By Stuart Corner     
 
Apple Computer has a well-deserved reputation for being first to implement new technologies in its computers: first with 4 inch floppies; first to give up floppies altogether; first with wireless (WiFi) networking. This time though it has gone too far.

The technology of mobile computing has improved by leaps and bounds in recent times. Especially in Australia. There's WiFi, there's cellular and a couple of others. It's a road warrior's paradise, but Apple has left them in Limbo for a period yet to be determined.

Every cellular operator offers a plug in card for laptops that supports broadband communications over its 3G and 2G networks. The Optus one roams seamlessly onto Optus WiFi hotspots, and the Vodafone one on to 16 Vodafone 3G networks overseas. And in Sydney we've got Personal Broadband's iBurst and Unwired, both of which offer plug in card modems.

But if you like being connected wherever you are, and you're a regular user of any of these networks, don't buy the new Intel based MacBook Pro because you can't use any of these wireless cards in it. Instead, you'll have to find yourself a plug-in-the-wall or a WiFi hotspot, or buy a desktop modem.

You see, all these cards conform to the PC Card form, but the new MacBook use the Expresscard/34 format for its expansion slot. Confused? Well, here's a quick primer.

Both these standards have been developed by PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association). According to its web site (http://www.pcmcia.org), it's "an international standards body and trade association with over 100 member companies that was founded in 1989 to establish standards for integrated circuit cards and to promote interchangeability among mobile computers where ruggedness, low power, and small size were critical."

The first PCMCIA standard was the PC Card that we all know and love. This is now closed and no further development is taking place. PC Card was followed by CardBus which supports a wider range of applications and higher speeds, up to 33MHz. A CardBus slot is able to detect and support an inserted PC card.

But that is all history. In 2003 PCMCIA introduced a new standard, the Expresscard technology. It's claimed to deliver "thinner, faster and lighter modular expansion to desktop and notebook computer users. Importantly, according to http://www.expresscard.org, Expresscard slots "give desktop computer users the same 'sealed box' computing benefits that have for a long time been a part of the notebook computing experience. Before ExpressCard technology it was not economically feasibly to integrate hot pluggable PC Card technology into a broad range of desktop systems."

There are two Expresscard formats Expresscard/54, 54 mms wide and about the same size as a PC Card, and Expresscard/34, only 34mms wide. Both use the same connector, so if you have an expresscard/54 slot you can plug in an expresscard/34 card, but not vice versa.

And there is no backward compatibility with PC Card or CardBus. Expresscard.org again: "moving forward to the high performance, compatibility and cost savings of these modern interfaces required sacrificing compatibility with the older PC Card standard."....more