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Will Apple remove the optical drive from future models?
- Thread starter whitedragon101
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Electricity is an even older technology. I predict that it will be replaced in the next 2 years or so, too!
Apple, put me up for an optical disk driveless 17" MBP with a quad core Sandy Bridge CPU, 8GB RAM, AMD M6830 GPU, HDD and SDD combo, 4 USB 3 ports, still with room for a 10-12 hr battery, better cooling, and maybe a Light Peak connector.
I'l give you AU$5G's for it.
I'l give you AU$5G's for it.
Knowing apple, you would probably have to sell a kidney for that kind of specs. and i don't think the 17" has space for such specs as i don't know if it is capable of having the cooling ability to cool the hot processor.
Think so. Even HP is starting to make optical drives optional on some models. If Apple were to do this, they'd definitely have to add an extra USB slot (or some other port) Would be nice if they could give you an option for either an extra HD or battery or something. Don't think this will come around for a couple years though.
The quad core mobile Sandy Bridge CPUs are only 45W, 10 more than the present dual cores. And with the integration of the memory controller and integrated graphics into the 45W, it's probably not all that more than the Core 2 Duos.
I'm hoping that Apple used the 330M in the present MBPs just in case they couldn't get their own graphics switching tech to work, so they could fall back on Optimus. Now that they have proven their tech, they can use the far better AMD graphics options. I still can't get over the fact that the MHD5830 is a 23W GPU, the same as the 330M.
A super drive weighs in at 8 ounces
Floppies died because you needed more than five for most software installs, CDs died when they needed about 5, DVDs hold ~8.5GB so that's 42.5GB of data not many are that big. Blu-Ray is like 50GB each... Blu-ray successor is 1TB each...
EDIT: I just found out that Windows NT 3.1 came on twenty-two
optical drive and dvd drives can be replaced by flash drives in 3-4 years maybe the standard would be a read only flash drives for software installations?
how will people play all the movies and such if the drive is gone? the portablity of a laptop is the point to have it, not to take out a drive and then just bring an add on along. That is what the air is for. Apple will not take it out of the pro, not yet
Apple's view, IMHO, is that movie ownership will shift from "I own teh DVVD" to "I can watch / DL it anytime via internet" (for a small monthly fee, of course). An integrated ecos-system will allow viewing over multiple devices - TV / Mac / iPad / iPhone and perhaps storage on a Mac. No need for optical media.
The kicker is the bandwidth it will take. In addition to ensuring infrastructure is in place, who will pay for the bandwidth? ISPs don't want to provide true unlimited bandwidth - especially as more users migrate back to the old mainframe - terminal model (or "cloud") since they will have to make a significant investment in infrastructure to provide the bandwidth to make it a viable model. They wil want someone to pay - probably content providers.
Content providers, OTOH, want to be able to deliver as much as possible (for a fee) without worrying about ISPs limiting their ability to deliver content - either through throttling or tiered pricing that makes large volume content unappealing. End users, after all, don't want to discover it cost them an additional $15 in bandwidth fees to watch to movies. Cable providers, who are often the ISP as well, want to protect their cable franchise and revenue streams so have no upside in supporting a shift to on demand from the internet from today's model.
There'll be fights until they sort out who pays what - and advertising may play a big role in that as well.
I'll agree with that. We might even see a universally adopted, smaller format optical drive before they all disappear.
High speed streaming?
I mean, we're almost there now, right?
I'm amazed with Apple TV, Netflix and iTunes streaming.
If I were Steve Jobs...
I would blow up all hdds, and drives from all mac laptops. My dvd has forgotten what a dvd is. I would put the same flash technology we've seen on the new macbooc air in all macbooks. That will allow apple to save weigh, space and energy, maybe to make the laptops thinner, cheaper, with more battery life, totally silent, ultra portable, etc.
I will ad to my wish list a neww liquid metal housing, as the alluminium is very weak, scratchable, and blendable
I already see in my head the new design of february/march macbook pros.
I would blow up all hdds, and drives from all mac laptops. My dvd has forgotten what a dvd is. I would put the same flash technology we've seen on the new macbooc air in all macbooks. That will allow apple to save weigh, space and energy, maybe to make the laptops thinner, cheaper, with more battery life, totally silent, ultra portable, etc.
I will ad to my wish list a neww liquid metal housing, as the alluminium is very weak, scratchable, and blendable
I already see in my head the new design of february/march macbook pros.
If I were Steve Jobs...
I would blow up all hdds, and drives from all mac laptops. My dvd has forgotten what a dvd is. I would put the same flash technology we've seen on the new macbooc air in all macbooks. That will allow apple to save weigh, space and energy, maybe to make the laptops thinner, cheaper, with more battery life, totally silent, ultra portable, etc.
I will ad to my wish list a neww liquid metal housing, as the alluminium is very weak, scratchable, and blendable
I already see in my head the new design of february/march macbook pros.
I would blow up all hdds, and drives from all mac laptops. My dvd has forgotten what a dvd is. I would put the same flash technology we've seen on the new macbooc air in all macbooks. That will allow apple to save weigh, space and energy, maybe to make the laptops thinner, cheaper, with more battery life, totally silent, ultra portable, etc.
I will ad to my wish list a neww liquid metal housing, as the alluminium is very weak, scratchable, and blendable
I already see in my head the new design of february/march macbook pros.
You say that now, but the one time in a million when you absolutely need a DVD burner, you'll be happy you have one on you... Well, I guess I'm the target demographic for a MBP, where you're the target demographic for a MBA
Not going to happen. Part of the planned obsolescence of a mac is the fact that it scratches so easily.
unfortunately Apple and Steve will do that soon. I can say it will be happened within 5 years from now. no optical drive..... this is obvious. new macbook air is just beginning now. they will give you mac os x USB install thumb drive instead of DVD. all manual, instructions will be all digital. but I don't like this idea to make something too simple. there are still lots of people needed optical drive. even though Apple doesn't have any plan for Blu-ray. I think that Apple is backward in HD market. itunes store doesn't provide you real HD quality contents. this is shame. but Steve is very hard ass. I don't think that he will replace it anytime or forever.
I'm thinking they will ditch the optical drive in favor of a larger battery and either the next update or the 2012 update they will go to flash storage. We will be seeing 12+ hour battery life in the MacBook Pro's..
Also the software issue such as installing windows is a dumb argument, you use it one time to install the software and carry it around all the time for no reason, when you can just have an external optical drive to use on the rare occasion that needs it..
Also the software issue such as installing windows is a dumb argument, you use it one time to install the software and carry it around all the time for no reason, when you can just have an external optical drive to use on the rare occasion that needs it..
The fate of the optical drive
Let's lay down the facts:
-people are using them less and less
-Apple has shown intent to remove it from their notebooks ("future of notebooks"
-they still haven't adopted Blu-ray
-introduction of movie and TV show rentals (removing any need for optical media on that front)
-introduction of Mac app store
-USB OS/iLife installation with MBA
The next revision of the MBP will not have an optical drive.
Flame wars being below this line.
___________________________________________________________
Let's lay down the facts:
-people are using them less and less
-Apple has shown intent to remove it from their notebooks ("future of notebooks"
-they still haven't adopted Blu-ray
-introduction of movie and TV show rentals (removing any need for optical media on that front)
-introduction of Mac app store
-USB OS/iLife installation with MBA
The next revision of the MBP will not have an optical drive.
Flame wars being below this line.
___________________________________________________________
I agree that there will come a point where the optical drive is removed from the MBP. But I don't think it's going to happen any time before 2012.
I'm always crossing my fingers for Blu-ray drives in the MBP, but I'm not holding out much hope for it. Apple should instead start offering consumers the option of putting 2 HDs in those machines to make them even better work-horse machines for the road. Optibay and other companies have been selling users the kits to do these things for years (and I did it myself to my own MBP), but Apple could tack on a nice little surcharge for making it a CTO option.
But overall, here are my preferences for the future of the MBP's body:
1) Allow custom option of 2 HD's
2) Bring back the expresscard slot (or just add eSATA)
3) Add a Blu-ray drive, build in HDCP support into 10.7 and allow users to both read and write from the drive.
But overall, here are my preferences for the future of the MBP's body:
1) Allow custom option of 2 HD's
2) Bring back the expresscard slot (or just add eSATA)
3) Add a Blu-ray drive, build in HDCP support into 10.7 and allow users to both read and write from the drive.