New iPods, no power?

[obtix]

So when did the new iPod Mini's ONLY come with a USB 2.0 cable and no firewire let alone the fact that it needs to be charged from the USB port. That's really lame... I wan't it to be firewire for one thing and second, what if I go away with out my laptop? Plus charge time must be really bad! Ok.. I ranted but what is the deal?

[cwtnospam]

Apple sells more iPods to PC users than Mac users and PC users buy primarily on price, not quality. USB is slower than Firewire (it's throughput that counts) but advertises a faster rate (480mbps vs 400mbps) and making the charger optional helps keep the cost down.

[obtix]

Wow.. thats really really lame. I am sorry Apple but thats a really bad move!

[cwtnospam]

I don't like it either, but they're doing what they have to do to reach the average PC user. You have to remember that most PC users don't know there are better choices than the Windoze world. Since they think everything is a PC they think it then comes down to just price.

[CAlvarez]

Ah, isn't it fun to make yourself feel superior by finding others to insult?

All Macs and all Wintel boxes have USB, so it's pretty logical to include that with a product intended for both markets. If they include more cables, you're going to pay for it one way or another. I've never had the urge to charge my iPod with a wall charger, and I'm betting Apple saw that most people don't.

As far as speed, the internal drive in the iPod is pretty slow, slower than either USB or FW. Go measure it (I have). Doesn't matter which interface you use as far as performance.

[slacker]

The downside is that my new 60GB IPOD doesn't sync when plugged into the front-panel USB port on my Dual-2GHz G5 Powermac (gets unknown errors). The solution: buy a firewire cable. The apple forums have been inundated with people having USB sync problems on Apple computers (my solution is plug it into a 1.1 port on the back of my display and it works - just dog slow). Really dissappointed.

[cwtnospam]

Ah, isn't it fun to make yourself feel superior by finding others to insult?
...
As far as speed, the internal drive in the iPod is pretty slow...
Who was being insulted? The fact is that the masses are blissfully ignorant about a great many things, USB and Firewire being only two.

I suppose I should have been more precise when talking about their speeds and the advantages of Firewire. While it isn't necessarily an important difference with the current iPod, Firewire has been shown to be more capable than USB. Settling on USB as a standard for the iPod helps Apple sell more iPods to Windoze users and saves a few dollars, but it hurts Firewire in the market. Ths makes it more likely that USB will find its way into products that should be using Firewire.

It isn't a matter of selecting the "best and cheapest" product for the job because that affects the quality of future products, similar to the way DOS and Windows 3.1 messed up all future versions of Windoze. If that's what you're looking for, then there are plenty of PC makers out there.

[ShavenYak]

I'm glad my iPod came with USB cable... because I almost always have my one Firewire port occupied by my external CD burner. So, I'd have to reach around behind the burner to daisy-chain the iPod, but I can just plug the USB right into my iBook.

If you do feel the need to buy a Firewire cable, why not sell your now-redundant USB cable on eBay to offset the cost? Folks there will probably bid at or near retail price on iPod accessories. :rolleyes:

[slacker]

Frankly, USB or Firewire doesn't make one bit of difference to me. I don't "feel the need" to buy a Firewire cable. The USB sync doesn't work correctly on a 1-year old Mac desktop with a fresh install of Tiger. Go check the Apple support forums. There are hundreds of similar complaints.

[bedouin]

I'm thinking of buying an iPod Mini in a couple weeks, though I may wait longer to see if the update rumors are true at all.

Just curious, can you sync/charge an iPod Mini with USB 1.1? None of my Macs are USB 2.0 capable, and I might not run out to buy the firewire cable immediately, especially since I won't be syncing it very often (perhaps once to put all my audio files on it -- I don't have that much).

[slacker]

Yes, USB 1.1 is fine (just slow). On my 60GB model, it was averaging about 6 songs a minute using 1.1 interface (or crashing every 3rd song at 2.0 at a much faster rate :-). In the end, I just let it chug along all night on at 1.1 speed. I plug it in overnight to charge it anyway, so who cares? It could use Morse code...

[ShavenYak]

In the end, I just let it chug along all night on at 1.1 speed. I plug it in overnight to charge it anyway, so who cares? It could use Morse code...

Funnily enough, there's not a whole lot of difference between serial data transfer and Morse code. You convert your data into binary symbols (1s and 0s, or dots and dashes) and send them down a wire with specific timing between them. The more things change, the more they stay the same, or something like that.