Phillipe, I didn't mean to sound too negative about the future of Firewire. I would have no qualms buying a new Firewire 400 drive tomorrow. Like Shay I have many that I use every day - I also have a Firewire 800 drive which I love and use with relish. In fact I wish my other drives were Firewire 800 as well as it is significantly faster than Firewire 400 particularly when multiple drives are daisy-chained together. And even FW 400 is faster than USB 2.0 in most real-life situations despite the apparent 80Kbps difference.
It is only the future versions of Firewire - 1600 and 3200 that sound in doubt at this point. The fact is, SATA II and standard external connectors are not here yet to my knowledge and Macs obviously don't have them built-in yet - in fact, Apple is still including FW 800 on their very latest PowerMac G5s and PowerBooks. A FW 800 drive and definitely a FW 400 drive bought today will give you great mileage far ages yet. Most Firewire drives have USB 2.0 on them as well, so you'll have that added flexibility as well. My advice is if you need external storage now, a Firewire 400 or 800 drive is the thing to go for. -Mart > From: J Philippe Chaperon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 17:54:45 +0800 > To: WAMUG Mailing List <wamug@wamug.org.au> > Subject: Re: Firewire 800 HDD > > on 5/5/05 7:58 PM, Martin Hill at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>> From: Rob Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> Actually that brings up a point why the camera manufacturers with the >>> advent of large files and bandwidth size have not adapted Firewire >>> 800. Would rectify a few problems especially with the VTR's for HD >>> coming online and the troubles Panasonic and Apple are having with >>> the AJ-HD1200A. >> >> Sadly if the CEO of Weibetech (a Firewire hard disk manufacturer) is correct >> (see link and excerpt below), Apple may be deprecating it's commitment to >> Firewire 800 and possibly heading in the direction of SATA bus technologies >> for external as well as internal connections. >> >> It is hard to imagine that Firewire 400 won't stick around with so much >> video gear using it - but at least for future external hard drives, it >> sounds like Firewire 1600 and 3200 may just be pipe-dreams. >> >> Perhaps that is why Firewire 800 still hasn't made it down to the iMac or >> into video gear and perhaps why Apple hasn't fixed the performance problems >> with Firewire 800: http://www.barefeats.com/fire47.html >> >> Who knows which way it will go? :-( >> >> -Mart >> > > Thanks for this info Mart, and to Rob and Shay for their comments. That is > now making it difficult for me as I was just about to place an order with > Daniel for a Firewire external drive, admitedly a FW400. The question now > is: Do I want to back a moribund horse? > > I thoroughly love Apple and its product, but at times, as a small user of > its products, I cannot help but feel I am spending the hard-earned cabbages > on something which may not be there tomorrow. > > FireWire seems to be going the way of the wonderful Newton. Wonder how those > who bought these pricey, although brilliant, PDAs feel about the abondonment > of this platform by Apple? > > I think that Apple should think more than twice before trumpeting some new > technologies which they are not sure to back all the way. Boy, did they ever > flaunt the superiority of Firewire! Maybe they are right, but commercially a > real black hole.... > > I guess that with the new iPods coming with only the USB cable, the writing > was already on the walls for FW? Yes? > > I'd feel sorry to see FW go though ...... > > Regards, > > Philippe > > > -- > > "To him who is in fear everything rustles." - Sophocles > > (BC 495-406, Greek Tragic Poet) > > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > WAMUG is powered by Stalker CommuniGatePro > >
