The express card slot.
Hey does anybody know what this "express card slot" is for? How do you use it and what is it used for? Do I have to purchase an express card?
MBP, Mac OS X (10.5.7)
6 replies
I use it for an eSATA card to connect to fast hard disks at present and with my older MacBook Pro used to have a firewire 800 card. It is a sad loss on the new machines and effectively takes the 'Pro' out of the current range of portables.
Unless you get the 17".
Bryan
Bryan
If you consider that to be a portable. It certainly would not suit me, but I agree to differ.
Steve
Steve
I had a 17" for 2+ years, and that was my primary computer, at home and away. I never had any problems lugging it around. It was the smallest 17" I've seen people using (PCs) around me. With a good Incase carrying case, anything is possible.
Bryan
Bryan
' Starting off-topic, then onto topic. :-D
' I have me the new 17-inch unibody... And I have to tell you this thing is more mobile and portable than almost any 15-inch laptop / notebook I have either ever worked on or seen - with the obvious exception of the 15-inch MacBook. 🙂
' I have my computer with me almost continuously throughout the day - one could almost say that if I'm conscious the system is accompanying me (with a few obvious exceptions) and it has never once really felt like a burden, or too heacy, or too cumbersome - I am impressed beyond words with this aspect of the machine!!!
' At the same time, I recognise that everyone is different and has different needs, expectations, requirements, and so-on. I just thought I'd share my own perspective and experience with ya. 🙂
' Onto topic: The express cards slot is essentially a means of expanding the capabilities of a laptop (or whatever other machine it's built into - though it has it's most obvious and necessary and logical uses in a mobile computer). It brings much-needed expandability to mobile computing platforms - like the slots in a desktop or server motherboad allows expansion. Barring the fact that an express card slot it far more convenient and user-friendly.
' The sort of expansions available are very varied - communications options, card readers, media expansion, etc. etc. etc.
' One obvious and good example here is the ability to slot in a card that allows your system to read and write to memory cards - compact-flash, MMC, memory stick. And SD. Please note the last. SD. Like the new slots on the MBP 13- and 15-inchers. In other words the 15-inch MBP already essentially had that capability with the addition of a ten- or twenty-dollar card slotted into it. The new 15-inch MBPs have essentially been crippled from an expansion point-of-view as they no longer have the ability to use any and all of the capabilities allowed by express card technology and are now limited to using SD cards only. Something that made perfect sense on the 13-incher, but boggles my mind as illogical on the 15-inch. To me it makes the new 15-inch MBP "less Pro" than it was before.
' Oop! Anyways - this turned into a rant that it wasn't supposed to be. Apologies. 🙂
' If you want more details then click on that link supplied earlier to Wikipedia - always useful.
~Menageryl
-Jack of All Trades, Master of Some!-
' I have me the new 17-inch unibody... And I have to tell you this thing is more mobile and portable than almost any 15-inch laptop / notebook I have either ever worked on or seen - with the obvious exception of the 15-inch MacBook. 🙂
' I have my computer with me almost continuously throughout the day - one could almost say that if I'm conscious the system is accompanying me (with a few obvious exceptions) and it has never once really felt like a burden, or too heacy, or too cumbersome - I am impressed beyond words with this aspect of the machine!!!
' At the same time, I recognise that everyone is different and has different needs, expectations, requirements, and so-on. I just thought I'd share my own perspective and experience with ya. 🙂
' Onto topic: The express cards slot is essentially a means of expanding the capabilities of a laptop (or whatever other machine it's built into - though it has it's most obvious and necessary and logical uses in a mobile computer). It brings much-needed expandability to mobile computing platforms - like the slots in a desktop or server motherboad allows expansion. Barring the fact that an express card slot it far more convenient and user-friendly.
' The sort of expansions available are very varied - communications options, card readers, media expansion, etc. etc. etc.
' One obvious and good example here is the ability to slot in a card that allows your system to read and write to memory cards - compact-flash, MMC, memory stick. And SD. Please note the last. SD. Like the new slots on the MBP 13- and 15-inchers. In other words the 15-inch MBP already essentially had that capability with the addition of a ten- or twenty-dollar card slotted into it. The new 15-inch MBPs have essentially been crippled from an expansion point-of-view as they no longer have the ability to use any and all of the capabilities allowed by express card technology and are now limited to using SD cards only. Something that made perfect sense on the 13-incher, but boggles my mind as illogical on the 15-inch. To me it makes the new 15-inch MBP "less Pro" than it was before.
' Oop! Anyways - this turned into a rant that it wasn't supposed to be. Apologies. 🙂
' If you want more details then click on that link supplied earlier to Wikipedia - always useful.
~Menageryl
-Jack of All Trades, Master of Some!-
The express card slot.