[dodo_nutter]

I was thinking about buying a 15"PB and i was just wondering about the PC card slot...

Does anyone who has a PB use a PC card and if so what for? the only things i've found are Bluetooth, WiFi, firewire and USB 2.0...but the PB already has all these things!! Im going off to Uni in September and i was just curious about its uses

thanks for any info

[Drakino]

I use mine for a CompactFlash to PCMCIA converter, to get photos off my camera on the road. It seems to get lost less then the USB cable for the camera. Also, just picked up a 3 in 1 PCMCIA card that reads Memory Sticks, SD, and SmartMedia cards. Between the two, I can read every media card, except xD. If needed, there is a xD to CF converter that then could be used in my CF to PCMCIA converter.

Other uses are a Prism based 802.11b card, since the Airport and Airport Extreme cards do not fully support the 802.11b standards. See this thread for more information.

[MMask]

I have a 15 inch Ti PB and use the Sprint Merlin PC Card Modem. It is great. I want a 12 inch next but with no PCMCIA slot it isn't an option.
Sprint is slowly adopting Bluetooth, so it should be an option for PB and iBooks.

Sprint and phones as modems is a long story.

Perhaps the next rev, of the PB 12 will include a PCMCIA slot.

[ibook_steve]

Originally posted by MMask:
I have a 15 inch Ti PB and use the Sprint Merlin PC Card Modem. It is great. I want a 12 inch next but with no PCMCIA slot it isn't an option.
Sprint is slowly adopting Bluetooth, so it should be an option for PB and iBooks.

Sprint and phones as modems is a long story.

Perhaps the next rev, of the PB 12 will include a PCMCIA slot.

And where do you plan on fitting said PC card slot?

Steve

[dodo_nutter]

Thanx for all your replies

Isn't PCMCIA a little outdated now though when you can use faster devices with USB 2/Firewire? i may be wrong here but I'm sure i read somewhere that firewire was faster than the PC card and USB 2 is faster than Firewire 400 so is the only advantage of a PC card that it keeps everything out the way inside the PB?

[jgcan]

Originally posted by dodo_nutter:
Thanx for all your replies

Isn't PCMCIA a little outdated now though when you can use faster devices with USB 2/Firewire? i may be wrong here but I'm sure i read somewhere that firewire was faster than the PC card and USB 2 is faster than Firewire 400 so is the only advantage of a PC card that it keeps everything out the way inside the PB?

I guess so ....

[bmhome1]

PCMCIA Cardbus (which the PB's features) speed is 32bit and compatible with standard 16bit PCMCIA.

Cardbus CF readers equal or exceed firewire speed (drivers not yet OSX ready) so Cardbus PCMCIA can be very fast indeed.

[MMask]

Originally posted by ibook_steve:
And where do you plan on fitting said PC card slot?

Steve

I don't know that's Apple's call. However moving the ports around or sacrificing some for the sake of the card slot could be a problem.

[DeRobeHer]

Instead of Apple putting a PCMCIA slot in the 12" powerbook, I'd much rather see them put in a CompactFlash slot, and provide media adapters so that other media types could use the slot as well. It'd probably be easier for them to implment, and just as useful, since that's what most people use their PCMCIA slot for anyway.

[-Q-]

Originally posted by DeRobeHer:
Instead of Apple putting a PCMCIA slot in the 12" powerbook, I'd much rather see them put in a CompactFlash slot, and provide media adapters so that other media types could use the slot as well. It'd probably be easier for them to implment, and just as useful, since that's what most people use their PCMCIA slot for anyway.

I don't see that happening simply because more and more cameras support being directly connected to the Mac/PC to download photos. Sure, the slot could save you some camera battery power, but I don't see Apple making significant design changes to accomodate that.

That being said, I use a PC Card CF reader to get photos off my older camera that doesn't have a USB hookup. My newer camera uses USB so that's what I mostly use.

[romeosc]

My camera is direct connect, but I have several 128 MB sd cards & can use them and then download at my leisure. Camera battery is saved!