Uhh... Didn't Apple develop FireWire? I can't see this as a decision that was made lightly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire "FireWire was developed primarily by Apple Computer in the 1990s, after work defining a slower version of the interface by the IEEE 1394 work…

Frankly, USB 2 is good enough for iPods. Both FireWire and USB 2's throughput exceed that of the iPod hard disks or flash media by a large margin, making it pretty much irrelevant …

Quote: Originally Posted by tooki Frankly, USB 2 is good enough for iPods. Both FireWire and USB 2's throughput exceed that of the iPod hard disks or flash media by a large marg…

Quote: Originally Posted by mduell Yea, beacuase Apple has never had a problem with 3 of their own Firewire devices not working together. And USB devices can cause a kernel…

Quote: Originally Posted by mduell Both FW and USB2 have bandwidth in excess of what the iPods little disk can push, but the chipset that the iPods use is about 40% faster for U…

Quote: Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani And USB devices can cause a kernel panic just by being plugged in. So Apple's USB implementation and/or drivers are broken. My po…

NO! Apple needs to add back on a actual Firewire port like in the old models! Thus making it super easy to plus ANY firewire cable into your iPod! Quick, sign more online petiti…

Oh please. I agree with those posters that say USB 2 is good enough for the iPod. It is. I'm sick of the lame "I KNOW that USB 2.0 is slower than Firewire..." arguments. We can't …

Quote: Originally Posted by Icruise Are you speaking from experience, or just repeating what you've read? Because USB2 seems to be clearly slower in syncing my new iPod than fir…

USB2 is faster than firewire on paper, but not real world. USB2 techincally runs at 480 and Firewire at 400. difference is Firewire has a sustained rate of 400. USB2 has a burst sp…

Quote: Originally Posted by inkhead Please apple DO NOT add firewire back onto any ipods, please smack anybody who doesn't have usb2 upside the head.. thank you. Why? Firew…

Quote: Originally Posted by snaggs Why? Firewire 400 is about 4 times faster than USB 2.0 in practice. Get a Firewire CF card reader or harddisk and you'll see what I mean. Ple…

USB is everywhere...every computer made or being made has USB ports...apple did this to attract the masses...to be able to sell an ipod to anyone who has a computer. Firewire is ni…

oh, and i think the next iPod video revision should have bluetooth, wi-fi internet access, and built in speakers. might as well add a keyboard/mouse attachment...and a lite version…

Quote: Originally Posted by dwishbone USB2 is faster than firewire on paper, but not real world. USB2 techincally runs at 480 and Firewire at 400. difference is Firewire has a s…

Quote: Originally Posted by mduell It's not about the peak, or sustained, speed of the bus. I will repeat myself. It's not about the peak, or sustained, speed of the bus. It's …

I'm thinking of starting a class action suit against Apple, asking for my money back and 20% of their profits.

Quote: Originally Posted by ghporter OK, as far as I'm concerned you win hands down. Lab results trump all speculation, and you sure have them! Since ghporter objected to …

By the way, I know that the writing is on the wall with regard to firewire on the iPods. But I think Apple jumped the gun by going to USB2 only when their own computers sold as lit…

Quote: Originally Posted by Icruise Since ghporter objected to comparing my old iPod to the new one, I did a couple of tests using my 3rd gen iPod. <snip meaningless compari…

Do you have any source aside from the CNET review indicating that firewire performance decreased so dramatically with 4g iPods? I had one briefly and I didn't notice the transfer s…

Quote: Originally Posted by Icruise Do you have any source aside from the CNET review indicating that firewire performance decreased so dramatically with 4g iPods? I had one bri…

What I am trying to demonstrate is that firewire (both in general and as it is implemented on the iPod) is not inferior to USB2 in terms of speed. The times that I recorded for fi…

And indeed someone did notice the drop in speed; from CNet's review of the 4G: Although slightly slower than the previous generation's transfer rate of 6.9MB per second, the new iP…