Strategies for dealing with the MacBook Air's Single USB Port
I wanted to know how some of the rest of you who also have MacBook Air computers have been dealing with the fact that these machines only have one available USB Port...
The single most inconvenient aspect of this is that, due to the mere 80GB hard drive I have installed in my MacBook Air, I use an external USB hard drive to store my iPhoto Library on...and then when the time comes that I want to copy photos to my iPhoto Library, there's no way to do so because the SD card in my camera has to be plugged into my MacBook Air via USB...
I've found three solutions for dealing with this problem...
1) Copy the photos from the SD card to my MacBook Air's internal drive first, the disconnect the SD card and connect the external hard drive that has the iPhoto library on it, then copy the photos to the iPhoto library from the MacBook Air's internal drive...
2) Use a USB Hub to provide a means of connecting both the external USB Hard Drive as well as the SD card via a USB card reader...The one major problem with this approach is, to the best of my knowledge is, that it would have to be a powered USB Hub (in order to provide the power required to run two external hard drives - SD card & USB HD). This means that my ultra thin, uber-portable MacBook Air is now tethered to a power outlet...
3) The third and final method I've come across that I've most recently been playing with is through using the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi SD Card...This awesome little device, which Time Magazine has just listed as one of it's top 10 gadgets of the year, is truly incredible...you can read more about it here...This device would totally and completely solve my problem if it were not for one major detail...it's not compatible with RAW images (which for obvious reasons, I would much rather be using than JPEG)...This one simple fact is most likely going to wind up being the deal breaker....
And so...here I am...adrift without a simple, practical, realistic, method of dealing with the limitations of my MacBook Air...
Any suggestions anyone can offer as to how I might consider dealing with this situation would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!
The single most inconvenient aspect of this is that, due to the mere 80GB hard drive I have installed in my MacBook Air, I use an external USB hard drive to store my iPhoto Library on...and then when the time comes that I want to copy photos to my iPhoto Library, there's no way to do so because the SD card in my camera has to be plugged into my MacBook Air via USB...
I've found three solutions for dealing with this problem...
1) Copy the photos from the SD card to my MacBook Air's internal drive first, the disconnect the SD card and connect the external hard drive that has the iPhoto library on it, then copy the photos to the iPhoto library from the MacBook Air's internal drive...
2) Use a USB Hub to provide a means of connecting both the external USB Hard Drive as well as the SD card via a USB card reader...The one major problem with this approach is, to the best of my knowledge is, that it would have to be a powered USB Hub (in order to provide the power required to run two external hard drives - SD card & USB HD). This means that my ultra thin, uber-portable MacBook Air is now tethered to a power outlet...
3) The third and final method I've come across that I've most recently been playing with is through using the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi SD Card...This awesome little device, which Time Magazine has just listed as one of it's top 10 gadgets of the year, is truly incredible...you can read more about it here...This device would totally and completely solve my problem if it were not for one major detail...it's not compatible with RAW images (which for obvious reasons, I would much rather be using than JPEG)...This one simple fact is most likely going to wind up being the deal breaker....
And so...here I am...adrift without a simple, practical, realistic, method of dealing with the limitations of my MacBook Air...
Any suggestions anyone can offer as to how I might consider dealing with this situation would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!
Comments
But... If you're using an external drive... you're still tethered to an outlet. I'm gonna assume that external HD stays in the same place all the time... whether at home or the office... in that case, why not attach the drive to an Airport base station??... Just access it via WiFi... leave your USB port free for your SD card reader.
That's the only additional method I could come up with to add to your list.
Sounds like somebody bought an 'Air when he should have bought a 'Pro.
But... If you're using an external drive... you're still tethered to an outlet. I'm gonna assume that external HD stays in the same place all the time... whether at home or the office...
You're wrong on basically every point you've made here - I do have a MacBook Pro...it's my primary laptop. I wrote the question on behalf of my wife, whom the MacBook Air belongs to (it just worked better to speak in the first person when I wrote the question initially)
and about the hard drive....have you not heard of bus-powered hard drives that don't need any additional power source other than the power that comes from a powered USB port, such as the one on the MacBook Air?? The drive she has been using with her MacBook Air for months now is the LaCie Rugged Disk 320GB (which I can assure you isn't tethered to anything ~ other than the laptop itself ~ and is quite portable indeed)....So your assumption about the external HD staying in the same place all the time is not even remotely accurate...
in that case, why not attach the drive to an Airport base station??... Just access it via WiFi
A decent suggestion, but there are issues with storing an iPhoto Library on a Network Drive (permissions issues, speed issues, etc...)
Anyone else have any other suggestions!
The easiest way I suppose would be to dump the pictures into your MacBook Air via USB first, then connect the hard drive to the USB and copy them over to it. Either that or a powered hub, just like you suggested.
Thanks for your response...even though it's kind of what I was dreading someone might say