Add PCMCIA or CardBus to MacBook Pro, iMac, other slotless Macs?

[endymion]

Is there a USB or Firewire adapter that will allow the use of PCMCIA or CardBus with computers that have no place to plug them in? Obviously, if you had PCI slots, there are PCI devices that do this; but if you have any of several Mac models including the new MacBook Pro, there's no way to use devices such as wireless modems, memory card readers (ok, obviously there are FW/USB memory card readers) or firewire/usb/SATA/ethernet cards.

I haven't been able to turn anything up; it seems like fairly niche product but it would still be nice to have that instead of needing to buy all-new ExpressCard devices.
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[MacMagus]

There's stuff like this:
http://www.pcuniverse.com/product.asp?pid=2639483&m_id=32&srccode=cii_14110944&cpncode=11-5474581-2

Dunno if any of them work with Macs.

[endymion]

MacMagus, that's just a card reader. CompactFlash uses identical electrical connections to PCMCIA / CardBus, it just has a different form factor on the connector. However, I'm looking for something that will let me plug in, say, a PCMCIA 802.11B or EV-DO to some kind of sled that then connects to a Mac via firewire, usb or even ethernet.
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[Sam3]

I didn't know that the MacBook Pro doesn't have a PCMCIA slot. That is something that tempers my enthusiasm for the new machine, as I have enough assorted cards that I've used in my past Powerbooks. It's a "Pro" machine, they should not have taken that out. If the PC-Card slot is not in an iBook, fine, that's a 'consumer' machine, but for 2-grand I expect to have all the bells and whistles. Oh well, maybe they might include one in a future model.

[MacMagus]

> MacMagus, that's just a card reader.

I know. I'm just saying that's all that I've seen and it's not even clear that it wil work on a Mac.

>I didn't know that the MacBook Pro doesn't have a PCMCIA slot.

They replaced the PCMCIA card slot with an ExpressCard slot. It's next-gen technology that's supposed to be potentially much faster and smaller than PCMCIA.

http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/

'Problem is that there aren't any devices for the slot yet and when they arrive they're going to be way more expensive than PCMCIA.

[Sam3]

Thanks, MacMagus, I just found out that info separately. Ignore my post from above, for Apple it does make sense to move to next-gen technologies.

[samintx]

the new macs go with the higher tech Express cards. They are replacing the old cards we grew up on. All computers are going to upgrade to Express is my understand...PC and mac.

[endymion]

Yes, upgrade to ExpressCard, fine. But give me a way to connect my legacy PCMCIA and CardBus devices, that is what I am seeking!
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