Yeah I probably should have realised this becuase I am in fact in the same situation that you are except my tablet is a TC1100.
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Which Gateway model do you have and how do you like it? I got my TC1100 a month or so ago and I am absolutely in love with it.
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I was suprised to learn this. A bit of Googling suggests that “Macs” can boot from USB, just not from OS X. OS 9 can boot from USB.
Excuse me? I didn’t know apple managed to change the laws of physics overnight. Are you telling me that firewire can support 63 simultaneous 400Mbit connections over a single bus?
The reason why firewire is so great is also the reason why it wasn’t included. Firewire offloads a significant amount of processing of the CPU and onto dedicated controller chips. This is great for performance, but it means you need to cram a whole lot more electronics for a firewire interface than a USB one. I don’t have current figures but I believe that it used to cost over an order of magnitude more for a firewire controller compared with a USB2 one. Given that nearly all people with firewire will also have USB2 but many will not have the opposite, the economics of it simply don’t work out.
First of all, the iPod photos, are NOT 5th gen ipods, they were iPod photos that merged with the 4th gen line. The video ipod is a 5th gen ipod.
There are a huge number of Macs out there, and many PCs, with USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) and Firewire (400 Mbps).
I don’t actually know what my model number is, but I hate the thing. Luckily, I didn’t actually shell out my own money for it (it belongs to my employer). It’s not a “convertible” TabletPC that can act like a laptop or a tablet – it’s got no built-in keyboard. So it came with this ridiculous USB keyboard that you can plug into it with a 1-foot wire. Have you ever tried to balance a flat screen and a keyboard on your lap at the same time? It just doesn’t work. It’s impossible to get the screen angle right so you can actually read the thing, and you’re practically guaranteed to drop either the tablet or the keyboard or both. So that computer basically doesn’t get used for anything you can’t do easily with just a stylus.
This bit is not actually true either; sure, the USB standard is not particularly geared towards delivering power, but there are any number of bus-powered external USB hard drives out there; I have two of them - Fujitsu HandyDrive and FreeCom FHD-Pro.
Not sensing an overload of fact or rationality in this thread.
I almost ended up getting one like that but I am very happy I went with the TC1100. It combines everything a slate has to offer with everything a convertable has to offer becuase I can detach the screen from the keyboard when I want to.
Since you are so fond of using caps, I will use them too to illustrate my obvious point: USB IS BOOTABLE.
So why aren’t you bitching that Mac’s don’t boot off USB? PC’s can.
okay then, bit of ignorance fought, i wasn’t aware that PC’s could boot off USB, so yes, then i will complain that Apple didn’t implement USB bootability, if USB can be set as a bootable bus, it should be
i still like FireWire better, and multiple FireWire devices are quite common on Macs, especially on the older and/or consumer market machines with no internal expandability, like the iMacs and the laptops, my current record was having 4 FireWire external drives connected to my Mirror Door G4 tower, in addition to my iPod (total of 5 external devices), all with no drop in speed…
and counting my two internal drives as well, at that point i had six hard drives connected to the machine, why did i do it, well, because i had them laying around and it could be done, good enough reason for me 
(in other words “because they were there…”)
Firewire probably is better (I mean, even the inferior limit on the number of devices per bus isn’t really something that any ordinary mortal is going to run up against), but that’s no reason to actually hate USB.
Oh yes, and who created the wonderful technology which became IEEE 1394? Apple.
Who charged an excessively high licence fee for IEEE 1394, ensuring that it never achieved widespread use and lost the standards war to the much more affordable USB? Apple.
Who are the only major players to support Firewire? Apple (because they are paying themselves licencing fees) and Sony (for some unknown reason).
Firewire is a niche technology because it is over-engineered for most uses, and because Apple got too greedy for licencing money. End result is that 100% of modern pcs have USB ports, whereas very few indeed have Firewire.
“WAAAAAH! My MP3 player can’t be used to boot a computer via an interface the average consumer has never heard of. WAAAAH!” - pretty lame pitting.
Are you planning to write to the folks who make the iRiver telling them that if they build a SCSI interface into the next version you’ll give them your custom in future? I’m sure they’ll be eager to accommodate you…
I’m also pissed that Apple keeps shitting out a new version of the iPod every few weeks. I got a 20G (firewire compatible) B&W screen iPod about 3 months ago, when it was still the new hotness. Now, two more incarnations later (the fullsize colour screen and the Nano), my model is considered old & busted. Screw that shit. I’m not going to trade it in for a Nano because you know something “new & improved” is going to come out a month from now anyway.
Other than that, I’m really happy with my iPod.
Can you show me one PC motherboard that comes with onboard firewire but not USB2? I don’t recall ever seeing one.
Even if they exist, a USB addon card can be had for less than $20 these days. Putting a $3 controller on every ipod just so a very few people can avoid spending $20 doesn’t make much economic sense.
I have several PCs with USB 1.1 (on the motherboard) and Firewire (PCI card). Why should I buy another I/O card for USB 2?
Because you were dumb enough to invest in the wrong type of I/O card. You picked the losing side in the standards war. :smack: Should have got a 5-port USB2 card with a couple of Firewire ports on it as well like me 
But these very few people are hardcore Apple Kool-Aid drinkers and Steve Jobs OWES THEM!! But instead of delivering on his debts he is embracing the evil of PC HARDWARE! OMGWTFPDQBBQ!!!11!!One!!!1! :rolleyes:
Anyhow, whatever. I’m still happy with my 3-gen iPod (apart from it being too small :mad: ) and my girlfriend will hopefully be happy with her Nano she is getting. And when I’ve finished pouring some more money into my gaming PC I might treat myself to a Mini to add to our collection of PCs. And along the line I can guarantee that I will be annoyed by Apple, Intel, IBM, Creative, Hitachi, Microsoft, EA Games and every other company involved. It’s what these companies DO - create and sell desireable hardware and software which still PISSES US OFF :mad: in ridiculous ways. I’ve just had to get used to it and I think MacTech will have to as well. If you want something that performs its designed function perfectly, never fails and doesn’t have stupid design flaws, buy a hammer. Anything to do with computers will always be shit in some way, it’s the law of the universe.
USB is fine for what it was originally designed for, a replacement for low and medium speed I/O interfaces. USB 2 was designed to meet the strategic interests of Intel, not the interests of engineers or end users. It’s an example of how a square peg will fit in a round hole, if you have a big enough hammer. A design approach that Intel is very familiar with.
The Gateway Tablets are re-branded Motion Tablets. I bought one last year and used it for about 3 days before I sent it back and bought the tc1100. The screen on the tc1100 is superior to the Gateway and I like the flexibilty of the convertible.
I’m crazy about tc1100 but it needs more USB ports. I wanted to add a usb hub connecting it to a usb mouse, usb hard drvie, usb printer & usb sound card & usb speakers. Ok that’s a crazy amount of usb things but I hate having to cary the hub around with me.
The thing I really like about Firewire is the daisychaining. My laptop needs would be met much better if I could hook the speakers to the printer to the soundcard and so on without needing to hit a hub.
Hey, I want to access my i-pad though command line, which is impossible with those fancy USB and Firewire interfaces. They should include a 25 pin RS232 interface on their next generation i-pad.
I too am crazy about my TC1100 and sure it probably could use some more USB and/or firewire ports but where the heck are you gonna put them? The only really available real estate on the outside of the computer is on the top right in laptop mode and I am pretty sure thats where the wireless is. Why do you hate carrying around the usb hub? The one I have is like 1"x2" and compared with a printer, mouse and a hard drive its tiny. Also, why do you have an external sound card?
