It’s a bit early to be digging the grave for FireWire, but the writing is definitely on the wall (to mix metaphors). David Pogue says as much in his review of the new MacBook, which lacks a FireWire port. Pogue spoke with Steve Jobs, who explained that the impending demise of digital video tape was the real reason Apple decided to start phasing out FireWire support.
Apple brought FireWire to market back in the mid-1990s, and it was good. I still remember the first time I saw a FireWire-equipped external drive in action. Faaaaast! It became the standard connector for miniDV camcorders because it could move large chunks of digital video footage from camcorder to computer rapidly. But miniDV is being supplanted by super-small, high-capacity disks.
FireWire won’t disappear any time soon, which is good. I plan on using my FireWire external drives as much as possible, until the day comes when something demonstrably better comes along.
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