From: Dylan Stewart (rxs015500_at_utdallas.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 05 2003 - 00:17:18 PST
On 05.4.03 at 2:59:29, Peter H. Coffin wrote:
> > Well, why not include FireWire, USB, and power as the ports and AirPort
and
> > Bluetooth internaly. That would take care of almost any expansion need.
>
> Because if you never use one or more of them, you've still paid for it.
> With PCMCIA, you pay for two sockets only, and get your own choice of
> interface from there out, be it USB or whatever.
I meant AirPort as an option and FireWire, USB, and Bluetooth standard.
There is almost no one who would not use USB if this thing was a master. It
works with printers, scanners, cameras, or even barcode scanners. FireWire
would take care of most other interfacing needs such as connecting to other
computers. If you _really_ need ethernet, it shouldn't be too hard to make
a FireWire device that acts as a bridge to Ethernet. If there is enough
demand, some company will surely make it. Bluetooth would allow interfacing
with cell phones and such wirelessly, enhancing this devices functionality
as an personal information hub.
> > There would be no real reason to have a PCMCIA slot at all.
>
> IBM Microdrive. pager cards. barcode scanners, just to name a quick few.
Well, if the new 40 GB Toshiba drives are going into this, then there
shouldn't really be a need for microdrives unless you really desperately
need to hold more MP3s, photos, or movies. It sure seems like the 40 GB
drives are going to be used in this device because MacWhispers said that
Apple is buying them, but that they aren't going into the new iPods. Of
course, MacWhispers could be lying about this entire thing.
Pager card connectivity would be lost, but I have never even seen one, let
alone used one. I would not miss that. Of course, there are certainly
people who use pager cards. They could stick with what they have, or they
could get pagers.
There are lots of barcode scanners that work over USB. If you need a
barcode scanner, then there are surely better solutions for you than an
Apple palmtop which is sure to cost several hundred dollars. If PCMCIA is
all that's needed, there are tons of small, less expensive devices with
PCMCIA slots.
> My point with this is that every expansion port included onboard,
> there has to be the extra hardware behind it that port, increasing the
> complexity. If I'm not going to use it, I don't wanna pay for it. Just a
> USB or Firewire port would work, as the addition of a hub expands those
> out to everything else, but I don't see the point for having USB *and*
> CF, when one can buy a USB CF reader.
That's exactly my point. I would _never_ use PCMCIA with this device unless
Apple comes out with some crazy new PCMCIA card that can read my mind and
make that an input method. I really don't want to pay for a PCMCIA
interface, nr do I want to have to pay for PCMCIA cards to add functionality
like FireWire that should have been there in the first place.
Anyway, I am wondering what the minimum connectivity hardware that Apple
would put in is. I don't want to know what we want, I want to know what
Apple is likely to do. I think that if they only have four ports, then USB,
FireWire, S-Video, and VGA are probably the most likely. That would allow a
wide range of devices to be connected to this with very little internal
hardware.
Dylan Stewart AC5ZH
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