{"id":1391,"date":"2009-06-29T17:23:16","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T22:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2014-05-22T13:41:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:41:14","slug":"apple-giveth-apple-taketh-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/1391-apple-giveth-apple-taketh-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Giveth, Apple Taketh Away…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week, my esteemed co-blogger, OWC Michael<\/a>, posted his findings on the new MacBook Pros<\/a>. While I agree with him that they\u2019re pretty nice machines, I do <\/em>take exception to the assertion that removal of\u00a0the ExpressCard\/34 slot from the 15\u201d MacBook Pro isn\u2019t that much of a loss.<\/p>\n

The main thing we lose is versatility. That expandability was what many people (myself included) saw as the main delimiter between the \u201cconsumer\u201d and the \u201cpro\u201d lines – not the materials or the size. The Mac Pro has expansion options via PCI Express cards<\/a>, and the MacBook Pros had the ExpressCard\/34 slot<\/a>. The iMac, the Mac mini, and the MacBook don\u2019t have these options.<\/p>\n

With the notebook replacing the desktop machine as many users\u2019 primary computer, this expandability is a key option to many Power Users. The simplest example is for those who use an ExpressCard for wireless connectivity. Most of the major cell phone companies I checked offer an option to connect to their wireless data networks via an ExpressCard, yet none offered one in an SD format. This is a major snag for those who do a lot of traveling and can\u2019t rely on an available WiFi hotspot for communication.<\/p>\n

Then, there is also the versatility in storage. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of people who use their notebooks as a desktop replacement. With this use often comes the need (or at least desire) for faster data connection. While FireWire 800 is a nice, fast option, sometimes you need something a little faster – like eSATA. There are a number of eSATA ExpressCards<\/a> available for fast connection, several of which also support multiple drives.<\/p>\n

If FireWire 800 is fast enough enough for you (and, admittedly, for many it is), there\u2019s still only one port on the MacBook Pro. What happens if you have more than one FireWire device you\u2019d like to use at one time? Sure, you can daisy-chain the devices together, but if there\u2019s a single <\/em>FW400 device in that chain, it reduces all the devices on that chain <\/em>to FireWire 400 speeds. A simple FireWire ExpressCard<\/a> allows you to connect multiple FireWire devices without any worry over loss of speed.<\/p>\n

Technically, if you have one of the new MacBook Pros and need an ExpressCard\/34 slot, you can use a USB to ExpressCard adapter<\/a>. However, the down side to this is that, rather than the 2.5Gb\/s maximum transfer rate of a native ExpressCard\/34 interface, you\u2019re limited USB 2.0\u2019s theoretical maximum <\/em>of 480Mb\/s – and we all know that USB speeds usually test considerably slower than that in OS X.<\/p>\n

So what about that SD card slot we got in exchange? It’s \u201cokay,\u201d if all your devices use SD cards. However, what about users with cameras or other devices that use Compact Flash (like my Canon EOS Rebel Ti), Sony’s \u201cMemory Stick\u201d, or any of a myriad of other cards? They still <\/em>need an external USB adapter<\/a>, making that SD card slot all but useless until you shell out more cash for a new camera\/phone\/gadget.<\/p>\n

I can hear a lot of you saying, \u201cIf the ExpressCard\/34 slot is so important, then why not just go with the 17\u201d MacBook Pro?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer to this is twofold – price and portability. The 17\u201d MacBook Pro is about $200 more expensive than its 15\u201d counterpart. While that\u2019s not too <\/em>much more (less than 8%), the \u201cportability\u201d factor also comes into play.<\/p>\n

While the extra screen real estate is nice, it comes at the expense of portability. It becomes a tight fit in many laptop bags (often not fitting at all) and on an airplane (especially if you\u2019re flying \u201ccoach\u201d), you\u2019ll be lucky if you can open the screen all the way. This is much less the case with the 15\u201d model. Trading that convenience for a ExpressCard\/34 slot is counterproductive to the whole point behind having a \u201cpro\u201d notebook in the first place – portability with expandability.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, while I\u2019m rather excited about many of the features of the new MacBook Pros, the loss of the ExpressCard\/34 slot has me looking in the \u201cRefurb\u201d section of the Apple Store until this oversight is corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, my esteemed co-blogger, OWC Michael, posted his findings on the new MacBook Pros. While I agree with him that they\u2019re pretty nice machines, I do take exception to the assertion that removal of\u00a0the ExpressCard\/34 slot from the 15\u201d MacBook Pro isn\u2019t that much of a loss. The main thing we lose is versatility. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3770],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-thoughts-and-topics","category-unplugged"],"yoast_head":"\nApple Giveth, Apple Taketh Away...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While I\u2019m rather excited about many of the features of the new MacBook Pros, the loss of the ExpressCard\/34 slot has me looking in the \u201cRefurb\u201d section.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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