From: "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>
Date: October 17, 2008 12:47:45 PM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Say NO to the new No FireWire MacBooks.
Hi Folks;
Apple has removed FireWire from their new Aluminum MacBooks. If you
care about Astro IIDC, then I urge you to not purchase ANY Mac that
doesn't have FireWire.
Many of you think that it should be "simple" to switch to USB - well I
have news for you, it isn't. I have done this before for companies
under Contract Jobs and I'll share a bit with you on this.
Almost all of of the USB 2 Camera Companies have developed proprietary
non public methods for controlling their cameras. It's very expedient
if you don't have to follow any camera specifications except your own
basic needs, but it makes it a living hell to try and support that
from a 3rd party company. The company has to be willing to share the
low level information with me before I can even begin to work with
their cameras and many of them are not interested for less than 5%
market share (outside of the USA Laptops, that's where Apple is at).
Secondly, almost all of the cameras require a Firmware upload before
the go from being a "user defined" USB device into a Camera, which has
to be done by host software. This means they also have to give me
firmware uploads for each camera (which are included in the
application / drivers which bloats them up) and in many cases, this
changes over time which makes it that much harder to support.
The FireWire IIDC protocol I use for Astro IIDC is an open standard
followed by both Developers (like me) and Manufacturers. That's why I
can write one set of code and support dozens of manufacturers and
hundreds if not thousands of compliant IIDC cameras.
So if you people are not proactive and buy non FireWire equipped Macs,
then Astro IIDC will just "fade away" and you guys will have no Mac
software.
So the writings on the wall, either vote with your wallet and tell
Steve Jobs "I want FireWire" or face switching to Windows for all your
Imaging needs. Here is a link to give Apple Feedback on their new LapTops:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html
Thanks in advance..
Milton Aupperle