New here...no blu-ray or 3G/16GB iPhone?

[D-Love]

Hello everyone, I'm looking to get into Macs as I've been very impressed with what I've seen at our local Apple store. I'm definately getting an iPhone someday and am leaning towards getting a Macbook.

Couple things REALLY p'd me off about Job's address today.....

1. No announced blu-ray support. I thought something would be coming(FINALLY) being that blu has all but sealed up the format war and that Apple was a partner. Instead...no. Nothing. I want a Macbook with an optical drive...and I don't want it limited to DVD. I have 52 blu-ray movies and the ability to store 25GB per layer on a single blu-ray disk makes me yearn for a notebook with support and I don't want to go get a Sony Vaio. I would like to use Leopard.

2. iPhone updates. New software upgrades. Yay, great. Seriously, the map feature is cool and all that. Neat. Wheres the HARDWARE upgrades?! All these leaked rumors about 3G capability and the need for more storage space only to get neither issue addressed. WHY?


The MBA is really cool and neat, but will be just a niche product - at least for now until there features added. Right now its just a slimmer version of the Macbook with less power, no optical drive, and no user-replaceable battery. A really cool niche product, but not practical at all.


MW isn't over yet....could it be that more announcements such as those I addressed could still be made? I'm hoping so, because if not I am VERY disappointed in what I saw today.

[overanalyzer]

I think if we were going to see a Blu Ray drive offered, it would have been part of the Mac Pro updates last week, so I'm doubting that's pending soon. There are third party drives available, though.

3G iPhone has been expected for this Summer at earliest all along, so I'd expect an announcement at WWDC in June with immediate or very soon availability. If there's not a 16GB by then I'd expect one then. We'll most likely know 100% when it's coming too, because the FCC filings have to be submitted months in advance.

[D-Love]

I think if we were going to see a Blu Ray drive offered, it would have been part of the Mac Pro updates last week, so I'm doubting that's pending soon. There are third party drives available, though.

3G iPhone has been expected for this Summer at earliest all along, so I'd expect an announcement at WWDC in June with immediate or very soon availability. If there's not a 16GB by then I'd expect one then. We'll most likely know 100% when it's coming too, because the FCC filings have to be submitted months in advance.
Are third party drives compatible with Macbook Pro? I'm talking about one you could actually put in the notebook and use on the go. I'd like it to be fully functional for both storage and BD playback.

[overanalyzer]

Are third party drives compatible with Macbook Pro? I'm talking about one you could actually put in the notebook and use on the go. I'd like it to be fully functional for both storage and BD playback.

Put in the notebook? Don't think there are any options for that...think you'd be stuck with an external at this point. I'm not overly familiar with the current available products, but I recall seeing mention of them online recently, I think on TUAW. A search of the forums and/or Google should get you going. But it's probably not going to be your ideal of an integrated solution or a super portable option, unfortunately.

[D-Love]

Put in the notebook? Don't think there are any options for that...think you'd be stuck with an external at this point. I'm not overly familiar with the current available products, but I recall seeing mention of them online recently, I think on TUAW. A search of the forums and/or Google should get you going. But it's probably not going to be your ideal of an integrated solution or a super portable option, unfortunately.
Thanx for the help man. Not what I wanted to hear but I appreciate the info.

Christ...

I think this is because Jobs is all over the downloadable content thing. Apple WAS slated to have blu-ray support as much as a year ago, but he must be letting the whole thing go to the side hoping people will get their HD media via download only.

Bad move.

First of all - it takes up HD space that not everyone wants to use on movies. Second of all, some of still like to own the physical disk with the box/disk art. You can take the movie to a friends house, whatever - its not stored up on some hard drive. Optical media is not going away anytime soon.


Still leaning towards the Mac but all of a sudden the Vaio or Dell with blu-ray option looks a helluva lot more appealing than it did. And I really wanted to break from Windows.