First of all, most Mac laptops will never support USB. However, there is light at the end of your tunnel: get your hands on a Mac with a PC Card slot. Namely, the 5300 series and the 1400 series, if i remember right, have a PCMCIA slot.
The slots on these computers are not CardBus compatible, and since USB is a 32-bit interface and requires the 32-bit capabilities of CardBus, using a PCMCIA USB adapter is out. However, if all you need to do is read CF cards, go out to Best Buy or any decent computer store and pick up a CompactFlash-to-PCMCIA card adapter (about $10-15). This little device is shaped exactly like a PCMCIA card, and has a space to slide in your CF card. When this is done, and you install it in a slot on your PB, it will appear on the desktop just like another hard disk. When you "eject" it, the card itself should actually pop out of the slot. You can also find adapters for Smart Media, MMC, and Memory Stick memory cards that will convert any of those cards to a PCMCIA card. The only thing you must ensure is that the adapter will emulate a PCMCIA ATA disk. For the CF adapters this is a given because all CF cards emulate an ATA disk (basically, they pretend to be an IDE hard drive!) and the adapter does nothing of its own except to "put the square peg in the round hole" (it makes the pins on the CF card match their equivalents in the PCMCIA slot). However, for other memory standards compatibility is entirely up to the adapter because the memory cards themselves do not emulate ATA. I would feel pretty confident however that any PCMCIA adapter would emulate an ATA disk so basically any PCMCIA flash memory should be compatible. I've successfully read CF cards and Smart Media cards using the aforementioned adapters and even have used the older full-size PCMCIA Type II memory cards in a 5300 with no problems under Mac OS 8.1. If the 1400 has PC card slots (I'm pretty sure it does) you shouldn't have any problems when and if you get one. I'm not sure if there are any OS issues on OS'es other than 8.1, but hopefully everything will just work as it always should on a Mac. Good luck On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Craig wrote: > I'm new on here and I'm looking at some used PB1400's. Everything I've read > while reseaching says no USB connection can be made with a 1400. Is this > true? If not what about a Compact Flash card reader? I need something to > download images from a Digital Camera on the road. I don't want or need to > spend a fortune for something that's not going to be used a lot. But I've > always liked the 1400's. > > -- Flint Million Mailing from PowerBook address ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Send personal correspondence to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
