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iPod iPod 5G Firewire Hack?

macreator

macreator

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 23, 2003
105
0
New York City
I was just wondering if anyone knew of a hack that would allow me to use an iPod 5G with my PowerBook's Firewire port for syncing instead of USB 2.0.

I've been wanting to buy a 5G but with my PowerBook lacking USB 2.0 I may have to wait. If anyone knows of a hack floating around enabling pre-USB 2.0 Macs to sync with 5G iPods I would truly be delighted.
 
If it's the Titanium PowerBook in your sig, you could get a USB 2 PCMCIA card. That'll speed things up a bit.
 
Actually, I went through the trouble of getting a USB 2 PCI card for my powermac. I am not at all impressed but it is better than USB 1... likewise, beware of all the little glitches that come with semi-supported upgrades.
 
sorry....

this cant happen, there is no firewire chipset in the 5g ipod, the fw will charge the ipod from what ive heard, but it cannot sync because it is lacking the ability to xfer files via firewire. i have read that there were a couple reasons that apple did this,
1. consumers-its not a perfect world, a lot of ipod buyers use pcs and since the royalties on firewire is so high, usb2 has gone on to become one of the major uses in the pc world instead of firewire

2. size-the firewire chipset in the ipod is much bigger than the usb2 so the firewire bit it and the usb2 remained

3. speed (?)- we all know that usb2 is technically faster than firewire at 480mbs vs 400mbs. but usb2 has PEAKS of 480mbs while firewire is sustained at 400 mbs so that point is really up for debate
 
Thanks to everyone for the quick responses!

It looks like I'm going to need to buy a PC Card or simply wait it out until my next PowerBook purchase which I would like to make soon. I'm going to wait until Macworld 2006 in January just to make sure I don't miss out on anything. I'd love to buy an Intel PowerBook so we'll see if Apple doesn't pull one out in January (fingers crossed).

Thanks once again!
 
TheMasin9 said:
3. speed (?)- we all know that usb2 is technically faster than firewire at 480mbs vs 400mbs. but usb2 has PEAKS of 480mbs while firewire is sustained at 400 mbs so that point is really up for debate
Click to expand...
USB2 is not technically faster than Firewire. 480 is a lie. USB2 never achieves that, ever, ever, ever ever ever. Not in a peak, not in a burst, not ever! Firewire is ALWAYS far faster in real world usage.
 
alex_ant said:
USB2 is not technically faster than Firewire. 480 is a lie. USB2 never achieves that, ever, ever, ever ever ever. Not in a peak, not in a burst, not ever! Firewire is ALWAYS far faster in real world usage.
Click to expand...
That's one thing I never understood. Everyone kept saying how USB 2.0 is faster than Firewire, but in my experiences it isn't even close. It's not all that slow but it's not as fast as everyone makes it out to be.
 
It looks like FireWire is dead with concerns to the iPod. Here's hoping USB 3 comes out soon :)
 
Is it possible to upgrade a 12" Powerbook to USB 2.0 that doesn't have a PCMCIA slot? I'm guessing not since the USB Bus is probably connected to...well, everything, but I thought I'd ask :)
 
eMac Firewire Hack

I have an old eMac (1ghz) with USB 1.1 and firewire. I didn't want to spend hours uploading ~50gbs of music to my new iPod due to the lack of firewire support. I also have a new ibook with USB 2.0, but a hard drive smaller than my music collection. I started the eMac in firewire target disk mode, and booted the iBook off the eMac's HD. When I connected my iPod to the iBook, everything transferred at USB 2.0 speeds. Hope this helps!
 
skibummer said:
I have an old eMac (1ghz) with USB 1.1 and firewire. I didn't want to spend hours uploading ~50gbs of music to my new iPod due to the lack of firewire support. I also have a new ibook with USB 2.0, but a hard drive smaller than my music collection. I started the eMac in firewire target disk mode, and booted the iBook off the eMac's HD. When I connected my iPod to the iBook, everything transferred at USB 2.0 speeds. Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty nice custom solution if you have both computers available like that. Nice job.
 
TheMasin9 said:
1. consumers-its not a perfect world, a lot of ipod buyers use pcs and since the royalties on firewire is so high, usb2 has gone on to become one of the major uses in the pc world instead of firewire
Click to expand...

What royalties? Apple invented Firewire if I am not mistaken. So why does apple have to pay itself royalties?
 
quagmire said:
What royalties? Apple invented Firewire if I am not mistaken. So why does apple have to pay itself royalties?
Click to expand...

Apple, Sony, Canon, ST Microelectronics, Matsushita, National Semiconductor, RF Microdevices, ST Microelectronics, and others I can't think of right now all directly had a hand in creating Firewire. They all share the patents for it. Even an Intel protocol was used in the design. Everyone, including apple, pays 25 cents per system to use firewire. The money gets evenly distributed between all the companies with patents via the 1394 Licensing Authority. Apple just thinks they invented Firewire.
 
betbest1 said:
I don't think anyone would mind if Apple charged $0.25 more for the 5G iPods but included FireWire support.
Click to expand...
They'd also have to charge for the FW chips, the extra development, etc. Plus the iPod would have to be bigger to accommodate the extra chips. There is much more at stake than 25 cents.
 
sigamy said:
Would I be able to sync a 5G iPod via FW with a 3rd party dock like this one?

They don't list the 5G iPod but just wondering if this would work? Or does the iPod still need the FW chipset for syncing?

http://www.insten.com/productdetails.cfm?categoryid=42&productid=621
Click to expand...
I didn't even look at the link, but I can tell you it won't work. The iPod doesn't have the correct chips.

There is NO way to get firewire to work on the G5 iPod.
 
grapes911 said:
I didn't even look at the link, but I can tell you it won't work. The iPod doesn't have the correct chips.

There is NO way to get firewire to work on the G5 iPod.
Click to expand...

Thanks. But what if a 3rd party created a dock that had the firewire chipset? Could the 5G iPod's dock connector connect to that dock and use the FW chipset in the dock to sync via FW?

Sorry if I'm be hard-headed on this...just seems like a nice accessory for someone to put on the market. I have a 17" iMac G4 with only USB 1.1 and it sucks that I can't get a new iPod.
 
alex_ant said:
USB2 is not technically faster than Firewire. 480 is a lie. USB2 never achieves that, ever, ever, ever ever ever. Not in a peak, not in a burst, not ever! Firewire is ALWAYS far faster in real world usage.
Click to expand...
this may be due to other factors, instead of just the usb2... unless you are doing clinical tests... im pretty sure that it does reach faster speeeds in its little peaks...

on what grounds do you say that?
 
sigamy said:
Thanks. But what if a 3rd party created a dock that had the firewire chipset? Could the 5G iPod's dock connector connect to that dock and use the FW chipset in the dock to sync via FW?
Click to expand...
Not unless that dock has a processor and RAM. Basically a small computer is needed. Don't hold your breath.
 
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