What do you use that uses firewire? Other than my horribly obsolete DV camera, everything is just as good with USB, hell some things don't even support FW anymore...

Pro audio and the ability to troubleshoot other Mac's
Check out the link.

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"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

Generally, you get better throughput with disk drives using FireWire.

Also, DVD, hard drive and memory card consumer camcorders do not do high quality live streaming. Your DV camcorder is still better for that and for editing video.

Years ago, Firewire was much faster than USB. But now with USB 2.0, it is not really needed except if you are doing video editing and transferring. And if you are doing that, then you will probably need the Macbook Pro (which has firewire) for it's higher quality graphics card anyway, so you wouldn't be a target consumer for the Macbook.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

USB 2.0 may be fast but there are other considerations.

The removed feature is an annoyance to consumers who have FireWire devices — like external hard drives or camcorders — that they'd like to connect to their MacBooks. But the port's absence is a grave concern to some IT professionals who say corrupt MacBooks will be difficult to troubleshoot without it.

Specifically, the problem is that the new MacBooks are unable to start up in FireWire Target Disk Mode, which enables users to connect to the computer from another Mac, turning the target computer into an external drive. That's especially useful for diagnosing problems when the targeted computer won't even run. Without Target Disk Mode, the only alternative for troubleshooting a corrupt MacBook is to physically remove the drive, which increases the risk of losing information. It's also more time and trouble.

__________________
"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

can you still run a pro as a target drive with FW800?
I would sort of think that there is a new method of doing all of that, maybe through USB, then I look at the while non-replaceable battery thing, and fear that they're going by way of disposal over repair.

Yes you can.
Non-replaceable battery thing? They are VERY easily replaced

Did you come out of retirement to become an IT professional

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