Implications of the Express Card being replaced by SD Slot in the new 15" MBP?

[Sampadan]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering what the implications are from 's decision, announced at the WWDC, to do this?

Sorry for the seemingly simple question - however I'm stilll learning about the practicalities of all these hardware issues etc.

Does this mean that the new 15" will NOT have an express card slot at all? If so, would this seriously impair it's ability to be used in a music studio where external audio interfaces are required?

Thanks.

 

[gr8tfly]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering what the implications are from 's decision, announced at the WWDC, to do this?

Sorry for the seemingly simple question - however I'm stilll learning about the practicalities of all these hardware issues etc.

Does this mean that the new 15" will NOT have an express card slot at all? If so, would this seriously impair it's ability to be used in a music studio where external audio interfaces are required?

Thanks.

It's gone. You'll have to go with the 17" UB, or the previous model. Another option, of course, is FW800 (very glad they saw the light on THAT one). Not much good, though, if you already have ExpressCare/34 devices.

 

[mickbab]

Hi guys,

Does this mean that the new 15" will NOT have an express card slot at all?

Well short answer is yes. I am 99% sure that the fact it does not have an express card slot would lead to it not having an express card slot.

This was a big let down in my opinion. The express card slot has much more useabilty for people (such as me) who don't use SD cards.

Will see how people react to this.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Huge let down and completely irrational. With ExpressCard, you can add a card reader. With an SD card port, you can only read SD cards.

The sensible thing to do what have been to keep ExpressCard and offer an all in one card reader.

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

This is really what annoys me about Apple: No long term planning possibility.
You must be content with whatever they choose to hand down to you.

This might be OK for the normal home user, but I would hate to introduce and support Apple in a corporate environment.

"Sorry boss, we can no longer issue you with the new MacBook Pro and our 3G data-modem, since Apple just decided to take that port away from the machine...
... and no, your iPhone does not support tethering right now. Just stay here in the office, will you?"

 

[instaxgirl]

The sensible thing to do what have been to keep ExpressCard and offer an all in one card reader.

Exactly, like half the bog standard consumer PC laptops out there.

I don't usually pull out the PCs have more crap argument, but in this case it really seems like a loss more than a gain. With an ExpressCard slot you could add a card reader if that's what you wanted, and not just an SD card reader at that.

 

[Demosthenes X]

... and no, your iPhone does not support tethering right now. Just stay here in the office, will you?"

The iPhone will support tethering very shortly. It's AT&T that's holding back the process. :/

With an ExpressCard slot you could add a card reader if that's what you wanted, and not just an SD card reader at that.

And yet less than 10% of users actually used the ExpressCard slot. And I'll be plenty of them used it for an SD card reader! It's a shame it's gone, but most users will never even notice.

 

[islandman]

I'm definitely sad about this. I used an ExpressCard CompactFlash reader. Transferring files this way was MUCH faster than USB ever was. It's frustrating, and an ExpressCard slot is much more useful to me than a SD slot. However, I went ahead and ordered a MBP yesterday and will learn to live with USB CompactFlash readers, or I'll get a Firewire one.

In the long run, it just shows that Apple doesn't seem to plan for the future. What happens when SD is no longer a big enough standard?

 

[yoak]

It just shows that the only pro laptop is the 17". SD is a consumer standard. My hd camera records to expresscards so I use it all the time. I'm upset to see it go. It's like the previous poster said. You just can't make long term plans with apple anymore

 

[friareunuch]

would this seriously impair it's ability to be used in a music studio where external audio interfaces are required?

I have been doing audio production on my powerbook for 5 years. Always use my fw800 drive for the sessions, and mbox/digi003 for my interface via usb.

have never needed expresscard. (or SD, for that matter)

pro-level users are overrepresented on this forum, thus the skewed volume of complaints about the change. i'd call myself a hardcore amateur in terms of audio production, and i have never needed it.

i'm definitely pleased with the new upgrades, though i can certainly understand why the new battery and sd card slot would irk some people.

 

[Sehnsucht]

Once again, Apple is using a couple inches of screen real estate and one single port to differentiate the models.

Loss of ExpressCard is a huge WTF for me. There's all kinds of stuff one can plug into an EC slot: broadband modems, SSDs, card readers, 1394 hubs, eSATA hubs, etc. I bought my 15" MacBook Pro less than 3 weeks ago and there ain't no way I'm going to give up EC for a freakin' SD slot. WTF, seriously?

I prefer Sony cameras, which use MemoryStick Duo, not SD. And you know what? Those memory card standards change, and change quickly. Less than 3 years ago a friend of mine bought a brand new Sony VAIO laptop that had a built in MemoryStick slot. Then less than two years later, when his computer was still perfectly "new", they introduced MemoryStick Duo, a different sized card. And other guy bought an Acer with a built-in SD slot. Well then, right out of the blue, here comes SDHC! His new camera can read SDHC cards but guess what? The old SD slot on his computer is "chiseled in stone" and obsolete. Useless.

I use a MemoryStick Duo ExpressCard adapter with my 15" MBP. If or when the standard changes, as I'm sure it will soon, I can just buy another EC adapter, and won't be stuck with a useless slot on my computer. No biggie.

ExpressCard FTW!

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

I have been doing audio production on my powerbook for 5 years. Always use my fw800 drive for the sessions, and mbox/digi003 for my interface via usb.

have never needed expresscard. (or SD, for that matter)

pro-level users are overrepresented on this forum, thus the skewed volume of complaints about the change. i'd call myself a hardcore amateur in terms of audio production, and i have never needed it.

i'm definitely pleased with the new upgrades, though i can certainly understand why the new battery and sd card slot would irk some people.

Pro-level users use Pro machines because they make a living of it! My computer is a tool that I need to get my job done and not because it looks more shiny.

What would you say if your cordless screwdriver refused to take 'philips-bits' because they are so last century - and really everybody now uses 'torx'?

 

[MovieCutter]

I have been doing audio production on my powerbook for 5 years. Always use my fw800 drive for the sessions, and mbox/digi003 for my interface via usb.

have never needed expresscard. (or SD, for that matter)

pro-level users are overrepresented on this forum, thus the skewed volume of complaints about the change. i'd call myself a hardcore amateur in terms of audio production, and i have never needed it.

i'm definitely pleased with the new upgrades, though i can certainly understand why the new battery and sd card slot would irk some people.

+1

 

[fxstb2002]

And other guy bought an Acer with a built-in SD slot. Well then, right out of the blue, here comes SDHC! His new camera can read SDHC cards but guess what? The old SD slot on his computer is "chiseled in stone" and obsolete. Useless.

Why? I upgraded the driver on my wife's 2004 Gateway with SD slot, and it read SDHC cards just fine. Only took a couple of minutes.

I prefer having the ExpressCard slot, just in case, but I have never used it. I use a card reader all the time though.

 

[speed3]

pro-level users are overrepresented on this forum, thus the skewed volume of complaints about the change.

I wonder if this applies to the heated glossy vs. matte debate on another thread. It seems the posters there are almost uniformly against the glossy screen.

 

[miles01110]

In the long run, it just shows that Apple doesn't seem to plan for the future. What happens when SD is no longer a big enough standard?

Sadly by the time SD is replaced you'll probably be looking to upgrade your machine anyways. While SD really needs to die because it's so crappy, the prolific use of them in "for facebook!" compact cameras means they're going to be around for a while.

 

[Abstract]

^^^Why is SD crappy? In my opinion, SD is good. It's certainly better than Compact Flash (which I'm forced to use in my DSLR), and there are really high capacity versions unlike Mini- or Micro-SD.



Having said that, I have 3 digital cameras, and none of them use SD.

ExpressCard would have been much better. It's just another option that was taken away.

 

[localoid]

... Does this mean that the new 15" will NOT have an express card slot at all? If so, would this seriously impair it's ability to be used in a music studio where external audio interfaces are required?
...

As long as it has one FireWire port, I can do anything I need to do with my external FireWire sound interface. But I use a Mac notebook only for audio recording in the field, and my Firewire sound interface works fine with daisy chained drives if I need to use them. Other folks with different (audio) needs might feel differently. My biggest concern is if the Firewire chipset on the new Macs will work with my current audio interface, given Apple's previous history of using chipsets that were problematic with some interfaces.

 

[Biolizard]

The loss of the SD card probably assisted with the introduction of the integrated battery by propping up the battery life. SD cards are way smaller than Expresscards after all, and the 17" has more internal space to work with.

Just a thought.

 

[romanaz]

^^^Why is SD crappy? In my opinion, SD is good. It's certainly better than Compact Flash (which I'm forced to use in my DSLR), and there are really high capacity versions unlike Mini- or Micro-SD.



Having said that, I have 3 digital cameras, and none of them use SD.

ExpressCard would have been much better. It's just another option that was taken away.

compact flash can have faster write speeds from what I've seen. And if someone is shooting with a camera that can take 10 pictures a second, then they want the fastest card's available, so not SD.

 

[Music_Producer]

Pro Musicians use mac pros - as well as portables - for instance, I use my MBP 's express card slot to connect to a Magma PCI Expansion device - which holds a SCSI drive (15 k rpm) When I'm traveling for studio sessions, I can't lug my mac pro around - my MBP does the job just fine. I've used this magma device since 2001! First it was connected via a pcmcia card.. eventually I upgraded to a expresscard interface - and now they drop ecard!

I'm seriously pissed that they removed the express card slot.. for a SD card slot This really handicaps professionals - ok, they did it for the photographers.. but they could connect their DSLRs to a MBP via a usb cable anyway - it wasn't as if they were unable to connect with a MBP at all.

Photographers can easily just add a express card sd reader - so I'm baffled and annoyed at why they removed this feature. Go in any studio and you'll always see MBPs and Mac Pros -

Just make life more miserable for professionals yeah Apple? MacBook 'Pro'

 

[Nitrocide]

OK, no point crying over spilt milk and we just have to live with the fact that Apple probably arent going to change their minds around. The only thing i need to know (though google has made this no clearer to me) is whether i can use my FA-101 EDIROL sound card.
Its unfortunately firewire 400 based so am i able to get an adaptor and it WORK?

I have a buggy first gen macbook pro and have been looking to upgrade for ages last october i gave a sigh when they took away firewire 400 and now it looks like hope is failing...

 

[Patriks7]

Huge let down and completely irrational. With ExpressCard, you can add a card reader. With an SD card port, you can only read SD cards.

The sensible thing to do what have been to keep ExpressCard and offer an all in one card reader.

I really agree about this. At least for the 15" Pro. I don't mind the SD card on the 13" Pro, since it's more of a consumer laptop and they don't use it anyway. TBH the only reason I went for the 15" over the 13" is to add an SD card port, otherwise I would have been happier with a 13". But now I'm too much in love with the 15" to let it go

 

[ingenious]

I have a buggy first gen macbook pro and have been looking to upgrade for ages last october i gave a sigh when they took away firewire 400 and now it looks like hope is failing...

Firewire 800 ports are 100% backwards compatible with Firewire 400 devices, provided you use a 400 to 800 adaptor.

 

[Nitrocide]

Firewire 800 ports are 100% backwards compatible with Firewire 400 devices, provided you use a 400 to 800 adaptor.

Wonderful, yet still annoying ofcourse!