That's my fear as well. It's possible that their on SOC GPU will reach rough parity with AMD, but it'll lag Nvidia for a while yet, and in either case, lack feature compatibility for certain workloads. The loss of eGPU support though, is a big deal for those who use it (like me). Not having it on the mac mini was a huge red flag.
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Bloomberg: Next MacBook Pro to Feature SD Card Reader
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There was a time where I thought SxS was the future of digital video storage but then they updated the firmware on the camera to accept SD cards in SxS to SD module.
Carrying a dongle of any kind in order to accomplish simple task such as to attach MyPassport to a laptop is dead wrong. Kills the whole purpose of laptop portability.
Syncing 500GB-1TB via wifi every month or two when the media library get's corrupted isn't something that's very attractive. Even over USB 3 it takes several hours
Not bad...now we need punch cards and 1600 bpi tape drives too!
Often at work I use an interface called GPIB first developed by HP in the 1960s to connect test instruments to a PC for data acquisition. It uses a large somewhat unwieldy connector but I find it more reliable than many of the newer data acquisition interfaces.
For those asking CFexpress, how tall are they? Something tells me that Apple will try to make laptops too thin for them. Even then, I fear that CFexpress might be too niche for Apple to include them.
In J I'ves quest for thinness, he degraded the MacBook Pro instead of improving it.
If this rumour comes to pass, it's a return to sane design. Recent Apple design choices have ended in failure,
- escape key is now back to a physical key, instead of a touch sensitive button
- butterfly keyboard is now gone, failure rate was too high and couldn't be fixed.
Having a built in Card Reader would be great, especially for photographers, no need for yet more dongles.
If this rumour comes to pass, it's a return to sane design. Recent Apple design choices have ended in failure,
- escape key is now back to a physical key, instead of a touch sensitive button
- butterfly keyboard is now gone, failure rate was too high and couldn't be fixed.
Having a built in Card Reader would be great, especially for photographers, no need for yet more dongles.
This will be interesting. Most consumers don't even use digital cameras anymore. They use smartphones.
Then there are the "pros" who are using CFexpress, RED Mags, etc. They always needed an external card reader.
So there's this middle ground with SD cards. I'm guessing that if Apple had to pick one card slot to add... it would be for SD cards? I'm assuming it's the most-used card type?
I actually use a Sony A7III and a Canon camcorder that uses SD cards. So I see the appeal. On the other hand... I already use an external faster card reader on my Windows laptop since the built-in card reader is terrible. So I'm accustomed to the card reader workflow.
And I'm planning on getting an M1 Macbook Air. So if this is only coming to the Macbook Pro... this news doesn't apply to me anyway.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Then there are the "pros" who are using CFexpress, RED Mags, etc. They always needed an external card reader.
So there's this middle ground with SD cards. I'm guessing that if Apple had to pick one card slot to add... it would be for SD cards? I'm assuming it's the most-used card type?
I actually use a Sony A7III and a Canon camcorder that uses SD cards. So I see the appeal. On the other hand... I already use an external faster card reader on my Windows laptop since the built-in card reader is terrible. So I'm accustomed to the card reader workflow.
And I'm planning on getting an M1 Macbook Air. So if this is only coming to the Macbook Pro... this news doesn't apply to me anyway.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yep, good old IEEE-488 bus - huge cables and connectors but great for connecting the TA Instruments DSC, TGA, and DMA units in daisy chain fashion to run on one PC using only one card slot to control the operation and data acquisition.
CFExpress would be great for my Nikon Z7. I also have two Thunderbolt 3 CFExpress/XQD card readers so i good either way.
Reminds me of my first laptop, the G3 Wallstreet with the interchangeable CD and Zip drive modules. It was a great machine until the pot metal hinges broke and there was no acknowledgement or fix from Apple.
Having anything hanging off a laptop kills portability...
But if you must plug an external hard drive into a Macbook... I'd suggest switching the cable to a USB-C to whatever the hard drive uses.
For instance:
I was going to say something similar. CFExpress is just starting (not in a lot of cameras yet), is physically larger, and no phones nor SBCs use it that I know of. Apple has been known to push new technology but this might be a tad early even for them.
I think this proves that Jony Ive without Steve jobs reining in resulted in designs where Form was over Function.
The new design team probably decided that ultra-minimalism to the point a product must look amazing for pictures above anything else was not a good idea.
In real life, all these Macs have dongles hanging off of them on both sides looking like a bloody octopus.
The new design team probably decided that ultra-minimalism to the point a product must look amazing for pictures above anything else was not a good idea.
In real life, all these Macs have dongles hanging off of them on both sides looking like a bloody octopus.