your MacBook Pro the gift of FW400

When Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Pros, Apple received a lot of criticism for excluding a FireWire 400 port, despite the addition of FireWire 800. While most people were sitting around and griping, one company actually did something to reconcile the situation.

Sonnet has created a dongle that allows you to use FireWire 400 devices in your MacBook Pro's FireWire 800 port. The Sonnet Simply Fast dongle works with standard 6-pin male FW400 cables.

This dongle can be bought from the Sonnet online store, or from other retailers (i.e. Amazon) for around $14.24US. You can visit the Sonnet website for more information about the FireWire adapter. If you are looking for solutions to this FW 400/800 mystery then you might also want to check out FireWire 800 to 400 cables which are very plentiful, and might be slightly cheaper.

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Macbook Pro

When Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Pros, Apple received a lot of criticism for excluding a FireWire 400 port, despite the addition...
 

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mr kitty

And in other news, an extra battery can double your laptop's run time without plugging in!

November 26 2008 at 8:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

I have had one of these adapters from Sonnet for years, I actually bought it at the Apple Campus Store in Cupertino, it has been great for me especially when trying to use a FW800 HD with pass through to downgrade to 400

November 26 2008 at 2:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
brian

You say "Apple received a lot of criticism for excluding a FireWire 400 port, despite the addition of FireWire 800." That should say "presence", not "addition". My two-year-old 15" MBP has a FireWire 800 port.

+1 for Monoprice--a place that sells cables (i.e., a bit of plastic and metal) for what they SHOULD cost.

November 26 2008 at 1:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Carney

Wait, FireWire 400 devices and cables can't simply plug into FireWire 800 ports??

I didn't know that. And frankly, that's lame.

As much as USB 2 deserves criticism when compared with FireWire, at least USB is both backward and forward compatible.

A USB 2 device will work when plugged into a USB 1 port, and a USB 1 device will work when plugged into a USB 2 port, just slowly.

November 26 2008 at 12:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Craig

Actually.. I'm a big fan of adapter vs cable. That way, it's easier to travel. i have a couple of studios that I go to that have firewire interfaces.. instead of trying to rip apart their rig to plug in a FW800->FW400 cable, I can just adapt at the loose end, and I'm up and running..

As for the cost, it's a little deceptive. Expect to pay $23.98 with shafting and handling.

November 26 2008 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Geoff

Any chance for you guys to write "dongle" ... :P

November 26 2008 at 12:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Smivey

Around $14.24? How much is it, $14.23?

November 26 2008 at 12:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Krest

Or one could simply buy a FW800 to FW400 cable...

November 26 2008 at 11:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Krest's comment
Krest

too slow... Joe Russell beat me on the cable issue... ;)

November 26 2008 at 11:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
teeth weasel

Cory,

Do you ever do anything except post things everyone else already knows really, really late?

November 26 2008 at 11:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to teeth weasel's comment
teeth weasel

Might I add, by the way, that the cables are a much better solution as firewire is mostly used in professional instances, i.e. performance, and i'd much rather have one point of failure in a cable connection (for an accidental disconnect) than two.

November 26 2008 at 11:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joerussell

Slightly cheaper cables?

Heck yeah, monoprice has us covered:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=firewire+400+800+cable&x=0&y=0


November 26 2008 at 11:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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