iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

USB 2.0

These days, you don’t have to use FireWire as the iPod-to-computer connection. If you own a 2003 or later iPod model, another option awaits you: USB 2.0.

Note

If you have a Windows PC, you can use a USB 2.0 cable for any 2003-or-later iPod, including the iPod Mini.

Make sure you connect the USB cable directly to a high-powered port on the PC or a powered USB hub. Low- or unpowered USB jacks, as on the side of a keyboard, don’t have enough mojo for your Mini.

About USB 2.0

Before USB 2.0 hit the streets, a FireWire connection was the fastest way to transfer big chunks of data onto a computer from devices like digital camcorders, external hard drives, and CD burners. FireWire, which transfers data at 400 megabits per second, whips the plastic off a USB 1.1 connection (about 12 megabits per second).

When USB 2.0 products began to crowd store shelves around 2002, FireWire was left in the dust, speed-wise. USB 2.0 (also known as Hi-Speed USB) can whisk data from device to device at 480 megabits per second. USB 2.0 is also backwards compatible, so people with a box full of USB 1.1 mice, scanners, and other peripherals can still plug in and use their old devices in USB 2.0 ports, even if they don’t get the 2.0 speed boost.

Note

Those are megabits, not megabytes. Data transfer speeds are traditionally measured in megabits or kilobits per second; disk and file sizes are measured in megabytes (MB).

There are eight bits in a byte. To put USB and FireWire into more familiar terms, then, USB ...