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Phil Schiller Says the MacBook Pro Doesn't Need an SD Card Slot (theverge.com)
Apple's new MacBook Pro models have upset many people for many different reasons. Some are unhappy with the inability to get more than 16GB of RAM, some are upset with the high-price, some are unhappy about the missing physical Escape and function keys, and many are unhappy because Apple didn't put an SD card slot in the MacBook Pro. But Apple has an explanation. From a report on The Verge: Speaking to The Independent (paywalled), Apple exec Phil Schiller said the company had dropped the SD card slot as it was "cumbersome" and because wireless transfer technology for cameras is "proving very useful" as an alternative. Schiller said, "Because of a couple of things. One, it's a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this -- we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That's proving very useful. So we think there's a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer."
The problem is that every professional case is a niche case, and every niche is angry that Apple's not directly catering to their needs and instead offering a platform that requires they buy a couple dongles (which are a pain, no argument) over having one port they'll use and three more they won't.
"No SD slot? Who cares! But I need HDMI-out/firewire/ethernet/RS-232/etc. to do my job! Clearly Apple doesn't care about their professional users!
On MY 7 year old MBP, I don't use the SD slot (well, it doesn't have one), but it's currently plugged into the Ethernet port. And is so on a daily basis.
It's also hooked up to a MagSafe connector which has gone MIA in the new incarnation of the MBP, I use the USB - A ports with dozens of peripherals during the week without a dongle.
As has been aptly mentioned in a number of venues, these new machines are Mac Book Airs, not Mac Book Pros.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
It'll be interesting to see how the sales for it fare; will the Apple faithful buy it anyway and delude themselves into thinking it's wonderful even though it's a big step down?
If it were just this then I'd say no but as an Apple user for the past decade this was the last straw. I've been waiting over a year now for a new Mac Pro with nothing and when I was thinking of switching to the Mac Mini to get by they took out two of the cores so it is now a desktop with less power than even their low end laptops. With this latest change they are killing off the laptops as well: no ports, crap GPU, old CPU and insane pricing. I'm now going to move back to PCs with Linux+Windows. Windows has a new Linux subsystem which will hopefully make it bearable and the new hardware from Microsoft, Surface book and Surface studio, looks far more like it came from Apple while the new Macbooks with their fondle bar are far more reminiscent of the old-style MS 'innovations': a stupid gimmick with no real use.