Thread: USB Hub

Originally Posted by mrsquirrel

Why has now one ever really made Firewire a feasible option? So bloody expensive

Well, Apple has made Firewire a viable option. I have a Firewire webcam a Firewire iPod and a Firewire external hard drive. My PowerBook has one Firewire port and my iMac has two. I can start either machine in Firewire target mode which essentially makes that machine an external hard drive; great for copying data quickly and also great for cloning a machine when you get a new one. And, I can quickly network two machines by connecting them with a simple Firewire cable.

Unfortunately, it seems as if Apple will slowly drop Firewire in favor of USB 2.0.

Originally Posted by mrsquirrel

I did look into PCMAI USB 2.0 cards but the reviews of them basically said that only a few worked properly.

Link please, this sounds very strange. There are a bunch of USB chip manufacturers and their chips are beeing used on computer motherboards as well as on add-on cards.
I'm using a NEC based PCMCIA card which works flawlessy and is auto recognised by Windows XP.

Originally Posted by buadhai

Unfortunately, it seems as if Apple will slowly drop Firewire in favor of USB 2.0.

Firewire (or IEEE 1394) was introduced around the same time as USB 1.0.
Firewire was much faster but it took a couple of years before it found it's place into Intel/Windows machines.
I bought a 1394 add-on card some 5 years ago in order to transfer data from my camcorder , but nowadays all cameras/camcorders are going USB 2.0..
There is not much room for Firewire since USB 2.0 is much faster so it makes sence that Apple drops it.

Originally Posted by buadhai

Originally Posted by dirtydog

what I meant was while the usb is doing whatever I will generally be doing something else.

Isn't that the normal state of affairs? I rarely wait for my USB hub to finish it's shtick before going one with my own.

my USB never does shtick

Originally Posted by lom

There is not much room for Firewire since USB 2.0 is much faster so it makes sence that Apple drops it.

Agreed, but it was good while it lasted: kind of like PCI slots, SCSI and a zillion other outdated but once useful "standards".

Did you buy that PCMCIA card in Thailand? HOw much wsa it.

I can see them on the net for about $15 up

No, I bought it back in Sweden a year ago and it was ~$25 at that time.