My first embroidery machine and still have, a Pfaff 2170. I also have a Mac. I bought this machine in 2008 and the only way to send an embroidery design to it is via cable, from my Mac to the card at end of cable, inserted into the machine. Not to mention, the driver and software was only compatible with Windows. BUT, my MacBookPro has dual processors, so I bought WindowsXP. Long story, but with the help of the tech from Apple over the phone, he helped me set up the partitions for the WindowsXP, meaning alotted space for WindowsXP. He stepped through the process until it was time to insert the WindowsXP disk to install, because of course it is a Microsoft product and not an Apple product, but he did give me some pointers and was patient enough to wait until it was going before we hung up. I did not buy the extra program Parallels, but just hold down the Options key when booting up the Mac to go into Windows. However, I did have the card that came with my embroidery machine that already had some designs on it that inserted into the machine as well. NOW, 8 years down the road, I have owned Husqvarner Viking embroidery machines and have used the USB stick. I cannot imagine an embroidery machine and not having a computer for you still need a device to load a design to the USB stick.