The nano is going to force me to buy a USB 2.0 hub. :p To be fair, I can understand the business rationale for dropping FireWire data transfer from the iPods. There's also a strange satisfaction that Apple is capable of making such a decision.

The FW chip costs $1.50 in lots of 1000.

Couldn't agree more with Rosyna (and others) on this. It's like having the bottom fall out here. Disappointed and sad to see FW go. Least common denominator for sure.

Thanks for the Silk update. Hopefully, the crashreporter app you also made was part of the solution...in any case, many thanks.

Ishan Bhattacharya, MD

Yup, SCR was definitely what allowed a fix to be made so quickly.

$1.50 in lots of a thousand means $9,000,000 in lots of six million, which is how many iPods Apple sold in the just-ended quarter alone.

Even considering a discount for really large orders, that's millions they'd be passing on. It might have been in their best long-term interest to include FireWire data connectivity because of the consumer ill will they're garnering from dropping it, but they obviously don't think that the lost sales will outweigh the profit they're guaranteed by the move... that decision was one that was analyzed and debated (if only in Steve's mind) extensively, I'm sure.

Any chance SCR will help fix Menu Master so that MM will again work with Quicken 2006?

Amazing, how easy it is to make suggestions even if the problem is not properly understood and others must do the work. ;)

FWIW, count me amongst your loyal following...

Personally, I am iPod'd out. They have become like candy, and I've acquired a stomachache. All Jobs concentrates on these days is the iPod world, and the rest of the Mac world is starting to take a back seat.

Changing from FW to USB for iPods is much more likely to be a security issue. You can bypass the security on any Mac that doesn't have a firmware password by booting as root from a FW iPod which is otherwise a very innocent device and can be smuggled into just about anywhere.

tunarecon, that's incredibly bad reasoning. Since you can do the same thing by booting from CD or any other bootable device. However, it'd just be far, far easy to boot into single user mode if you wanted to bypass security.

I'm with Rosyna 120% on this one.
I have firewire 2 (800) on my 17" powerbook (original 1Ghz) but not USB 2. Explain that. Neither can I.
Apple was EXTREMELY slow on introducing USB2 and now they are requiring it?
I used to think "oh well, at least i'll never need usb2 seeing as i have both firewire and firewire800." I guess I thought it too hard and apple read my mind, realized I was happy with my current machine, and found the way to make me need something newer. Yeah sure, i have that stupid belkin pcmcia usb2 cardbus, but i don't like it and suspect it never actually gives me higher speeds.

I have been waiting for the iPod video with my original mini holding me over. My only qualm with the iPod video on release was that it didn't have an 80 or 100gig drive. I guess now i have something that will actually prevent me from purchasing it.

I am pretty good about controlling my use of profanity, so I ask that you insert as many four letter words as you can into this post.

You shouldn't boot from an iPod anyway; Apple has been recommending against it for some time.

Apple says a lot of things. But there is no harm in booting from an iPod. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93739

Tunarecon does still have a point. If you were doing a security check, which of these 3 items might you allow in:

1) Tiger Install CD
2) iPod
3) 2.5" FW Harddrive

A minor lockdown would probably allow 1 & 2, a major would probably only allow the iPod in. And even at government level lockdowns you could probably coax an iPod into the building. Yet the iPod can do everything that both the Install CD and the FW Harddrive can do. But vs the Install CD it has the advantage of being able to take data with it as well.

And yea, I've already had this conversation with Rosyna and don't consider the lack of FW a huge deal from a business perspective - the iPod still does everything that Apple advertises it as. From a Mac users perspective, I have an iPod with Firewire so until I need to upgrade I'm not too worried about it :D.

OK yea, I do feel for everyone that loves FW, I do as well and would only ever use my iPod with FW, but who knows what will come with the x86 Macs next year (which I never believed would happen either). For all we know, the new iPods will be bootable via USB 2.0 with those machines. (no, I don't know if that's technically possible, but then Apple made a GUI when everyone in the industry said it was technically impossibe).

I don't think the issue had to do with cost nor security. I think it had to do with size of the chips. Notice the video iPod is smaller than the 4th generation and the nano is drastically smaller than the mini. Apple probably was able to save room by cutting out the FireWire controller.

It's also a great way to force obsolescence upon lower-end Mac users if they want to stay in the iPod game, assuming there might be an alterior motive after all. It's not too big of a deal for those that have G4 towers with PCI slots to add USB2.0 ... nor a big deal to those with 15" or 17" PowerBooks with PCMCIA slots ... but to those people that have iMacs, iBooks, eMacs, or 12" PowerBooks, it's a big deal to not have FireWire if you're one of the users without built-in USB2.0.

All we need to solve that problem is a firewire attached usb 2.0 bus. ;)

Bakuryuuha hit the nail on the head - the Firewire chips are supposed to be the largest single chip in the iPod - drop it, drop the size of the entire iPod - it was not only a business decision in terms of extra profit, but a technological/business decision that allowed them to shrink the iPods.

well i for one am happy to see firewire die the death it should who needs it any way more than 70 percent of pcs are Usb anyway