Am I the only one who think Apple shot themselves in the foot?

[lewdvig]

I hate optical drives in my MacBooks. I suaully swap them out for HDD caddies.

Media is more convenient delivered in digital format. More selection than anystore, one click to buy, etc.

Flash is faster/more reliable for transferring data. It;s also cheap and durable in capacities much larger than 7.5 GB.

Optical drives are availble in USB enclosures, including BR versions, giving you more choice than the 10 year old Panasonic in apple products that must make 99% margins on by now.

 

[john123]

Relax, this happens to every kind of subset of thinkers that get too caught up in their own brand, it's human nature.

My beef was twofold: you insulted a group of people and made an assertion that you can't prove. To you, the interest in technology is an unhealthy and foolish obsession. Everyone has hobbies that occupy too much of their time. Who are you, me, or any of us to judge what is a worthwhile hobby? If a person spends all their time woodworking, reading, or at museums, are those "more" worthwhile hobbies? I posit that they aren't, despite the fact that they appear more cultured and refined.

 

[Macshroomer]

My beef was twofold: you insulted a group of people and made an assertion that you can't prove. To you, the interest in technology is an unhealthy and foolish obsession. Everyone has hobbies that occupy too much of their time. Who are you, me, or any of us to judge what is a worthwhile hobby? If a person spends all their time woodworking, reading, or at museums, are those "more" worthwhile hobbies? I posit that they aren't, despite the fact that they appear more cultured and refined.

You can take it or leave it man, really. If me telling you that since 1991 I have used Apple computers professionally and for the past 3 years I have been part of a DC based think tank that is studying some worrying stats on tech's effect on society, well you need to ask your self why is it ok to shut down the opinion of an experienced user of tech who has a different take on it. In other words, I use Apple products for my work, I balance it out, spend as little time as possible on them because I see what not finding balance is doing to people, especially children.

Let me give you an example of one of the think tank findings. Parents in lower income brackets want schools to provide computers, iPads, etc in schools because they can not afford to provide them at home and the kids feel the pressure from fellow students. Wealthier parents on the other hand are really pushing for schools in wealthier neighborhoods to limit the use of devices in schools as most of the kids already have iPhones, iPads and the like and they feel they spend too far much time on them. There are some amazingly troubling statistics out there now, balance is desparatley needed.

So we have some really nice new hardware coming out this week, I look forward to my twice a decade update. But if you look at the way people talk about these devices on here, the going *well* beyond a hobby of woodworking, writing, etc....well some of the behavior shown is pretty telling. One of the studies I have implemented that got me invited to the think tank is the loss of eye contact in society, replacing it with i-contact as more and more people can not stay off of their iPhones long enough to engage with people properly. I am part of a study that is showing the adverse effects of it, we have about another two years to go but the findings thus far are pretty interesting, you will probably read about it in the future.

This is reality man, I can talk about it here because I feel someone has to do it and since I am a professional user of these products, I am well within my right to do so....

Take it or leave it.

 

[john123]

well you need to ask your self why is it ok to shut down the opinion of an experienced user of tech who has a different take on it.

Nice effort at playing the victim here after insulting a bunch of people. The amount of backpedaling you're doing is staggering. Here's the thing, though: if you wanted to get on your soapbox about social problems, you should have known better than to start off by attacking people for their interests and making unfounded accusations about their level of education and personal balance.

You're well within your rights to talk, sure. But when you shift to attack mode, you are not within your rights. Free speech and the first amendment don't apply here, my friend. Take it or leave it.

 

[Macshroomer]

Nice effort at playing the victim here after insulting a bunch of people. The amount of backpedaling you're doing is staggering. Here's the thing, though: if you wanted to get on your soapbox about social problems, you should have known better than to start off by attacking people for their interests and making unfounded accusations about their level of education and personal balance.

You're well within your rights to talk, sure. But when you shift to attack mode, you are not within your rights. Free speech and the first amendment don't apply here, my friend. Take it or leave it.

LOL, ok man, really, it is not an attack, it is an opinion. I suppose you should report this to a moderator and let them decide if I have violated any site rules.

I'm done either way, I can get what I need from here with it being a read-only.

For the folks that feel frustrated by Apple changing feature sets of new products, that is tech, it is a profit driven engine and you have to make decisions on a daily basis in how you want to implement it, how it affects your daily lives and try not to take it personal.

At the end of the day, you will always be better than the technology you use, try not to lose sight of that...

Have a good evening!

 

[phsphoenix]

I've always thought CD/DVD drives were a necessary evil, only to be used to install an OS. I started using HDs for data storage 10 years ago, and only used CDs/DVDs sparingly. The main reason:

There's no place to put millions upon millions of burned CDs.

-- My two cents

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Use to burn supporting data onto a CD/DVD when delivering reports to clients.
Found it much easier to just delver it on a flash drive.

 

[Ryan1524]

You can take it or leave it man, really. If me telling you that since 1991 I have used Apple computers professionally and for the past 3 years I have been part of a DC based think tank that is studying some worrying stats on tech's effect on society, well you need to ask your self why is it ok to shut down the opinion of an experienced user of tech who has a different take on it. In other words, I use Apple products for my work, I balance it out, spend as little time as possible on them because I see what not finding balance is doing to people, especially children.

Let me give you an example of one of the think tank findings. Parents in lower income brackets want schools to provide computers, iPads, etc in schools because they can not afford to provide them at home and the kids feel the pressure from fellow students. Wealthier parents on the other hand are really pushing for schools in wealthier neighborhoods to limit the use of devices in schools as most of the kids already have iPhones, iPads and the like and they feel they spend too far much time on them. There are some amazingly troubling statistics out there now, balance is desparatley needed.

So we have some really nice new hardware coming out this week, I look forward to my twice a decade update. But if you look at the way people talk about these devices on here, the going *well* beyond a hobby of woodworking, writing, etc....well some of the behavior shown is pretty telling. One of the studies I have implemented that got me invited to the think tank is the loss of eye contact in society, replacing it with i-contact as more and more people can not stay off of their iPhones long enough to engage with people properly. I am part of a study that is showing the adverse effects of it, we have about another two years to go but the findings thus far are pretty interesting, you will probably read about it in the future.

This is reality man, I can talk about it here because I feel someone has to do it and since I am a professional user of these products, I am well within my right to do so....

Take it or leave it.

Where is this going to published?

I'm very interested in these types of studies. I believe tech should enhance quality of life, but as you said, it's causing some interesting side effects.


As for losing the optic drive, good riddance. From an engineering standpoint, the first parts to go are always the moving ones. And my SuperDrive did fail, twice in 4 years.