Video Camera Recomendations

Hi there - couple of questions here.

I've been doing a lot of basic video with a Kodak Zi8 (very simple flip cam) and iMovie '09

Time to take it up a notch. Primarily I do video interviews but I've also been doing some little movies. Curious to hear of a camera recomendation that's up to $1000 but not more that folks would recomend that also plays nicely with a late 2008 MacBook. I believe I only have the 2 USB ports. No Firewire.

1) Is it futilre to get high end without Firewire or equivalent? Can I get a better conection to my mac?

2) What's the general learning curve moving from iMovie ti Final Cut Pro - crazy? easy?

3) Any other camera recomendations appreciated. Here's an example of what I've managed to do with the little Kodak - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjg55tGGbjo Considering what I"m working with, I thought that came out pretty well :-) Current recomendation has been the Canon Vixia G10, thought I guess it's G20 now?

Many thanks!