PC Card Slots - Uses?

acollinsacollins
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
One of the questionable points of the new 12" minibook is the lack of the PC Card slot.



My TiBook has one, but I've never used it before. What are the uses of the slot? What does everyone ehre mainly use it for? Am I missing the boat on some great technology?



Mostly, will people really miss it if it's gone?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Nowadays, the main reason a Mac would need a PC card slot would be to add high speed connections that aren't already on the computer. For example, a TiBook owner could add USB 2.0, FireWire 800 or SCSI.



    PC laptops have more need for PC card slots because many don't even have FireWire or ethernet. Those are becoming more common on PCs but some still don't have them. Also, PCs have to use Wireless PC cards, they don't have built-in slots for wireless networking like the PowerBooks have.



    They really aren't useful unless you are doing something specialized that requires USB 2, FireWire 800 or SCSI... there are also PC card Flash Media readers, which are much faster and more compact than USB ones.



    One thing I find ironic is that Apple is not including FireWire 800 built in on the 12" PowerBook, and there is no way to add it later... at least you can add it to the TiBooks if you want.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    mmmpiemmmpie Posts: 628member
    Lots of people say that the machines have everything, and dont need PC slots, BUT....

    Theres always interesting things out there.

    For example, in NZ you can get a PC card GPRS phone. Giving you wireless net access at upto 40kbit or so.

    Anywhere. Its just convetient
  • Reply 3 of 3
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Sprint sells a wireless PCMCIA card to get online via their PCS network. I've got a CF adapter card I carry around with my powerbook 2400. So if someone hands me a CF card from a digital camera, I can import it into my laptop immediately.



    Other than that, the need for them is dwindling...
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