iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Connecting Your iPod by FireWire

If you purchased your iPod before late 2005, you probably got a USB 2.0 and a FireWire cable in the box. (Figure 2-4 shows the two types of cables.) If your iPod came with a FireWire cable and your computer has a FireWire port (also called an IEEE 1394 or, if you have a Sony computer, an i.LINK port), then you can use this cable to sync songs and charge the battery.

If you’ve purchased an older iPod on eBay or have been the recipient of a technological hand-me-down, connecting by FireWire goes like this: On a Mac, just plug in the FireWire cable to the FireWire port. Due to the fact that there are a couple of different types of FireWire ports on a PC, Windows owners may have more variables to deal with:

• FireWire connector, 6-pin. If the white FireWire cable that came with your fullsize iPod fits a socket on your PC’s FireWire card, great! Connect the fat end to the iPod, and you’re ready to rock. (As a bonus, your iPod may even get its power charge from the same cable, depending on which brand of FireWire card you have.)

  

  Figure 2-3. Just because your computer didn’t come with USB 2.0 doesn’t mean you have to put up with agonizingly long waits to copy music, photos, and videos over to your iPod. With inexpensive expansion hardware—like this USB 2.0 card from Sonnet Technologies (top) for a desktop computer’s internal PCI slot, or DLink’s USB 2.0 Cardbus ...