Apple exec explains why "cumbersome" SD card slot removed from new MacBooks but 3.5mm jack remains

[Arris]

If they are professionals, why aren't they using later generation cameras with the wireless data transfer? If I were a REAL professional, I'd be keeping up to date with technology. It's how you remain relevant in your chosen industry.

As I already said wireless transfer from cameras is not the optimal way of getting data off of any memory card. It's slow as hell. A professional won't want to sit waiting around half a day to get his 32/64gb card's 40mb RAW files transferred. Many "pro" cameras still have USB2 interfaces which even makes transferring from camera over cable slower than using an external USB3 reader. The number of people who buy expensive super duper fast SD cards for their camera with no benefit(due to the internal card read speed and/or limited buffer read speeds for writing buffered data to the card) and then transfer from the camera over USB2 to the computer, again getting no benefit from the super duper access speed that the SD card claims to have is comical.

I hate using MicroSD cards, they get lost too easily, I hate trying to keep track since there isn't much room to write down what's on the SD card.

I agree that microSD are a pain as they are just that little bit too little and fiddly. As far as keeping data on them professionals don't keep stuff on cards so won't write on them. Myself I just have labels printed to identify the SD cards (A, B, C, D etc.), and after filling them up I copy to computer, blank then and put them back in a card holder wallet ready to use again. I've never had content on an SD card for a long enough period to warrant even attempting to scribble a description onto the label, but I can see that if you were trying to do that it would be nigh on impossible.

I have learned to do wireless data transfers

Again, run some tests of transfers using a camera's wireless transfer method and compare it to doing it over a USB3 card reader. If it's a dozen snaps in Jpeg then wireless is convenient, but if its a full card (even 16gb) of 20-50mb RAW files then its slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

To me, it's not a big loss. I know that some people might get bent out of shape, but people need to adopt the new way of doing things, or they'll become antiquated.

As soon as it isn't much much slower to do it the new way (wireless) I'll happily adopt it and forget about card readers, but at present it is the inferior method in terms of speed/efficiency in a workflow.

 

[Wendy Oltman]

Apple...giving you less and charging you more...

Yeah and the consumers happy to pay for the enormous price tag. And I don't even think it is for utility, it is more for maintaining the brand image for class consciousness.

 

[RustyTech]

STOP!
You're using it wrong!

 

[tehxion]

Oh poor baby, what an insufferable and heinous ordeal that mean old card put you through. "The horror, the horror" (*). I'm surprised it didn't put you into therapy.

I know right the devastation! I was not so much worried about the old card but destroying the SD port or internal board. After sinking close to $4k into the thing and having it only 2 days, yea, it was a quick moment of o-crap.

* Cardpocalypse: now thankfully that's something Apple has a cure for!

 

[captaincranky]

I know right the devastation! I was not so much worried about the old card but destroying the SD port or internal board. After sinking close to $4k into the thing and having it only 2 days, yea, it was a quick moment of o-crap.

* Cardpocalypse: now thankfully that's something Apple has a cure for!

Well, all of my Nikon DSLR's have a "push to lock, push to release" SD port. This leaves the card flush with the surface of the socket.

Now, an entity as conspicuously in your face, self aggrandizingly, "innovative", as Apple, could have easily hijacked the Nikon design, incorporated it into their laptops, and then sued Nikon for stealing their design. "All in a day's ripoff", that's what I say.

Besides, what kind of piker buys anything Apple without a service contract?

 

[FPSChris]

Can you imagine me transferring 128gb of RAW photo's over wireless
What if my camera batteries are dead from being out shooting all night?
4 hours charge, then I can spend another 4 hours transferring the files :-/

I know I could just buy an SD reader but that contradicts the point of them removing it in the first place.

I'll stick to my MSI laptop dual boot Can't go wrong with OSX except the hardware they make.

 

[Phr3d]

A new day, another 'cumbersome' sentence from the brave new world:

Much of the conversation here is the utility/swapping/indexing of SD cards, but the usefulness to some is simply that 64GB is a hella' lot o' FLAC-music and JPG pictures that can not benefit from the SSD speed and surely adds to the difficulty of changing devices (more-so with 128GB and beyond). It is a safe, convenient way to carry a library and easily share that library with other devices.

@Crank, I think you wound up supporting the 'why does it stick out?' argument in describing your own spring-loaded SD slot. That is not Nikon-specific, and IMO, the OP was asking why Microsoft hadn't been thoughtful enough to include it in a superior and expensive device. Much like Apple's decision to eliminate it entirely, Microsoft chose to support it Poorly, so you could not easily store content that can not benefit from an SSD on a medium perfectly suited for that purpose.

Back to photography, 128GB is a hella lot o' photo, the SD allows files to be previewed -and discarded- in situ, as at least Many shots are crap. Transferring the good photos after an initial pass should save on storage/writes, I would think, but it is Not my living so I am probably mistaken.

I eagerly await DSLR's with built-in, non-upgradeable memory to arrive -- I'm surprised that is has not already happened. So sorry, that 256GB upgrade is gonna set you back a paltry kilobuck, but it's Worth it, right? Those removable cards are so Cumbersome and Slow, and with our Cloud storage, you'll know that the files are safe Forever for only 10bux/GB annually!

 

[captaincranky]

@Crank, I think you wound up supporting the 'why does it stick out?' argument in describing your own spring-loaded SD slot. That is not Nikon-specific, and IMO, the OP was asking why Microsoft hadn't been thoughtful enough to include it in a superior and expensive device. Much like Apple's decision to eliminate it entirely, Microsoft chose to support it Poorly, so you could not easily store content that can not benefit from an SSD on a medium perfectly suited for that purpose.

Supporting? I actually got a bit confused who to flame first, so I flamed M$ thinking I was flaming Apple. IIn retrospect, the M$ of today is one of the biggest pieces of crap on the planet, and their new CEO is the person in the process of molding the pile.

M$ doesn't use the "click, click SD holder", because they are too stupid, to unconcerned about their customers, and too cheap to install one.

Besides, I've just been hanging around to see if the "Surface" would fail, as have most of the rest of their attempts at hardware.

Back to photography, 128GB is a hella lot o' photo, the SD allows files to be previewed -and discarded- in situ, as at least Many shots are crap. Transferring the good photos after an initial pass should save on storage/writes, I would think, but it is Not my living so I am probably mistaken.

Quite frankly, 16 GB is a lot of storage, I never edit or delete photos in camera, and modern SD unloads plenty fast enough for my taste.

I eagerly await DSLR's with built-in, non-upgradeable memory to arrive -- I'm surprised that is has not already happened. So sorry, that 256GB upgrade is gonna set you back a paltry kilobuck, but it's Worth it, right? Those removable cards are so Cumbersome and Slow, and with our Cloud storage, you'll know that the files are safe Forever for only 10bux/GB annually!

I can't figure out here if you're serious, or trying to master my style of writing....

 

[Phr3d]

I can't figure out here if you're serious, or trying to master my style of writing....

would Hafta' be the latter - lol. When I -finally- find a latin sig that no one can decipher, you'll know I have found a possible pathway. peace & pleasantries, this Tuesday of turmoil..

 

[MQThomas]

Who says you use an sd card for a camera. I sail and use the SD card when I can not back up to the card for time machine.

The fact that I have to carry an SD card is very cumbersome and creates a greater risk I disconnect accidentally.

But given the soldered in SSD drive onboard it is unforgivable to remove it from a machine sold to be really compact. Big SLur makes my small onboar drive unuseable. This would have been easily addressable if they had an sd card that was recessed and removed with an inserted pin like a sim card.

Multiple errors made by apple in cutting back on the air. I traded in a MacBook 2013 for a 2017. Now have soldered in SSD, bad bluetooth on my wireless mouse (tried all the advertised fixes) no SD card slot and only usb 3.0 sockets - which means I now have to carry a card reader/usb port module. The Macbook air is chosen as it is ultra portable.

Bad decisions by. the product governance group.

Consult!!!!!

Not all SD cards are used for cameras you nit wits.