CES: Portable Hard Drives Sold At Apple’s Stores Must Include Firewire? (Updated)

Leander Kahney ()

CES: Portable Hard Drives Sold At Apple’s Stores Must Include Firewire? (Updated)

UPDATE: My apologies, this story is incorrect. I followed up with Buffalo Technologies, who now say Apple had only an advisory role in the inclusion of Firewire. The decision was not an Apple mandate, and not all portable drives sold in the Apple Store have Firewire as well as USB, as readers have noted. In an email, Buffalo’s Brian Verenkoff says:

“Apple never insisted we do anything, nor can they force any company to do something they don’t want to. Obviously given the nature of this product, we designed it for the iPod/iPhone user base and did have ongoing dialog with Apple to make sure we developed a product that was compatible with their store and their customers. At the end of the day, every decision was made by Buffalo as to the product features.”

LAS VEGAS – Here’s something I bet you didn’t know. Every portable hard drive sold in Apple’s retail stores must include a Firewire port.

I found this out while getting a demo of Buffalo Technology’s Dualie, a combination iPhone/iPod dock and 500-Gbyte dockable hard drive.

CES: Portable Hard Drives Sold At Apple’s Stores Must Include Firewire? (Updated)

Featuring two USB ports, the $249 Dualie just went on sale exclusively at the Apple Store.

The dock/drive is designed to reduce desktop clutter. Everything is connected to your Mac with a single USB cable, including the dock, hard drive and anything attached to it via USB.

“It’s a one-stop shop for you,” said Brian Verenkoff, Buffalo’s director of business development. “It’s one USB connection and I have all my peripherals connected. There’s Time Machine backup and an iPhone dock for charging and syncing.”

But pop the portable hard drive out of its dock, and it has both USB and Firewire 800 connectors. That’s odd, because the drive connects to its dock by USB. Why add the extra Firewire port? It seems redundant.

“Apple made us put the FireWire 800 on the drive,” explained Verenkoff. “Every drive in the Apple Store has USB and FireWire. Check it out yourself.”

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Why Apple insisted on the extra port, Verenkoff didn’t know.

“It’s Apple,” he said with a shrug.

A prize to the first person to provide an explanation.

26 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, News, Retail Stores, Top stories |

  • Anonymous

    Uh. Go to Fashion Show, Forum Shops, or Town Square while you’re in Vegas. They have apple stores with hard drives with just USB.

  • http://www.metrokids.ca Conrad

    I didn’t see an Apple store in the Forum Shops. And are these official Apple stores, or authorized Apple resellers?

    Could be because Apple knows all these computers have FW800 ports, and wants people to use them?? Saves a USB slot. I only have two, it would be nice if I could plug my PHD into the FW.

    *shrug*

  • Pleep Plop

    Yeah. False. Apple couldn’t FORCE 3rd parties to do anything like this. Peep any Apple store in America for proof. Really should fact check before posting. Two minutes would debunk this. Honestly very surprised & disappointed in COM for posting something so blatantly wrong.

  • Willard
  • Pleep Plop

    Seriously, this is wrong & needs to be corrected/amended immediately. Just because some Director of Business Development of a 3rd Party company says it’s so DOES NOT MAKE IT so. Where is the semblance of journalistic integrity, to say, look at the online store… or make a phone call, send an e-mail, walk into a store?
    As a longtime fan of this site, I am bummed that a senior editor would make this kind of gaffe & I’ve always considered this site one of the best in the game. Feels rushed to get those juicy CES page views, regardless of the veracity of this claim. FAIL.

  • Anonymous

    Http://www.apple.com/theforumshops

  • macaddicted

    Apple can very easily “force” a company to do what they want. If you want your product in their store, and they want a feature before they will open a slot, then you add the feature or walk away. There is nothing that says Apple has to order a product. Nothing that says the manufacturer has to change the product either.

    Not saying they did, not saying firewire is required. It’s their playground and Apple can tell you what kind of ball you get to play with.

  • Pleep Plop

    macaddicted – Many companies PAY for placement in Apple stores, just like they do at other retailers. It’s logical to put FW800 on a drive because almost all currently shipping Macs have a FW800 port, but the assertion of Apple FORCING a company to do that is ludicrous. The fact remains, Apple is currently stocking drives with just USB 2.0, contrary to the first line of this article.

  • Um no

    Patently false.

    Blog post title should read:
    “CES: Buffalo Technology Director of Business Development Makes Stuff Up, Chumps Cult of Mac Senior Editor”

  • http://twitter.com/hameslyons james Lyons

    my time capsule doesnt have a firewire on it?

  • Ictus75

    Leander Kahney and Brian Verenkoff are both guilty of screaming “firewire” in a crowded trade show just to cause a panic. Poor journalism…

  • Icecastles

    Yet again, CoM proves itself to have the worst fact-checking in the business.

  • Daniel

    This probably really is a wrong piece of information — unfortunately. I’d never buy an external HDD with USB only. Why using slower and more CPU-intensive technology, that’s good maybe for mice and keyboards…?

  • BetaCloud

    Wow this place is getting to be like Fox News at least other blogs like Gizmodo, engadget and other places update there stuff if they are miss informed guess you guys don’t care?

  • the passenger

    Buffalo does make nice products. I got one of their external drives for time machine backup (using my firewire port, of course), it has an auto setting that sleeps/wakes the drive along with the computer.

  • getyourfactsrightB4publishing

    Just bought 2 WD Book USB drives at Apple Store in Aventura Mall FL, they do NOT have firewire ports, this is simply untrue, it’s not difficult to check the facts before you publish a load of old guff. Another great site on the downward spiral?

  • Chase

    Weird. I’m working in a an Apple Store right now, and we carry atleast 3 without FW.

  • No Name

    Check the article’s title:

    CES: Portable Hard Drives Sold At Apple’s Stores Must Include Firewire?

    Notice the “?” sign. He is not lying! It does sound like tabloids, Fox News, or CNN. The article should have note that Apple stores do carry non-FireWire hard drives.

  • salsa

    That’s it, I’m tossing the CoM feed from my reader.

    I can only take so much poor editing.

  • http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney

    Thanks for the kind words, guys.

    This is what Verenkoff told me, and he was quite clear and specific about it.

    I had no easy way to check it out — I’m at a giant trade show without transportation. True, I should have put in a call to Apple, or even a local Apple store. And I should have phrased the post more as a query than a statement of fact (like the headline).

    Anyway, I’m checking into it, and if there’s an error, the post will be clearly and unambiguously corrected.

    Leander.

  • Stephen R. Stapleton

    I am not going to get into the debate about if the FireWire port is or is not a requirement, but to suggest a possible reason why it might be so: Migration Assistant. It is the tool that makes moving Users from one Mac to another so painless. It only works via FireWire or network connection.

    Just a thought and I want the prize if I am right.

  • Any
  • Dale

    I’m down with SR Stapleton on the Migration route. USB will not serve as a boot drive (AFAIK).

    As far as Apple REQUIRING FireWire, etc…. That’s obviously NOT the case! Even Apple sells competing headphones in stores, knowing that most consumers don’t like their earbuds. Give the customer what he wants and you’ll make a buck.

  • Charli

    First, yes you can boot off a USB drive. I do it all the time. Heck I have a USB thumb drive that I set up as bootable.

    Second. Apple approves what goes on the shelves and I’m sure encourages the inclusion of both USB and Firewire on all drives.

    Third, this fellow at Buffalo could be mistaken a little about his info. It is possible that Apple is not refusing to carry drives with only USB and Firewire 400 (since they dropped it from their current lineup) and the requirement is Firewire 800 on the drives (in place of or along with 400).

    Fourth. I’ve seen several USB only PORTABLE drives at Apple. Online and in the stores (keep in mind that that is what he said, not drives but portable drives)

    Lastly, the information? was in a quote. Leander did not report the requirement only the claim by a 3rd party of the requirement. So lets chill a bit with calling him a moron etc. Let him do his thing and update etc.

  • http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney

    This story is completely wrong. Apple didn’t insist the portable drive include Firewire and not all drives sold in Apple’s stores have Firewire as well as USB. I’ve added a note to the intro and a quote from Buffalo Technologies. My sincere apologies.

  • http://campaignforliberty.com Liberty For ALL!

    Another example of a company that does not understand Apple products — the dock has NO FireWire 800 port on it, only the drive. HOW DUMB, I have to undock the drive just to use FireWire 800! I think Other World Computing has a MUCH better Mac understanding, among a few others…