Y-E DATA announces ExpressCard/34 media reader
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 11th 2006 8:00AM
posted Jan 11th 2006 8:00AM
If you found yourself scratching your head at the announcement of an ExpressCard/34 slot in the new MacBook Pro, you're probably not alone. Built by the PCMCIA association to take slot dwelling expansion cards into the next generation, the ExpressCard is smaller and faster than a PC Card, and can support PCI Express -- all good things, but it leaves EV-DO card users and others out in the cold for now. At least Y-E DATA of Japan has their act together, since they've announced a 5-in-1 card reader for the new platform. Good for them, but let's hope we see some other cards on the market real quick like, or Apple could be losing a bunch of those mobile professionals who have been holding out for Intel books for a while already.
[Thanks, Aaron]
From what I can read on the site, no CF [Compact Flash] support, that would make it next to useless for me.
I would be all over this, but their site says Windows XP. If they make it compatible with the new MacBooks, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Here's hoping more Mac compatible ExpressCard products hit the market soon.
I am a state hoppin' consultant and am rather attached to my Verizon Wireless Broadband card. I read Engadget's minute by minute keynote coverage with my credit card in hand just in case there was a Powerbook change.
Unfortunately, I'll have to keep my current Powerbook since the new MacBook doesn't support my current card or EV-DO.
FireWire 800 cards better show up in short order. I personally don't need one but I can a market for it for this new PowerBook. (I refuse to use THAT name.)
I'm in the same boat as JREAU -- the new MacBook looks awesome but I depend on the freedom my EV-DO card gives me. In my case, I'm sticking with my work-provided Dell Latitude. Unless I can find a reasonably priced, minimally cluttered type of external PCMCIA card reader that's supported.
Of course if the MacBook *didn't* have this, we'd have the other segment of Engadget chiming in "dud i kant beleev ters no eXpress card. l4m3!!!"
Hats off to Apple for thinking AHEAD on this one. Maybe customers should put some pressure on the card manufacturers to drop some ExpressCards. You've got until February before you can even use the MacBook anyway.
I'll just keep using GPRS/EDGE over Bluetooth I suppose. Works well and I never have to remember to bring anything besides my phone.
Yup, this is another one of those "moments", just like the dropping of legacy ports and floppies. It's going to be a pain in the ass for the next year or so, but should improve shortly.
In the meantime, look at it this way - you won't have to deal with "Rev A" hardware. ;)
Expresscard offers far too much potential. Apple could have designed one PCCard slot and one Expresscard but they typically like to must move forward.
Looking forward to the day when HDTV tuners and other cool stuff come in this format. The time is now to switch over. Hopefully there are plenty of cards in the works.
The real bummer is that Apple used an ExpressCard/34 slot instead of an ExpressCard/54 slot. Since CompactFlash cards are 43mm wide, that means that there can't be an internal CF adapter for the MacBook. Serious photographers, surely one of Apple's target audiences, are left out in the cold. It really is lame that they couldn't use the larger slot.
How the heck does it "leave users in the dark for now" when it doesn't even ship until February?! No one is using it, so how can anybody be in the dark. If they've already announced express cards, who's to say a company won't announce one supporting a major phone network?
Oh and believe it or not, the laptop has this thing called U-S-B, and there are evdo usb cards. Fail to see how there is "darkness" here.
"Oh and believe it or not, the laptop has this thing called U-S-B, and there are evdo usb cards. "
Not for Verizon. Unless you have some secret information. And Verizon is the only EVDO that matters in the US right now... the others are far behind.
Actually it's not so secret. It's quite easily found with Google.
http://www.falcom.de/index.php?id=198
for edge network
and http://www.evdoinfo.com/EVDO_Products/PC_Cards_&_Antennas/EVDO_USB_Modem_by_Falcom,_Samba_3G_20050426259/
for VERIZON bands
Even though it's not available in U.S. stores yet, it can easily be ordered online.
I really wish CF would die off. It's too large (for modern devices and readers) and too fragile (pins vs pads). SD is becoming standard but hope people are buying new cards in SD - if they have a choice - instead of clinging to the old CFs.
But IIRC, compactflash has it's own onboard controller whereas SD doesn't. It seems to me to be an overall more reliable format.
Yeah I know. And that ATA-like compatibility is very cool. But the form-factor and physical interface suck enough to cancel that out IMHO.
Yem, I did have the pins go bad in a Firewire CF card reader, so I agree that pins can be bad. My camera does both CF and SD (1Ds Mark II) but the maximum size of SD cards is way too small. My minimum now is 4 gigs. With a 16.7 megapixel camera, that's just the reality of the situation.
I've got a Sprint EVDO card that works very well with my 15" Powerbook. It's fast and I'm connected everywhere I go.
Since I travel for a living, the lack of PCMCIA has made the MacBook Pro useless to me. As cool and as fast as it is I can't use it until they come out with EVDO cards for the Express Card format.
I still have a perfectly functioning digital camera and a few other devices that has CF support. I don't see why I should be expected to give it up just because it isn't the "in" thing when it isn't the thing I want to upgrade yet. I have many other things to spend money on first.
While the performance of the ***Book Pro is decent, I don't want to have to upgrade or replace everything I use with a computer, that steeply increases the cost of the upgrade.
Just because you can't get a cf reader connected through the card slot doesn't mean you need to abandon all CF equipment. You can still get a usb reader.
I agree that pro photographers must be scratching their heads. I feel some of their pain, but I personally am partially ready with a CF to SD card adapter to use in my Canon 10D. With this media reader the transition will be smooth, but it's still costing me money above and beyond the computer purchase just to continue working the way I'm working now. As somebody else pointed out, though, expresscard 54 would have been big enough for a CF card adapter and saved me the trouble.