Ever heard of Firewire? If you're playing smart and trying to figure it out from the actual name, don't bother, you have already answered the question. Since I'm sure there are a lot of people which have no clue about what it is, I'm gonna settle this problem so we can start talking about the device at hand. Firewire is (actually was) USB's main competitor. They fought against each other for a brief period of time, but USB seemed to be more popular. Windows XP and USB just worked together. Not the same could be said about FireWire. The (more or less) end (of FireWire).

So let's talk about what we have here: a FireWire 400-800 adapter. You see, FireWire had two major revisions: 400 and 800. The later was supposed to double the speed, but, as opposed to USB 2.0, the connector was completely altered and FireWire device owners where left standing in the dark. So a small little company going by the name of Sonnet decided to manufacture this little adapter in order to make it easier for people to use their old FireWire devices. So, for example, if you purchase a MacBook Pro which only comes with Firewire 800 ports you can now easily make use of older gadgets which weren't provided with FireWire 800 cables.

I know that by providing you with the above small story you might think: “Why would anyone buy something like this if FireWire proved to be the less-popular interface?”. Well, that is because Apple is stubborn and still insists on promoting the FireWire technology.

The device translates the 9-pin male FW800 electric impulses to the legacy 6-pin female FW400 connector, comes with a 1 year warranty and is fully IEEE 1394 compliant. As far as visuals go, the adapter mostly resembles and USB flash drive and is small enough to be carried anywhere without any problems.


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