Thursday, 24 February 2005

• Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Pro
• Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Download
• Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Computer
• Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Free

The iPod comes in an attractive box that opens like a clamshell with the iPod being the pearl. The box contains the software CD, instruction booklet, Firewire IEEE 1394 cable, Firewire power. External hard drives, thumb drives, USB drives, Flash memory cards, and devices like iPod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your Mac using Thunderbolt, USB, or FireWire cables, or connect wirelessly using Bluetooth. Storage devices (such as external hard drives) can also be available on your network. However, you can restore the iPod disk to use it with a Windows-compatible computer.” Before we look into their suggestion for this, I’ll note that the way you see if an iPod is Mac or Windows-ready is to go to Settings – About and scroll to the bottom of the screen. If it’s formatted for Mac OS X, then the last item will be the serial.

The big hubbub over yesterday’s revamped iPod line-up is thatFireWire cables are no longer included as a standard part of thekit; only the USB cable is included by default. That’s not to saythe new iPods don’t support FireWire, however — they do, just likealways — it’s just that the FireWire cable is now a $19 accessory.

This has raised the hackles of some Mac users, for several reasons.Mostly, however, it is a symbolic slight, in that it indicates thatApple is no longer interested — or at the very least, not asinterested — in making the Mac iPod experience better than theWindows iPod experience. All current Macs ship with both USB 2.0 andFireWire ports, but FireWire synching is faster. FireWire is fasterfor iPod users with Windows, too, but the simple fact is that onPCs, USB 2.0 is much more commonplace than FireWire. The iPodFireWire cable was included mostly for the benefit of Mac users.

Dec 29, 2004.

But while it’s rankling to some Mac users, it’s not rankling to iPodusers in general, because, let’s face it, most iPod users,especially new ones, aren’t using Macs. Thus instead of taxingWindows users for the cost of an included FireWire cable they wouldnever use, Apple is now taxing Mac users $19 to get a better cable.

The advantages of FireWire over USB 2.0 (for use with iPods) are notvast; I suspect most people who own Macs with USB 2.0 ports willsimply use the USB cable included with their new iPods. FireWire maybe better, but most people aren’t going to think it’s $19 better.The advantages of FireWire over USB 1.1, however, are vast — andso the people who are effectively forced to pay for the FireWirecable are those whose Macs don’t have USB 2.0 ports. This includessome machines that aren’t yet two years old (including yours truly’siBook G3).

But FireWire cables aren’t the only nicety gone from the new iPodline-up. An AC adapter is no longer included with the iPod Mini,and, oddly, the iPod Photo kit no longer includes an iPod Photo Dockor AV cable. Without the Photo Dock and AV cable, an iPod Photo ispretty much just an iPod with a color screen, rather than an iPodwith extra photo-related capabilities.

Not coincidentally, however, prices have been cut across the board.The original 4 GB iPod Mini cost $249 and included a FireWire cableand AC adapter; you can now get a new second generation 4 GB iPodMini for $199, a FireWire cable for $19, and an AC adapterfor $29, for a grand total of $247. (Or if you just wantthe standalone AC adapter, you can get the USB power adapter andforego the FireWire cable, saving $19.) This isn’t a bad deal at all— especially considering the new Minis’ vastly improved batterylife (18 hours vs. 8 hours).

So at least in the case of the iPod Mini, it’s not so much thatprices have been cut, as that the accessories have been made a lacarte. Hence my use of the word “symbolic” earlier regarding thenature of the slight to Mac users with this “no more free FireWirecables” thing. Those cables never were free — you paid for them aspart of the total price of the iPod kit. And while their cost toApple is certainly far less than the $19 they’re charging for themas standalone accessories, they still cost a couple of bucks. Acouple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there, and with over amillion iPods being sold per month, you’re talking about tens ofmillions of dollars on FireWire cables that most iPod users (read:Windows-using iPod users) weren’t using.

I’m less sympathetic, however, regarding Apple’s decision to thesame with the iPod Photo models; even though the new 60 GB iPodPhoto is $150 cheaper than the last one, it’s clearly still apremium product. For $449, it wouldn’t hurt to throw the extra cablein the box. The a la carte accessory pricing seems reasonable withthe low-cost iPod Mini; it seems stingy with the high-cost iPodPhoto.

Symbolism aside, this FireWire cable issue is not a big deal. It’snot a technical change, it’s a marketing/packaging change. InaFried’s report on the issue for CNet News is getting lots of play,largely due to its sensational headline: “Apple Takes a Step AwayFrom FireWire”. A more accurate headline would have read,“Apple No Longer Includes FireWire Cable in iPod Box”.

With apologies to Sigmund Freud, sometimes a cable is justa cable.

The iPod Shuffle Is FAT

Far less controversial, but more insidious, are the limitationsimposed on Mac users trying to use iPod Shuffles as portable disks.Unlike hard-disk-based iPods, which can be formatted as either HFS+or FAT32 volumes (for Mac and Windows use, respectively), the iPodShuffle can only be formatted as a FAT32 volume.

Mac OS X can mount FAT32 volumes just fine, but it can’t help thefact that FAT32 is a crummy disk format. Look no further than thissomewhat euphemistically-titled support document in Apple’sKnowledgebase: “iPod shuffle: Certain characters in file names canaffect transferring files to and from the Mac”:

iPod shuffle is an iPod that is formatted as FAT32, regardless ofwhether you are using it on a Mac or Windows computer. Because ofthis, files that have the following characters in their names arenot allowed:

• . ” / [ ] : ; = ,

This also affects any characters you type using the Option orControl keys (like a bullet — Option-8). Note that the periodbefore the three character extension (.mp3, .aac, .jpg) is notconsidered as part of the file name in this case. This doesn’taffect audio files you copy inside of iTunes.

Compare and contrast with HFS+, where the one and only disallowedcharacter is the colon, HFS’s native directory separator. (Mac OSX’s standard Save dialog box also disallows the use of ‘/’ in filenames, but that’s an artificial limitation imposed by NavigationServices, not a limitation of the HFS+ format itself; the Finderwill happily allow you to use ‘/’ in your file names.)

Remember the days when DOS/Windows file name restrictions were atarget of mockery? E.g. the sarcastic “C:ONGRTLNS.W95” full-pagenewspaper ads Apple ran when Microsoft launched Windows 95. With theiPod Shuffle, Windows’ limitations are now ours, too.

You can justify this numerous ways. E.g. that the iPod Shuffle is amusic player first, and portable disk drive second, and so the FAT32disk format is but a secondary annoyance to Mac users. And if theiPod Shuffle is indeed based partly on controller chips fromSigmaTel — as speculated at the outset of the pre-release“Apple is going to release a flash-memory iPod” frenzy — perhapsthose controller chips already supported FAT32, and adding supportfor HFS+ would have added time and expense to the Shuffle’sdevelopment that Apple didn’t deem commensurate with the number ofpeople who’d use it (read: Mac users).

Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Pro

But since when is Apple a company that takes the easy way out?Perhaps this hasn’t generated any controversy simply because Macusers have developed file-name-related calluses since the move toMac OS X.

Apple’s Knowledgebase article offers this delightful workaround:

Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Download

Does this mean you have to rename every file that contains thesespecial characters you want to copy to iPod shuffle? Not at all.Just follow these steps to create an archive file that acts as anenvelope for your other files, allowing you to keep your originalfile names intact. If you already tried copying the filesseparately, remove them from iPod shuffle first.

Mac OS X 10.3 or later

1. In the Finder, select the files you want to transfer.
2. From the File menu, choose Create Archive.
3. Name the archive without using any special characters.
4. Copy the archive file to iPod shuffle.

While this would work, where by “work” I mean it would allow one touse a Shuffle to transport files whose name contains any of theforbidden characters, it is rather, well, shitty.

Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Computer

A much better, but slightly more complicated workaround would be tocreate a read/write HFS+ disk image on the Shuffle, and use the diskimage for file storage. This adds a layer of abstraction — as doesApple’s suggested solution of using zip archives — but at leastwith a disk image you can browse and search for individual files, aswell as open and save them in-place. Plus, using Apple’s DiskUtility, you can secure a disk image with encryption — a good ideaif you plan on storing files on a gadget that has a non-zero chanceof being lost or stolen.

But none of this is going to help typical Mac users. Encrypted diskimages are for nerds, and most Mac users aren’t regular readers ofApple’s Knowledgebase.

Even knowing that there exist such things as “disk formats” isbeneath the radar of most Mac users (and Windows users, too, forthat matter). What’s going to happen is that Mac users will simplytry copying files to their Shuffles using the Finder, and when theFinder complains that “one or more files could not be copied”,they’re going to be lost as to why.

Windows Ipod As A Firewire Drive For Mac Free

The “it just works” factor has been one of the hallmarks of the Macuser experience since day one; using an iPod Shuffle as a disk driveforces you to be aware of arcane and bizarre file namingrestrictions, and thus is utterly un-Mac-like. I’m not pointing thisout to claim it’s cause for alarm, that the sky is falling, or thatthe iPod Shuffle “sucks”. I’m just saying it’s a little sad whenApple Computer, of all companies, tells us that punctuation such as‘=’ and ‘;’ are “special characters”.