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SD Card Reader for Apple Notebooks?!

V

vchalupa

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 24, 2008
77
0
I'm just curious to know this. Apple made some great updates to both the Macbook and Macbook Pro line. They changed a lot and I'm really excited but I just don't understand why Apple doesn't put a basic card reader on their laptops. Many of the windows laptops put an SD Card reader or something on their laptops and I think that would be a great addition to their notebooks. Is there any reason why Apple hasn't tried to do this?

Correct me if I'm mistaken but I think SD Cards are the most commonly used memory cards because they are used in cameras and micro SDs are used in phones.

Is there a possibility that Apple incorporates a card reader natively into their notebook line? I guess that's always been one of my pet peeves about Apple, Why not the card reader?!?
 
Yes it stinks, but it is something apple has been doing on their base model notebooks. I don't use a card reader much, but I have a little dongle for this reason. Try to find a small usb card reader.
 
darngooddesign said:
Put it in perspective. What happens when you buy a camera that doesn't use SD? Its not always going to be the standard.
Click to expand...

Um, if you haven't noticed, it's nearly the most common flash media used today. Ideally, they should have multi card readers for most flash memory types, but Apple is still far behind everyone else with this. *sigh*
 
*rolling my eyes*

darngooddesign said:
Put it in perspective. What happens when you buy a camera that doesn't use SD? Its not always going to be the standard.
Click to expand...

Sure...SD won't always be the standard. Just in 99% of cameras sold today. Why do they use a QWERTY keyboard...may not always be the standard. Or AC power for the matter.

COME ON!!!! MAC NEEDS TO ADD THIS...quit denying it.
 
jaytv111 said:
Um, if you haven't noticed, it's nearly the most common flash media used today. Ideally, they should have multi card readers for most flash memory types, but Apple is still far behind everyone else with this. *sigh*
Click to expand...

I remember when CompactFlash was the most common flash media. What happens when something better comes along? (Or, even, consider if Apple had been bundling SD card adapters for a while... and then SDHC comes along, but their older ones don't support it. That'd be pretty confusing for most people.)

Have Sony laptops started including SD card readers yet? Last one I had just had a MemoryStick slot, which was pretty useless to me. :)
 
Yah, I am OK without any reader as long as they would make expresscard reader who will fit SD cards flush. Apple just got rid of firewire port on macbooks, what do you think they will start adding something now?

I understand usb vs fw 400. Speeds are comparable, but there are way moooore USB devices than fw 400. And fw800 is too expensive for macbook.
 
bstreiff said:
I remember when CompactFlash was the most common flash media. What happens when something better comes along? (Or, even, consider if Apple had been bundling SD card adapters for a while... and then SDHC comes along, but their older ones don't support it. That'd be pretty confusing for most people.)

Have Sony laptops started including SD card readers yet? Last one I had just had a MemoryStick slot, which was pretty useless to me. :)
Click to expand...

Well that's just a silly way to think about it. Of course there will always be new technology and better forms of storing media. But then what's the point of implementing technology NOW if we can't use it until it's at it's "best????" And I understand that there are still quite a few types of media formats but with current adapters, you can basically transform any media type to be read as an SD card. But when we look at it, the SD card is the most widely used media in devices on the market. Obviously the most widely used area in media storage is in cameras and currently the big camera companies all use SD cards in most of their cameras (ex. Nikon and Cannon).

I get that Apple gives us the "option" of getting an SD card reader with the express card slot but that's just an expensive way of implementing this simple technology. Maybe, I'm just being a little picky about this but the way I see it, we as consumers spend a premium to buy Apple's products. I just find it ridiculous that the most basic laptops on the market come standard with an SD card reader AND an express card slot. Think about it...even $350 netbooks come with an SD card expansion slot!

And actually almost all Sony laptops have SD card readers now. I bought a very low end Sony laptop about a year and a half ago and it has both memory stick and SD card readers.
 
Actually CompactFlash is the industry standard as far as professional media since they are relatively a bit more rugged than SD cards..so if they wanted to be professional...

Nikon's D3x and Canon's EOS Mark III utilize CompactFlash, although the MIII is a bit more flexible also offering SDHC. Besides, I just use the built in reader and connect my camera to the MBP, let aperture or lightroom handle the rest. No reason for me to use a dedicated solution unless i'm shuffling through cards all day, although the most i've utilized is 6 gb total from a day of RAW shooting.
 
Eddyisgreat said:
Actually CompactFlash is the industry standard as far as professional media since they are relatively a bit more rugged than SD cards..so if they wanted to be professional...

Nikon's D3x and Canon's EOS Mark III utilize CompactFlash, although the MIII is a bit more flexible also offering SDHC.
Click to expand...

That's true that the high end cameras use CompactFlash, but other than that most other cameras use SD cards and CompactFlash is a little bit more difficult to implement than an SD card reader. I just think it would be nice to have that option without having to buy an additional adapter with the express card slot
 
the reason why an internal SD card reader is important is because mac laptops have very few USB ports (2 - 3 for new MBP uni) and even if you agree to use one of those ports for a card reader it means you will have something sticking out of the contours of your laptop, thats OK if you dont move your laptop, but what is a laptop for anyway?
Using express card could be a solution, yet for some reason all xpress cards i see always have like a few centimeters of it coming out, and then the card exposes another few millimeters out, which frankly isent much better than just the usb, also if you need it to plug in a different card you have a problem because it just have 1 xpress card slot.
I agree, SD card is by far the most popular, and versatil.
Also part of that extra money that apple's consumer pay for their laptop (which is a considerable ammount of money compared to a laptop with similar specs but a different brand) is because of the styling apple offers that other brand doesnt (e.g the pretty aluminum body, the simple layout, the rectangular shape without "tumors" sticking out of the body, a clean keyboard without 80,000 multimedia buttons that doesnt work, etc) therefore having USB card readers (which usually are made of cheap and ugly looking plastic isent much of a solution)
I think that what the people asking for is to have a 2.5cmx1mm incision in the aluminum body with a good quality sd card reader (and when I say sd i mean SDHC and SD mini with extra adapter and microSD with another extra adapter, so that is a 4in1 card reader in a simple inscision)
furthermore, in my opinion the DVD burner is kind of like useless, I dont know if its just me, however I havent used it since i bought the computer and i have it for 1year already, my brother hasent used hes either, so i think is time to think in retiring it maybe for a while offer external solutions, but that HUGE space they take in the MBP/MB worth gold, and in the hands of apple even more.
 
volcom883 said:
im curious to see how much its sticking out..
any pictures on the net? or anybody?

edit: found pics here
Click to expand...

actually that one you found is one of the best i have seen, except for the card itself nothing is sticking out, yet it shows the ugly black plastic, i know im being a bit exagerated but keep in mind that some of those extr $1000 MBP users pay for their laptop is spent due to the pretty case, the black plastic ruins it all,
the ones i have seen look more like this
cr-adapt-express-card_alt.jpg

http://images.macworld.com/images/legacy/2007/04/images/content/memcard_reader.jpg
as you can see, isent any improvement from the usb card reader (except for actually saving one of the two USB ports :D)
 
volcom883 said:
i guess one could easily paint it with a silver colored marker.. i wonder how fast it is actually
Click to expand...

You are jocking right? paint it? :D

xpress card is like 300Mb/sec (compared to 480Mb/sec for USB) so its a bit slower, however most of the cards you are likely to use will work slower than that so i dont think you have nothing to worry about (e.g. wont notice any diff to a regular usb one)
 
I've got the Belkin express card reader from the Apple store, it's works great. I use with some 16GB SD cards for my D80.

But yeah, my only major complaint is the lack a built-in card reader. An external card reader just doesn't cut it for a premium machine like the MBP, and I always lose external adapters. And I don't want to carry around an camera cable. Is Apple assuming that mac users don't use digital cameras? It's ridiculous...

Apple really does rape us on accessories, I've had to buy the card reader, a carrying sleeve, and a VGA adapter for projectors, it cost me roughly $120. And all of those things came standard with my $400 Eee701 netbook I bought in 2007. I'm not trying to compare the two machines, but I'd rather lose the express card slot, battery indicator, and firewire and replace them with a simple clean SD card reader.
 
I'll be buying the Belkin card reader linked above when I buy my laptop. Good device.
 
Oy vey! So much whining. Memory cards are a more volatile fomat than any other. 3.5" floppies were around for 20 years. DVD Roms have been with us for over 10. Since DVD has been around there has been tens of memory card formats. The SDHC over SD is the perfect example of a quick compatibly shift. Plus, its true that CF is a standard for pros (CF2/Microdrive was a little while ago) and SDHC is standard for consumer. I have a pro machine for cartoon and animation work, but I dont do serious photography so I use SD. What format should Apple shove in what laptop?

That's why there is an express card slot. Buying a $14 multicard reader every now and then is better than being stuck with legacy ports on your laptop forever. Not any more than you'd want an LPT or VGA port, something that 4 inch think Dells do have. A Mac is not a Dell, and praise whoever is your creator for that.
 
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