Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Humor, Peripherals, Apple, Mac mini, MacBook, Mac Pro
Goodbye, FireWire 400
As Macworld notes, this is it for the ol' Firewire 400. With the introduction of the new Mac mini the other day and the refresh of the Mac Pro and iMac lines, the old version of Firewire is left only on the white MacBook. It's evolution at its finest, and our good friend Nilay Patel over at Engadget put together this perfect video showing just how hard it is to say goodbye to yesterday.
As I said on the Talkcast a long time ago when this was first hinted at, it's not a huge loss in my eyes. This is an outdated standard, and if you've got anything sitting around that absolutely requires a FireWire 400 port (and you've already upgraded completely to a computer that doesn't have one), then it's time for an upgrade. Those happen, you know -- there's a reason they're not selling Polaroid film any more. Besides, FW800 ports can easily drive your FW400 gear with a $8 cable.
Nostalgia, however, is a powerful force. So it's with a damp hankerchief and wet eyes that some of us will bid farewell to FireWire 400. Long live FireWire 800!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
michas_pi said 8:17PM on 3-04-2009
Goodnight, sweet prince ;_;
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Craig said 8:23PM on 3-04-2009
Will my iSight still work with a new mini?
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Michael Rose said 8:29PM on 3-04-2009
Yes, but you'll need a FW800 to FW400 converter cable.
Jay said 8:35PM on 3-04-2009
With the FW-400 to FW-800 cable yes.
RickBlaine said 8:35PM on 3-04-2009
I have yet to get any where near the transfer rates of even firewire 400 with USB 2.0.
I am in the midst of a 9 hour transfer of 25 gig of data over USB 2.0. I can easily do that in 2 - 3 hours if I am able to use Firewire 400 (in this case I am not). I will miss having both 400 and 800 (as I do on my powerbook).
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Dane said 9:23PM on 3-04-2009
If it is taking you 9 hours to transfer 25 gigs, then something is wrong. I just migrated migrated about 300 gigs to a new USB 2.0 drive in no more than 3 hours. Sounds like you may need to do a little troubleshooting.
ampMOD said 12:26AM on 3-05-2009
9 hours for 25 GB with USB 2.0?? There's definitely something wrong there.
And you estimate 2-3 hours for the same amount of data using Firewire 400?? That's waaaay off. I just transfered 150 GB from one hard drive to another using Firewire 400 in about 2 hours last night.
Nathan Adams said 8:37PM on 3-04-2009
"there's a reason they're not selling Polaroid film any more."
Actually, a group have purchased one of the old Polaroid factories and intends on re-starting production of film next year. There certainly is demand for it. So maybe not the best example to use.
http://www.the-impossible-project.com/
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Tom Waterhouse said 4:13AM on 3-05-2009
Bingo, I was going to say the same thing.
Polaroid is certainly different, it's more cultural. However FW400 is just outdated and a better version exists!
On topic though, even my rather old Lacie external HD has a FW800 port which I happily use. It was also one of the selling points of the new iMacs that they have a FW800 port, so personally I'm happy without FW400.
robogobo said 4:25AM on 3-05-2009
yeah. Polaroid went away because of people like the OP with no taste, and no appreciation for lo-fi imaging. There will always be a place for Polaroid, Diana, Holga, pinholes and general fucking around, thatnk god.
Jay said 8:39PM on 3-04-2009
I use my Drobo 2Gen (FW800) version with my MB 2.4Ghz using the FW400 port and is way better than using the USB2 port. Soon will upgrade to FW800 with the new Mac Mini.
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KosherSalt said 8:45PM on 3-04-2009
Ah ha ha. Awesome.
*tear
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Jayman said 8:52PM on 3-04-2009
my only problem is the firewire 800 is mad expensive
the cheapest external inclosure i could find was $115 for with a 500gb drive
allthough its blazzin fast
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Boyo said 8:55PM on 3-04-2009
That was like 5 minutes to long.
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cgalik+tuaw said 9:03PM on 3-04-2009
I just picked up a few LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 2TB drives on CDW for a little over $200 a piece... I missed the speed my MBP got to them on FW800, so I broke down and bought a FW800 card for my TiBook.
Here's hoping Apple doesn't drop FW800 in favor of eSATA. =P
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Thom Brooks said 9:09PM on 3-04-2009
It's not like fw400 is really going anywhere, it's just being upgraded. (How much did you 'miss' USB 1 or 1.1 when v2 of the spec was released? Not at all - just because the plug's form factor was the same, right?)
As people said, with the right 9-to-6 cable, you're fine to use any older peripherals. And I'm sure that 6-to-4 (mini DV camera firewire ports) adapter tips will become more popular, too.
IMO, Apple only dropped the ball when they completely left FW off of the new Unibody Macbooks; I think a lot of consumers were thinking, "This old miniDV camcorder is just fine, Apple. WTH?"
I'm really relieved that the new mini has fw800, though... I have a number of OWC Mercury drives that I'll be able to get the most out of with my new mini (acting as an HTPC). This will help to make it a decent little video editing machine, too.
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Randy said 9:15PM on 3-04-2009
Man.... That montage brought a tear to my eye....
Since it was introduced, I've only ever owned 2 firewire devices a Gen3 ipod and a WD passport Drive (which does FW800, Woohoo!).
Good bye FW400, I barely knew you.
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Andre said 9:33PM on 3-04-2009
My current Macbook is the older model with FW400. I won't be buying a new one if it has no firewire at all. And I'm not forking out for a Macbook Pro.
Apple, you saw fit to put FW on the new Mini, and iMacs, so either put it back on the Macbook or I just won't be buying one.
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marcj said 10:25PM on 3-04-2009
I think this planned obsolescence thing is a sham. Really - the USB 1.1 -> 2 example is not the same thing, since the cable didn't change and there is near-perfect backward compatibility. Yes, I can go out and buy a new cable. But the pretext here is that somehow it's "time for an upgrade" because Apple says it's time.
Ditto this new video connector - yet another non-standard thing I'm going to need an adapter for...
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Ben said 10:50PM on 3-04-2009
Well I was really mad at first but now I understand. Why would you have USB 1.0 on a new computer? And with firewire 1600 right around the corner this is just a transition.
The only pain is updating all my stinking cables! I am a work with cameras all day and I need that 4 pin firewire port, also I saw 4 pins in the video... they aren't dead! They are used all over video cameras today. And even sony's new camera has a 6 pin on it. Its just computers that are going 8 pin.
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