A week ago I posted an analysis of Apple’s Macworld keynote, and when I described the new PowerBooks I noted that “The only out-and-out I/O mistake on these new machines is the lack of USB 2.0”.

FireWire is great, and has enjoyed incredible popularity on external hard drives and DV cameras. But in a sign that USB 2.0 might edge out FireWire in a world that really doesn’t need or want two high-speed serial interface standards, Sony has introduced a new line of three digital video cameras — the DCR-DVD100, DCR-DVD200 and DCR-DVD300 — with USB 2.0, but not FireWire.

Sony claims that the USB 2.0 interface is faster and, as the camcorder burns video directly to the rewriteable DVD disc, FireWire isn’t needed.

The cameras can store up to 60 minutes of video on those 3-inch rewritable DVDs (DVD-R and DVD-RW), which implies that they record in MPEG-2 rather than DV format. The cameras will be available this summer, and the entry-level DCR-DVD100 will be priced at just under $1,000. | PC World story