I agree, but it seems like there are some "competing" issues with some Apple stuff. They have not really embraced the eSATA side of things at all. Might be because there is no easy way to provide internal power, like FW can and some of the USB2 stuff can now. Do not even see it on the Mac Pro, except piping wires from the inside, or something. It seems like it would be an easy add, but for reasons unexplained, they are not going that way.True and that maybe the case but a E-sata connector is small and honestly if they did that , than no need for the express slot per say. Now if it did have the E-sata that would seriously interest me even though I just bought the 2.93 a couple months ago. Lot's of moaning going on about the loss of the Express card that Apple is getting more consumer like on the Apple forums. Have to agree with them, for many this may not matter but if you want to work outside the box than all you have is Firewire 800 which is nice but not nearly as fast as E-sata. A SSD card reader is a nice feature but it also spells consumer to me.
Seriously doubt that the 3.06GHz is going to be that much faster than your 2.93, Guy. They are the same platform, so only a very teeny speed boost. The Quad cores may be a different story, as even the lower clock speeds there are beating higher clock speeds on duo-core machines.
I still think Apple would be wise to configure the "pro" laptops with some "pro" connectivity, meaning FW800, eSATA, USB2 in more than one port each, plus DVI or whatever in a more standard config....or at least supply the connector without ripping folks off so much. Only the 17" has the greater utility and connectivity....plus that matte screen some of us prefer
The other "loss" of the ECC/34 card on the smaller machines means no easy non-WiFi/BT connection. Would be nice if they started to build in a wireless card that worked on any network (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, etc.). At least with the EC/34 slot, you could get a card. And since AT&T has NOT yet allowed tethering with the iPhone, the smaller MBPs, like the Air, can only get Internet connection via hardwire or WiFi, and those are not always available when and where you might want/need them sometimes.
Sorry if much of this sounds like grousing, but by this point, the manufacturers should have a pretty good idea what the "pro" users, or serious business users could really use and then build that into their "pro" level machines. Not sure why it is such a problem, and now, with the even more restricted ports, it becomes even harder to configure things with possible third-party solutions. Sorry, but USB2 is NOT the best answer.
LJ