Steve Jobs Responds to Missing Firewire Outrage

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Posted October 16, 2008 at 11:47pm by iClarified

Steve Jobs has responded to a customer complaint about the new MacBook's lack of Firewire. In a very brief response Steve's argument was that "Actually, all the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2."

AppleInsider writes that "Jobs is likely not pleased about the current state of FireWire himself. Apple invented the standard in the late 80s as a hot pluggable replacement for SCSI, with a special emphasis on supporting media streaming with isochronous, real-time data transfers. The company then released the specification through a standards body to become IEEE 1394, where others including DEC, Texas Instruments, and Sony contributed to its development as well."

AppleInsider continues to write an in depth report about the history and future of Firewire. It's worth a read. TUAW has also chimed in with some more detailed information about HD cameras and video formats.

Steve Jobs Responds to Missing Firewire Outrage

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tmdag - October 20, 2008 at 8:00am

It's not allways about editing, sometimes I use my macbook to grab video from camera to my external hard drive. What can I dowith usb camera on mac? what mac program supports usb camera without additional compression ?

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DJFelix - October 17, 2008 at 12:27pm

The days of firewire are coming to an end. Apple created firewire, it's only fitting that they see to it's demise. If you truly need it, get a pro. People are acting as if it's impossible to get a laptop with firewire. If you have an old camera that requires firewire, and you don't want to replace it, then get a pro. Why would you want to edit video on a macbook anyways? I would want the power of the 9600 for editing video, IMHO. You have a choice. Grow up and deal with it.

MicBoz - October 17, 2008 at 10:50am

@tmdag: True... but I doubt there are very many (legit) people using Final Cut Pro on a MacBook!

tmdag - October 17, 2008 at 8:50am

.... Final Cut Pro does not support USB cameras

Macopoulos - October 17, 2008 at 8:35am

To Steve.. NOT ALL CAMCORDERS WORK WELL WITH USB 2.. THEY NEED THE FIREWIRE PORT!

J Teddy - October 17, 2008 at 3:50am

Like stated. If you are after a video editing station you are better off with a Mac Book Pro. Although the comment about camera's having USB?? I question. The Cannon XL H1S, f/w only. Panasonic AG-HVX200 is P2 but also has f/w

Kevin - October 17, 2008 at 1:59am

Thanks Adam! I'll have to look into the USB-boot then... I didn't know about that!! I'm with you though, I think the firewire days are coming to an end. I wish they could've pushed the fw800 a LOT better and make it more widespread!!! Oh well, eh??

Adam - October 17, 2008 at 1:49am

Kevin, all Intel powered Macs can boot from USB or Firewire hard drives. PowerPC Macs can only boot from Firewire hard drives. I'm a bit disheartened hearing about the loss of Firewire. Firewire was touted by Apple for so many years as superior to USB 2.0, and throughput tests showed that it was indeed. I've invested a fair amount of money on Firewire peripherals because I believed in that superiority and thought that Apple was on the same page. While the MacBook is certainly not a 'pro' machine, I see the loss of Firewire in that particular machine as the beginning of the end for it.

Kevin - October 17, 2008 at 1:32am

Over-reacting? Maybe a little... However, considering the push Apple has made recently with only allowing firewire drives to be a bootable drive on OS X, I'm pretty upset about the removal of the hookups too! Am I missing something here? Does anyone else know how boot another copy of OS X from a USB drive?? I thought it was a no-go... If possible, please let me know -my previous Sony Handycam didn't work on my iMac using USB OR firewire anyways.

MicBoz - October 17, 2008 at 1:13am

I think people are over-reacting a bit here. Sure... FireWire would have been great, and just maybe should have been included, but it's not the end of the world. Are you really gonna buy a Sony or Dell and run XP or Vista? Really? Ok... then what are you going to edit your video on? Not Window Movie Maker that's for sure. So now you're into Adobe Preimer for $800 at minimum, or Avid, or whatever decent editing software you like... for less than that you could have thrown down an extra $700 and bought a MacBook Pro. Lets face it... FireWire is a minority and it's not surprising that it has been removed. If you need it I guess you should buy a Pro... for the rest of us, there's USB.