On Jul 11, 2007, at 12:00 PM, Jerry Freeman <x12 at insightbb.com> wrote:
> as i understand it, third party device manufacturers are tired of > paying an alleged 28? per port license fee to apple. usb with higher > speed than usb2 is being developed with rumored implementation in > 2008. ie devices that are currently firewire, may not be in the > future, say your epson printer. epson could save millions in license > fees. best...jf > > On Jul 10, 2007, at 1:36 AM, Greg Schoettmer wrote: > >> Rumors of firewire going away? Huh? >> >> Greg It's a quarter and it doesn't go to Apple. It goes to the IEEE licensing authority, an independent entity. There was serious gnashing of teeth when Apple wanted to charge a DOLLAR! Oh! Did you mean 28 CENTS? AFAIK, even FireWire 400 still has greater throughput than USB 2. And it doesn't tax your main processor near as much to get there. USB devices REQUIRE a computer to communicate with each other. Firewire devices can communicate directly, which is why you can offload your movies to a portable hard drive on some models. When considering FireWire 800, there isn't even a HINT of competition from any vector (well, maybe Serial ATA, but that's not as portable), as the speed is unapproached. The hardware to perform this feat is more expensive, though, and not as ubiquitous, and that is probably the REAL reason that FireWire is slipping in popularity as our cheaper and cheaper purchase price consumer mentality rules all. It's got to be cheaper to buy above all, total cost of ownership or actual utility is given a distant also-ran priority. Hey, why do you think people still buy Windows PCs and ink-jet printers? j. PS. BTW Apple's reason to eliminate it from iPods was to make them more compatible with all those OTHER computers that do not come with FireWire built in. PPS. Wikipedia entry: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire> -- Jonathan Fletcher jfletch at newmediaconstco.com Project Foreman NewMedia Construction Co.
