Will Apple support the stand alone isight in new ProMac Towers?

ruidoso48ruidoso48
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Like many others my MDD G4 is long in the tooth and am looking forward to new tower hardware. I really hope that my stand alone isight will not become a paper weight and plan to ride this FP Dell monitor for as long as I can with the new tower offerings. So even if new Cinema Displays come out w/ built-in cameras do you all think that Cupertino will still support this great FW camera or will they cheapen it up with a USB version to garner PC fans? Here's hoping that they still believe in and support FW products.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    How exactly would it not be supported?
  • Reply 2 of 19
    ruidoso48ruidoso48 Posts: 19member
    Since the new fixed isights and laptops use the USB bus and since Leopard looms and firewire booting is no longer supported in the new stuff, I don't see it as much of a stretch that Apple might abandon FW since it appears the new closeness with Intel favors USB, or am I mistaken? Also the FW isight has not been updated in ages (although you can argue it's so good it doesn't need it) that may signal a change.
  • Reply 3 of 19
    rara Posts: 623member
    Something like 99% of digital camcorders use Firewire. Apple won't be dropping it.
  • Reply 4 of 19
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    If Apple drops Firewire, my name is Placebo and I'm a new PC user. (...and I'm serious about the new PC user part...)
  • Reply 5 of 19
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I think it is more likely that Apple will drop the FireWire ports on the displays but keep FireWire support on the towers themselves. Aside from iSight and my old iPod mini, I'd only use FireWire for my DV camcorder and that isn't something I leave connected every day. As much as I love FireWire, we're in a USB 2.0 world now.



    What do people connect with the FireWire port on their Cinema displays? Hard Disks?
  • Reply 6 of 19
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    I think it is more likely that Apple will drop the FireWire ports on the displays but keep FireWire support on the towers themselves. Aside from iSight and my old iPod mini, I'd only use FireWire for my DV camcorder and that isn't something I leave connected every day. As much as I love FireWire, we're in a USB 2.0 world now.



    What do people connect with the FireWire port on their Cinema displays? Hard Disks?



    Why not? A lot of Mac users have just as many Firewire devices as USB devices...and this includes the mouse and keyboard.



    It would be a sad, sad day if Apple dropped Firewire.



    But they won't...I just wanted to paint an impossible future.
  • Reply 7 of 19
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    What's the problem with firewire? FW 800 is almost 2x as fast as USB 2.0.

    I remember before FW 800 came out that Apple was already ahead on fw 1600 which was probably a rumor, but FW is still a great pro port option. I think the problem was Serial ATA connections, and connectors are faster and could step in where FW was headed.
  • Reply 8 of 19
    ruidoso48ruidoso48 Posts: 19member
    Didn't mean to infer Apple would drop FW entirely and certainly not for DV periferals that work so well with their iLife and premium software programs. It just seems that the iSight camera is going to be a good test case to see how well Apple will continue to support it and not go USB. After all, don't the new built in cameras that run on USB also support multiple video chats? And with Core Duo power becoming the new standard, this makes up for what would have previously been unwieldy (at least on the single processor PPC) had Apple gone with the less elegant USB. Yes indeed, it is a USB 2.0 world now.
  • Reply 9 of 19
    trtamtrtam Posts: 111member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    I think it is more likely that Apple will drop the FireWire ports on the displays but keep FireWire support on the towers themselves. Aside from iSight and my old iPod mini, I'd only use FireWire for my DV camcorder and that isn't something I leave connected every day. As much as I love FireWire, we're in a USB 2.0 world now.



    What do people connect with the FireWire port on their Cinema displays? Hard Disks?



    Firewire devices, of course! It's kinda pathetic that the Power Mac G5 has only one FireWire 800 port, two FireWire 400 ports (one on front), four USB 2.0 ports (one on front). Especially if your Power Mac is in a tight space, it's hard to access these ports and I never move or touch a computer that is on because of the hard drive.
  • Reply 10 of 19
    bergermeisterbergermeister Posts: 6,784member
    On my G5, I have a FW800 wire running to a chain of HDs. It blows USB2 away (especially transferring video data - I move GBs at a time), so I really, really hope they never drop it entirely unless USB3 comes out and is faster still!



    I use the FW400 jacks on the monitor to connect to my video cam and my iSight, and the one on the front of the machine to boot my PB as a FW HD about once a week (and vice versa to run various checks, etc.).



    Please keep the FW and FW800 ports!!!



    Apple may come out with a USB version of the iSight...
  • Reply 11 of 19
    eckingecking Posts: 1,588member
    Don't other companies need to license firewire from apple and sony?

    That's what I heard.



    If that's true that's what buried it, if I was a company I wouldn't pay jack to license that.
  • Reply 12 of 19
    trendannoyertrendannoyer Posts: 776member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kim kap sol

    If Apple drops Firewire, my name is Placebo and I'm a new PC user. (...and I'm serious about the new PC user part...)



    what has he bought one??
  • Reply 13 of 19
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ruidoso48

    firewire booting is no longer supported in the new stuff



    Huh? My MBP's boot menu shows my FireWire drive just fine.
  • Reply 14 of 19
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kim kap sol

    If Apple drops Firewire, my name is Placebo and I'm a new PC user. (...and I'm serious about the new PC user part...)



    I'll pick what's best after the Mac Pros are announced. Stop being a irrational Mac fanboy who only hears what he wants to hear.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Trendannoyer

    what has he bought one??



    No...I'm just saying I'm serious about becoming a PC user if Apple dropped Firewire. But since I know it won't happen, I won't be becoming a PC user anytime soon.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, your post made sense.
  • Reply 17 of 19
    jpenningtonjpennington Posts: 476member
    Interesting, yet disturbing.



    Firewire is still going to exist, don't worry. It is still faster than USB2, since it doesn't use processor power. Plus, like someone said, so many digital video camera use it.
  • Reply 18 of 19
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I don't think the question is about FireWire remaining, but rather the degree of support it receives. With the loss of iPod and iSight as FireWire devices, it will basically only be used for video cameras, Hard Disks and a bunch of Pro gear.



    On topic though, does anyone know how iChat handles multiple iSights?
  • Reply 19 of 19
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    On topic though, does anyone know how iChat handles multiple iSights?



    I don't think it supports multiple cameras at a time. I could test it out, since I have a built-in iSight, and a craptacular external USB webcam.
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