The AKE BC168 cardbus showed up in today's mail. It does work in my Pismo PowerBook running OS 10.4.11 with all current updates. I'm not using the little USB power cord that came with the card and yet the card is supplying enough bus power just through the PCMCIA slot to power a USB Bluetooth dongle and a USB 2 thumb drive simultaneously. I moved files from the thumb drive to the internal hard drive through the USB 2 card, then through the built in USB 1 port on the back of the Pismo. The USB 2 card moves the same exact data almost 10 times as fast, so it's safe to say it is working at USB 2 speed. The card is completely internal, with no protrusion from the side of the Pismo at all. The face of the card fits flush against the side of the Pismo and the color matches like they were made for each other. This is an elegant and unobtrusive USB 2 solution worthy of a beautiful old PowerBook. The casual observer won't even notice it, or feel it for that matter. This card provides two USB 2 ports. The bigger cards provide as many as four ports, but those big cards stick way out of the cardbus slot. Unlike a lot of people I don't have many USB 2 devices. Most of my external devices are FireWire or USB 1. I guess that's because I own older PowerPC Macs. A USB 2 thumb drive and perhaps the occasional USB 2 Flash card reader will probably be the only USB 2 devices my Pismo will use... Hope this review helps someone trying to make a decision. I'll write back if anything changes, but so far the AKE BC168 looks like exactly what I wanted.
