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The VGA-to-composite converters are kind of spendy (~$160+,)

I saw one on SewellDirect.com for $50. Is that one any good?

especially compared to a video card that has a composite output (~$30).

The article is about laptop computers. Did you mean PCIe or ExpressCard? From ExpressCard.org: "we do not expect that a stand-alone ExpressCard graphics accerlerator [sic] will be developed in the near term.".

a new, off-brand 24" TV with 1920x1080p resolution, an HDMI input, and an ATSC tuner can be had for ~$280 or less at Target or Newegg.

Did you mean $280 per client, or $280 and carry it to each client's site? I already own a 32" Vizio; it's just a pain in the behind to arrange for transportation (can't use bus, can't use bike).

Interesting set of examples. All I would say quite exotic and unlikely to matter to the kind of people who would buy an ultraportable. Certain small niches would use each, but they would generally get a more standard laptop for that.

Not to mention that no such discrete ExpresssCard video cards exist, and most likely not the RAID either. Hm ... OK one.
http://www.expresscard.org/web/do/pub/product/view?id=132

So is there a barcode pen scanner that'll plug into one?

Hmmm, that reminds me. Wonder if any use the expresscard format?

- FireWire 800 (9-pin) is included, in addition to FireWire 400 (6-pin) (so no, FireWire, and particularly FireWire 800, is not dead, as some like to continually predict)

- 3 USB 2.0 ports are included; 2 on the left, 1 on the right

- The left side ports are: power, 2 USB 2.0, analog and digital optical audio in and out, ExpressCard/34; the right side ports are: DVI (supports VGA, S-Video, composite), 10/100/1000 ethernet, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, 1 USB 2.0, security port

- An 8x dual layer SuperDrive is included (unlike the 15" MacBook Pro)[1]

- While this is known by many, it bears repeating that the wireless chipset in all Intel-based Macs supports 802.11a/b/g, though Apple doesn't advertise 'a'

- The 1680 x 1050 resolution of the 17" display is the same as many desktop 20" widescreen LCDs such as the Apple 20" Cinema Display and the 20" Dell 2007WFP

- Retail $2799, Education/government $2599 with 2.16 GHz Core Duo, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB 5400RPM Serial ATA drive, 256MB ATI Radeon x1600, and 8x dual layer SuperDrive

- For detailed specs, see here

I'd also note that for some people who might think that the 15" MacBook Pro looks like a bad deal next to this, the 17" is simply too large for many people, and many of those same people have no need for the faster dual layer SuperDrive, nor for FireWire 800.

And the Apple we site does not have to explicitly say it for us to know that, yes, of course the 17" MacBook Pro will support "Boot Camp" (and triple booting[2]), which is simply an umbrella marketing name for a collection of technologies that support booting Windows on Intel-based Macs:

- A Compatibility Support Module (CSM, BIOS compatibility layer) for EFI: this is already a non-beta, supported component of the recent rounds of firmware updates for Intel-based Macs, which the 17" MacBook Pro will ship with

- The ability to live-resize partitions on a GPT formatted volumes: this is already a non-beta, supported component of "diskutil" as of 10.4.6

- A collection of Windows drivers for the hardware in Intel-based Macs: almost all of these are non-beta, preexisting third party drivers

- A setup assistant that brings everything together: this is the only part of the solution, from a technical standpoint, that is "beta"

[1] Some may note that the new 17" MacBook Pro, at the same thickness of the 15" MacBook Pro (1.0"), includes an 8x dual layer SuperDrive versus the 4x single layer drive in the 15" model. It might be recalled that the reasoning for not including a faster, dual layer SuperDrive in the 15" MacBook Pro was because of the necessary space not being available inside the case; the 15" MacBook Pro could only use a 9mm tall mechanism as opposed to the 12mm mechanism currently required for dual layer capability and the greater speed. How, then, can the 17" MacBook Pro (or even the previous 17" PowerBook), at the exact same thickness, include this drive? Does this mean Apple was holding back? Is the 8x DL drive due in a 15" MacBook Pro imminently? The answer is no: the reason why the drive didn't (and still doesn't) fit in the 15" MacBook Pro is because the wider trackpad mechanism Apple chose to use encroaches internally on the space needed for a 12mm drive by about 1/8" laterally. However, this is not the case on the 17" MacBook Pro.

[2] Who wants to dual boot, much less triple boot? I'd rather have all of my environments running side by side in virtualization. And yes, I know there are some specific reasons people may want to dual boot (such as games for native 3D graphics support), and that's fine...but other than for those specific tasks, who would really prefer dual/triple booting over virtualization, especially given the excellent benefits Intel VT now offers for virtual machines?

Ooops, they're doin' it again :(

Apple dumped Pc Card in favour of ExpressCard way too early, imho.

Sure, for many purposes (Ethernet, modem, Usb, Firewire...) Pc Cards are quite obsolete today, because all this features come free with every notebook (except for the modem in MacBook Pro)

Here in Old Europe, however, GSM/Umts connect cards are quite popular among execs and road warriors. As of today, there is no such thing as an ExpressCard GSM/Umts modem.

Heck, the PCMCIAssociation lists a whopping-fifteen-items-list of available modules in his website...

Well, the supply of ExpressCard compatible devices is limited, but this fact doesn't consider the most important point. The entire industry is moving to ExpressCard this year because the standard is better than the previous PCSlot / PCMCIA stuff. ExpressCard uses less power for example, and laptop vendors are eager to adopt it.

GPRS / EDGE can be used through the MacBook Pro Bluetooth interface, and that's the way most laptop users use the service today. Reason? If you use a plugin slot card you must either swap your SIM card all the time or use (and pay for) a second cell phone line. (I think as of a few weeks ago this is also true for EVDO with the Motorola RAZR from Verizon.)

There exist cute little readers that read five or six kinds of memory sticks for something like twenty bucks. These connect to the USB port and it's what most laptop users get. Reason? The PCSLot devices typically only read one or two types of memory sticks, because the slot was too small anyway. Granted, it's convenient if you only need to read one type of memory and if you don't need the slot for anything else.

And Dude! The fact that it runs Mac OS X does set it apart, in a really nice way.

Not to nitpick, but I would have preferred an ExpressCard 54 so I could plug in my CF card from my digital camera. Maybe in the 17" model...

Apple hasn't done anything to preclude Windows, or any other OS, from being installed on the Intel-based Macs. That is a perfectly accurate statement. Apple Vice President Phil Schiller's two direct quotes on the subject, the most recent which was made on January 10, 2006, can be seen here. Intel has also specifically said that Apple will not be using proprietary chipsets and/or processors, and they'll just represent standard Intel offerings.

Windows XP would directly boot and install on the Developer Transition Kit platform because it was just a standard Intel motherboard and processor, and also used a standard Intel BIOS.

However, the shipping Intel-based Macs use EFI (Wikipedia article), Intel's "next generation of BIOS". (more info)

Windows XP 32-bit does not currently support EFI for booting. Windows XP 64-bit does, but Intel Core Duo is not a 64-bit chip. Now, there are a bunch of other variables, such as whether or not Apple's current EFI implementation offers BIOS backward-compatibility, and so on, but it's clear that regardless, EFI is the future, and it's only a matter of time before the PC world at large transitions to EFI. Further, Windows Vista does support EFI. See here for Microsoft's presentations on EFI, particularly the first two links.

That said, dual booting is intensely annoying anyway, and the really interesting thing will be able to just run Windows (or some other x86 OS) and Mac OS X side-by-side.

What we will *definitely* see are "Virtual PC"-like programs that let you run Windows alongside OS X (in a Window, or taking over the screen, etc., with a hotkey to flip back and forth, for example).

It's important to note this will NOT be emulation: Windows (or other x86 OS) will run at essentially the native speed of the underlying hardware (with certain exceptions). There could even be direct access to video, with support for things like DirectX.

vmware already has a version for Mac OS X in development, and Microsoft has already announced they will be developing a version of Virtual PC for Intel-based Macs that one can only presume will be a virtual machine. Then there are things like QEMU, Xen, etc. The Darwin/Mac OS X version of WINE, DarWINE, has even been working under betas of Mac OS X for Intel. Now that Intel Macs are shipping, it will only be a matter of weeks/months before we have several options for running Windows itself, and/or Windows applications at essentially the native speed of the underlying hardware.

And since Intel Core Duo also supports Intel's VT hardware virtualization, the possibilities of future virtual machine technology are even more interesting. But the bottom line is that Apple is again leading the way with the adoption of technologies like EFI and ExpressCard. Naturally, it will take a little while for Windows to catch up. ;-)

That's interesting. I didn't know what ExpressCard was, so I just looked into it a bit.

Seems that the only reasons to make a /54 form factor device is because you can't deal with the space or heat dissipation constraints of the /34 form factor. There's no other obvious benefit to making the larger card. Your observation that the only available Firewire 800 cards are /54 leads me to think that the reason Apple is moving away from Firewire 800 is that they haven't been able to make it small or cool enough.

Maybe it's about heat, not money. Hmm.

And for all the complainers... you can get a firewire 800 card for that ExpressCard slot.

The lack of FireWire 800 - External FW800 hard drives are great and very popular with Powerbook users, why give it up? Put the controller where the now gone modem used to be.

The ExpressCard/34 slot chosen by Apple is not form factor compatible with current PCMCIA cards - No more Verizon 3G wireless broadband until (And if) they release a compatible card - BAD, BAD, BAD!

The PCMCIA folks, who are behind this ExpressCard thing, want $349 USD for a copy of the standard, and it is only available in electronic form.

I can understand a small printing fee for a dead-tree copy. But sheesh, when will these guys follow the lead of the IEEE on the 802. standards and just open them up?

link
I swear I meant to preview...
Q.

For photos and more info see PCMCIA's official site for ExpressCard.

For photos and more info see PCMCIA's official site for ExpressCard.

No, it works internally as either USB2 or PCI Express. From the web site:

The ExpressCard standard supports both the USB 2.0 and PCI Express interfaces.

Card manufacturers are able to choose whichever bus is appropriate to their application; the performance of PCI Express, or from the wide range of solutions supported by USB.

All host PC ExpressCard slots will support cards using either interface. The host platform no longer needs to incorporate a bridge chip between the chipset and the socket. PCI Express and USB 2.0 are fully hot-pluggable.