Why new iPods won't recharge on some speaker systems

Jonny Evans
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October 01, 2008
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 You may remember we recently observed that the new iPods don't work with some accessories, including things like speakers, the Numark iDJ and more. 

At the time we were curious as to why - now one of our contacts within the world of iPod peripheral production told us the details - and it's all in Firewire...

"The recently launched iPod nano G4 and iPod touch G2 have changed slightly from their predecessors in terms of how they charge," our contact said. "The new models will now only charge via USB, whereas previous iPods also charged via Firewire, both over the 30 pin connector. Because of this, for speaker docks to charge and play an iPod, they must provide charge over USB."

"This is important as many major brands followed the Firewire technology route and so their speaker docks will not charge the new iPods."

So there it is, just a quick detail to clarify things.


Comments (7)

Luke1robb (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 8:30am

I had this issue pop up with my car sound system, Alpine Deck and Alpine iPod connector. It used to charge my iPhone while playing songs, but now it only plays songs. Is there a possibility that Apple could change the firmware to include systems like this or am I SOL?

Thanks all

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 9:23am

Alpine: This is in hardware, so that's not possible I'm afraid.

Yozza (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 10:57am

You need one of these adaptors

Link Click Here

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 11:00am

They said it will not charge the new Chromatic Nano. They are working on producing new models but they are guessing it's going to be a month (?) for the new models. No word on if there might be some work around for the current batch of IM600 -- but it doesn't sound too promising.

Burci (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 1:02pm

The real question here, is why they made this very fundamental change? There are hundreds of accessories that are now half useless. Was it not possible to utilize the same charging method, but change from the firewire to USB cables? This is very frustrating, as my $150 car stereo adapter is now needing to be replaced.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 2:29pm

This is old news. Apple started moving away from FW back with the 5th gen iPod, dropping support for FireWire syncing. That was 3 years ago now. They told all hardware vendors that eventually the power would go as well. Anyone developing hardware after that WITHOUT keeping that in mind is to blame....
It costs more money and takes up more space to keep JUST FW charging in those iPods...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 01, 2008 - 8:23pm

Adapters are just coming on the market. Cablejive has one for $37.00. It's on their website http://cablejive.com/charge_converter.html.