Hi,

I recently took the plunge and got myself a Macbook Pro. I will be running windows XP pro via bootcamp/fusion as I make my way back from the dark side but will not be able to completely leave windows anytime soon because of needing to run ArcGIS for work.

I am seeking advice on picking out a couple peripherals for this new machine. For each one I would prefer a device that works with both OS X and XP if possible:

1. I need a usb hub. Is there one out there that can provide power to USB devices while only getting power from the laptop? I am working hard to create a mobile office with as few cords as possible.
   
2. Recommend an external hard drive that is at least 1 TB, compact, quiet, fast/firewire 800? and preferably is also powered via the laptop. If avoiding a powercord is not realistic here then suggest something that is powered externally.
   
3. Looking for a portable keyboard that is somewhat ergonomic and thin enough to store in my laptop case (pelican 1495CC1).
   
4. I would like to find a bluetooth mouse that is somewhat ergonomic/full sized and works on both OS X and XP.

Thanks very much for your advice.

Bob

For the keyboard the new apple keyboard is nice and thin. Wireless version is linked but it is missing the number pad. The wired one is a little longer and has a number pad on it. I love typing on it and should be thin enough to safely go into the computer case.

Mouse, pick any mouse you want. If it is bluetooth it wil likely work.

Hard Drive, for something that size you won't find bus powered. Personally for a bus powered drive I am looking at the LaCie little big disk. FW800 RAID with two laptop drives in it. If you are looking for something that can plug in then that expands choices numerably. My only recommendation is to stay away from USB "powered" drives as those tend to bend the spec at best and outright break it at worst in their effort to give power.

Seablade

Thats a beautiful external enclosure. If only they sold the case only ><. Searched Newegg but didn't see it. Thats for the link on that though!

For a USB 2 Hub. My understanding is that if the device doesn't draw any power (externally powered hard drive for example) then you can get USB2 speeds without a power adapter. However, that will only work on a USB2 Hub sans power brick, not a USB1.1 Hub.

Or, you could try to switch to almost all Firewire for your externals since you can daisy chain them.

I second the recommendation for the Apple Wireless Keyboard. It is basically a MacBook keyboard, and that is IMO one of hte best out for that kind of keyboard.

As for a mouse, some like the Mighty Mouse, others hate it, I am with the latter. I personally could not find a BT mouse that worked for me, so I got the Logitech VX Revolution, and then after using it for a while, I put it away, only to get it out when I used Windows which became more and more rare.

Thanks to you all for the advice.

As far as keyboards, I am currently using a goldtouch split keyboard to get away from horizontal wrist positions. I agree that the apple wireless keyboard looks nice but I am hoping to find something like the gold touch model in a smaller package.

The lacie little big disk looks real nice too, just not very big. I can handle an ac cord if necessary for best performance, just really want to dump all cables that I can.

Stu, I may be like you, did not really care for the mighty mouse in my hand. I am currently leaning toward this guy: http://www.radtech.us/Products/BT600.aspx

Can I connect my ipod video using firewire and recharge the battery? The main reason I am looking to get power via a USB hub is to recharge devices like the Ipod and my gps and etc. I was guessing that a USB hub is not capable of transfering power without its own AC connection but wanted to check with you all to see if I was missing something.

b

No, the 5th gen iPod and 1st gen nano dropped firewire support (an issue that draws ire from me and my Mac using friends) due to space constraints

However, if you look at it this way, if you use Firewire for all your external storage devices, that leaves you with your 2 USB ports for charging your phone, your GPS, your ipod, connecting your camera... all that jazz. And since you wouldn't need all those devices connected at once...

I was looking at the Lacie... and frankly, it looks ridiculously expensive for what you get. Sure, it is FW800, and dual drive.. but frankly, unless you have to have that kind of speed sans AC adapter, then you are better off getting a 200GB 7200RPM drive and then an $80 firewire SATA enclosure.

Completely agree with that assesment. Unfortuantly I fall under the category of needing a bus powered HD and RAID+FW800 is a good thing for me

Seablade

there used to be a few fw800 enclosures that claimed to be able to power a 3.5" drive, but i think it varies on the power requirements of the drive in question. the newer "green" drives might be a good fit for this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/11/wd_caviar_gp/

the following enclosure has been discontinued but it is still apparently available w/ some drives.

also read the fine print regarding power usage. it doesn't look like the MBP spec will bus power a 3.5" enclosure from what i've gathered.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304644

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303704

the best you'll get for portability and a single cable drive will be a solitary 2.5" FW400/800 setup, but then you'll be (currently) limited to 250GB for a 5400rpm drive and 200GB for a 7200rpm drive.

Thanks very much for the article link.

You are confirming what I am finding on the general take. I am currently using the 250GB WD passport. It works well for me if I am moving around for a specific job because I can copy just the files I need to this little drive and it adds almost nothing to the carrying case. 5400 rpms is usually not a problem because I should be doing all my heavy calculations back at the mothership.

However, If I need to camp out someplace for a week or two I like to take all my files with me. For that I need a minimum of 1TB at this point and should probably shoot for 2 TB if I want the system to last for more than a year. Looks like at this point I will have to be content with a separate power source for such a drive, probably a separate carrying case as well.

Thanks again.

b

You are correct in that the Apple notebooks only provide 7Watts of power instead of the 15 that is part of the spec. In general this is enough for audio interfaces though, however I haven't been able to find the power draw on the little big disk mentioned above to see if it would work.

Seablade