Nervian's CardReader Pro fits right in with PowerMac G5 / Mac Pro

As your never-ending quest to find peripherals specifically made to match beautifully with your PowerMac G5 / Mac Pro continues, we've one that'll surely shoot right to the top of your must-have list. Nervian's CardReader Pro slips just under the front handle of your tower, providing (almost) integrated card reader functionality without putting a damper on your rig's style. Better still, the USB 2.0 unit supports 52 different flavors of flash memory, ensuring that just about every card you toss in there will mount in short order. There's no word on how costly this will be when it ships in October, but those definitely interested can nab 15% off by signing up for details at the outfit's website.

[Thanks, choco]

[yui @ Aug 18th 2008 6:05AM]

nice! waiting for such a good piece of card reader for a long time!

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 18th 2008 12:28PM]

I've got a Dell 2407WFP and it has the built-in cardreader, so it solves that problem without needing an add-on device.

[Chris @ Aug 18th 2008 6:33AM]

If all you have to do is sign up for information on their website for %15 off, then you know it's going to be overpriced.

[Chris @ Aug 18th 2008 8:15AM]

Go ahead an rank me down. How dare I insult your fetish computer?! You bought a mac, you must expect that it'll be overpriced, no?

[eric f. @ Aug 18th 2008 8:21AM]

This isn't made by Apple, so STFU.

[Chris @ Aug 18th 2008 9:11AM]

Thanks captain F'ing obvious. The OBVIOUS point here is that any accessory, with the words "Apple", "Mac", or the letter "i" in the name are routinely grossly overpriced.

[Muttley @ Aug 18th 2008 6:39AM]

Great ! It's difficult to improve such a good product, but these guys have done it !

[zaf @ Aug 18th 2008 6:44AM]

fits like a glove

[USBozo @ Aug 25th 2008 8:59AM]

Why, in 2008 are some manufacturers of card readers such as this still providing dedicated SmartMedia slots when only 3 people worldwide are still using them? FYI, those 3 people don't have G5s or Mac Pros either. Furthermore - in 2008 - all new card readers (unlike this one) should have dedicated slots for the micro card formats like M2 and microSD which are ubiquitous in phones now. Please try again. I'd recommend looking at any of the six thousand other USB card readers on the market, which are smaller, portable, and better equipped.

[Adderz @ Aug 18th 2008 6:53AM]

Wow now the Mac Pro can finally compete with the likes of budget PC's and the eeepc which both come with card readers. Well done Mac Pro users. This company will have you emptying your wallet for a $5 piece of hardware that should of been included from the start. I guess $2800 doesnt buy as much as it used to...

Im a devote Mac fan but this problem in particular really grinds my gears. Almost everybody uses some sort of flash media in there phones, cameras pdas and game systems. Its inexcusable that Apple do not include them as standard, instead we have to look to third parties for decent (overpriced) solutions.

Sure i can buy a $5 card reader off ebay, but that isnt the Mac way...

[eric f. @ Aug 18th 2008 8:18AM]

I am looking at my Mac Pro right now, wondering where the hell they would stick a multi flash card reader. I'm sure Apple could find a way to make it look decent, but I know that the inside of my machine is already full of hardware.

Your implication that a Mac Pro is finally equal to a budget PC because of a CF reader is laughable.

[bryan @ Aug 18th 2008 8:35AM]

"Sure i can buy a $5 card reader off ebay, but that isnt the Mac way..."

which completely contradicts your rant.

btw the term is should HAVE. not should OF.

[Adderz @ Aug 18th 2008 9:10AM]

@ eric. That was the joke. Comparing a budget PC to a Mac Pro.

@ Bryan. How so? I want everything i need in the box, i dont want to tack on some crappy $5 ebay monstrosity ESPECIALLY if i were to buy a Mac Pro. I have an imac, and even still, notebook manufactures find room to add at least an SD slot, why cant they?

You can say "it will ruin the aesthetics" but sometimes you need a balance between form and function.

[msalivar @ Aug 18th 2008 10:20AM]

I tend to agree, they could have fit a nice little CF/SD reader underneath the front most hard drive.

[vdogg89 @ Aug 18th 2008 11:36AM]

@erich

Lawl! Do you seriously think there's no room for a card reader? lol you apparently have never seen any other pc or laptop in the world.

[Juxtah @ Aug 18th 2008 7:00AM]

Are Apple fans seriously so concerned about looks to pay what is likely to be twice as much then a normal card reader for a card reader shaped to fit the handle? You'll still have a wire coming out of it, which will surely ruin the look anyway! Mac's look rubbish anyway, I just never really got it why is aluminium with an Apple logo stamped on it so hypnotic?

[Ramin @ Aug 18th 2008 11:46AM]

Mac's look like rubbish?

Then PC's must be the most hideous pieces of hardware on the face of the planet. Mac's are what people compare other computers to - that's how rubbish they are... :P

[Juxtah @ Aug 18th 2008 12:26PM]

Macs are what some people compare PC's too, seriously what's the fuss over it? I could have designed a Mac when I was 8, considering all they are aluminium that is rounded at the edges and nothing more. I like design to actually look interesting, not just some grey bland generic box like Mac's have turned out to be.

[avirji @ Aug 21st 2008 3:58PM]

@ Juxtah
"A grey bland generic box"... Sounds like a normal PC tower to me!

[Juxtah @ Aug 18th 2008 2:01PM]

The you obviously haven't laid eyes on a PC case in a long, long, long time. What's it now about 10 years? Since if you even walked into PC world I bet you could not even find a single PC case that could be described as a generic bland grey box, let alone if you looked at a decent online store.

[absurdio @ Aug 18th 2008 6:48PM]

Aw, shit. Juxtah jerks off on Alienware boxes.
;p

[techtod @ Aug 18th 2008 12:26PM]

it s a good site.. expecting more
-regards
techtod

[Kelmon @ Aug 18th 2008 7:05AM]

A nice little device but given that it's supposed to be for a Mac, where's the Firewire interface?

[JohnPQ @ Aug 18th 2008 7:34AM]

When you think Mac... Think about it being nothing more than overpriced PC hardware... The same hardware that Dell and HP seem to be able to see for hundreds less... Also think about Big Brother Jobs looking over you... Telling you what you're allowed to run, think, want or need...

[Backlin @ Aug 18th 2008 8:19PM]

Good thing "Big Brother Jobs" lets you run Windows on the Intel Macs...

[Juxtah @ Aug 18th 2008 12:31PM]

I think he was refering to the fact that Jobs doesn't let you install OSX on hardware apart from his own, where he takes usual hardware flashes it with his own BIOS's to make switching major components extremely difficult.

[cariboutsteaks @ Aug 18th 2008 8:00AM]

USB?! You have got to be kidding! Imagine the days of waiting loading a 8gb or 16gb card on that one! What a joke! Especially with such a high end machine. Anyone affording a $3000+ machine will surely expect more than a 50 cent USB connection. It should have Firewire 800 as standard. Must have been developed by someone using a PC? And why white plastic? The machine is silver ...no?

[YpoCaramel @ Aug 18th 2008 8:06AM]

That white plastic looks a little cheap. I don't think it's the perfect mate for the pretty fine metal that lines the front of a Mac Pro. That said, Macs not having cardreaders is a bitch.

[Ed T @ Aug 18th 2008 8:41AM]

What, no floppy drive? I want a floppy too! All my friends will those uber-powerfull Dells have floppys.

[simon @ Aug 18th 2008 12:41PM]

For a platform that likes to foster the perception that it's all that for multimedia, the only way to get said multimedia into one of their computers from most digicams is via cables... while the rest of the computers out there allow people to transfer merely by moving a card (MS/SD/CF whatever) into the multicard slot on their computer.

So tell me again... why are you menioning floppies? Does you camera/pda/mobile se them? I don't know about Dell's (never had one) but I do now that all three of my Vaios do not have floppy drives, but they can all read MS and SD.

[ffmepegX @ Aug 18th 2008 9:10AM]

wonder how the usb cables connect on the back, hope it wont be just hanging on the top of the mac

[colin @ Aug 18th 2008 9:53AM]

looks really slick. i'm sure it's going to cost an arm and a leg. It's funny how when HP or some "lesser" manufacturer builds this stuff right in it's cheesy, but us mac nerds go nuts for some EXTRA piece of hardware that will probably cost wayy too much for what it is...

[Eric @ Aug 18th 2008 10:33AM]

People are so busy bashing each other about being, or not being, Mac fanboys they ignore the horrendously stupid decision to make a Mac Pro compatible card reader that isn't Firewire 800? USB 2.0? Sure, it's way faster than USB 1, but it's still too slow for think kind of use when you know this thing will probably be priced more like a Firewire 800 Lexar or SanDisk reader.

Yeah, let's make this thing cheaper by $1 not including the best choice of interface with a computer. I mean, after spending $2,500 to $3,200 for a computer, they're not likely to pay that extra dollar to make it four times faster.

I'm sure Apple could build in a card reader for the masses. It would make sense. Read the 52 different card formats that almost nobody uses. But make sure to leave a Firewire 800 port open for a real card reader for us photographers who have big files to move. USB 2 need not apply.

[Matthewmongan @ Aug 18th 2008 11:30AM]

looks like its time for the sonnet usb pci card. But not for this. it seems like a bit of a gimmick, maybe it comes with some ShamWOW, i hear it's made in germany. Maybe some head-on, apply directly to the forehead, forehead, forehead, forehead. what we really need is a Head-on tecno remix. aww yeah.

[Matt @ Aug 18th 2008 1:31PM]

At first I thought this was a really neat idea, but then I realized it's pretty big for a multi card reader. Neat though.

[absurdio @ Aug 18th 2008 7:27PM]

There really ought to just be a BTO option to turn the second optical drive bay into a card reader...

[alex @ Aug 18th 2008 7:53PM]

I can't believe they went through the trouble of custom fitting it to the Mac Pro and then made it only available in black or white...

[ChuckBlack @ Aug 18th 2008 7:51PM]

If it had a powered 4 port USB hub also, I would order one right now...

[Joey @ Aug 18th 2008 9:14PM]

The discount says its good up to September something. The product wont be out until October.

That doesn't make sense.

Unless the 'offer' is only offered until September (12?) and you can still use the coupon after...

[elgarak @ Aug 19th 2008 9:17PM]

What do you need this for?

Seriously.

I plug in my camera's SD-card, move the picture to the HD, and am done. What do I need a permanently installed card-reader for? Or anyone else for that matter. Do you really keep cards in there all the time that you cannot afford to give up one of the USB or FW ports for a few minutes? Besides, you give one up with this anyway. Do you really need a card reader THAT often?

I don't. An integrated card reader is one of the most useless features IMO. Which doesn't stop computer manufatcurers to advertise them as the best feature since sliced bread.

Except Apple. Wonder why.

[unicode787plus @ Aug 19th 2008 1:20AM]

But does it do SDHC?