With the new 15-inch Macbook Pros recently released and the elimination of the ExpressCard slot, many people have become unhappy. It’s Apple removing a pro feature and adding in a more consumer-oriented one, an SD card slot. While there are a number of accessories you can’t use without the ExpressCard slot one of the biggest losses for editors is eSATA ports for fast and affordable eSATA hard drives. The SpyderHUB USB/FireWire to eSATA converter to the rescue.

Okay, I know what you are thinking; neither FireWire or USB is as fast as eSATA. This is true. This hub won’t be as fast as an eSATA connection to an ExpressCard slot. But if you just have to have one of the new Macbook Pros or you have a lot of eSATA drives that you use with your desktop systems and you want to take them on the road then this piece of hardware might come in handy. Key features and benefits from the FirmTek website:

  • Provides Mac OS boot capability to external eSATA enclosures
  • Allows content to be shared between different Macintosh and/or PC
  • Provides FireWire daisy-chaining capability
  • Operates using computer USB or FireWire bus power (external power adapter optional)
  • No special driver installation required
  • Expands eSATA direct connect enclosure connectivity to include FireWire 800/400/USB 2.0 host interfaces (FireWire 400 requires optional 400/800 adapter)
  • Features dual external eSATA ports and a FireWire daisy-chain device port
  • Includes FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 host input ports
  • Activity LED for each hard drive
  • Supports JBOD and hardware RAID 0/stripe and SPAN/concatenate modes
  • SATA II compliant; auto-negotiates support for the latest 3Gb/s and legacy 1.5Gb/s Serial ATA drives
  • Attractive design
  • Features Kensington Security Slot
  • Easy to set up, easy to transport, compact, lightweight and portable
  • Platform and Operating system independent; compatible with all Macintosh and PC computers running Mac OS X, Windows and Linux

And at $130 it’s not cheap but if it means you can get more out of an investment in a lot of eSATA drives then it’s probably worth it. Thanks to Steve Audette for pointing out this unit.