wether you like it or not, apple is going consumer!!
this is the future of apple, you all know it, and you also know apple never cared about leaving a small part of the market for the bigger one.
so, if you are one of the few people (in apple's eyes) that want a ODD, FW, RJ45, maybe also the express card, well, you'll be disappointed.
but that's not a concern for apple, they will still make LOTS of money, and that's frankly the only thing companies want.
but I just need to beg for a little thing: PLEASE DON'T SOLDER THE RAM!!!
If the ODD, FW800, and RJ45 ports have all had their day and gone, then so has removable/replaceable RAM.
its basically a guarantee that the next macbook pro will not have an optical drive
It's not at all a guarantee. There's no guarantee until we can confirm shipping models. Hence MacRumors, not MacFacts.
I agree - I use my ODD *several* times / week, to rip CDs, distribute photos to relatives who are not tech-savvy, etc. Unless Apple plans to offer *lossless* downloads (i.e., full CD-quality) for the same price as my several-thousand-CD collection - or for free, since I already own the media
- I can't see ditching the ODD :/
And having an external, attached drive isn't really the same - not very convenient, for sure
Completely agree. It defeats the point of it being an integrated all-in-one machine and the whole point of a laptop it to be integrated and all-in-one.
Ethernet port on the new TB displays? Thickest port on current MBPs?
Apple are SO ditching that on the next revision.
Not while it has faster and more reliable bandwidth than WiFi does.
Im hoping this is the redesigned 15 MBP...no need to make it as thin as the air. Just bless it with a ~.75 inch body (no odd), standard SSD/SSM, a 1200p screen, and a 6970m.
Pure Awesomeness
(a) They couldn't fit in a 6970M in that thing even if it retained its current thickness and with the ODD removed; that card is large for a laptop that thin and needs more cooling than you can fit in that enclosure as it stands today. (b) They really couldn't do it if they made it thinner. Not trying to be an ass, but that's physics, unless you're just dreaming on here.
they better not! i want all my ports AND dvd drive. not into this anorexic panache philosophy, i don't have a problem with weight, let the fanboys stick with the MBA.
THIS!
I just don't get the MR community. Why does everyone laude the removal of the SuperDrive? I would still want it even if it's rarely used, it's less of a fuss to plug-in a USB CD/DVD drive.
Plus, I don't see why you would thumb down comments that are against Apple's crusade on DVD drives, ever heard of opinions?
THIS TOO!
No Optical Drive = Better GPU, battery, design, +++
This would be great were it not for the fact that when Apple gets rid of something internal on something portable, you get thinness wayyy before you ever get (if you ever get) better GPU, better battery, and better design (unless thinness is your idea of a better design in which case, get over yourself and realize that some Mac users actually want a full-featured computer).
Am I the only who is dependant on the Ethernet port for interwebs access?
No, you're just dealing with a bunch of MacBook-Air-obsessed fanboys.
You can install Window 7 from USB stick or use it with super drive. Apple can cut the price of super drive from 79 dollars to like 29-39 dollars or something. Make it more affordable for people who want it.
Person like me doesn't use optical Drive. I use it once a month. Please get it out.
That's nice. Wake me up when you have the rest of the universe orbiting around you.
If they pawn this off as a "Pro" model, it simply tells me that I'll be riding my current Pro until its proverbial wheels fall off. I rarely use the optical, BUT I don't care for the notion of carrying around an optical drive as an attachment. Rather have it all in one machine.
Yeah, last I checked, the complete all-in-oneness was the point of a laptop's existence.
Just as with pizza, I think there is a market for both a 15" MacBook Air and 15" MacBook Pro.
Couldn't put it better myself.
No, the "haters" will point out that
1. The adapters are over-priced for some things that other laptops include from the factory. (Even if they're $39.99, that's a lot compared to "free" on other laptops.)
2. They're ugly warts that take up additional space in your laptop bag.
3. The "daisy-chain" aspect is a big problem when you want to add or remove a device without shutting your system down.
If you need two spindles, Apple laptops are not the best.
If you need a matte screen, Apple laptops are not the best.
If you need a Quadro or FireGL GPU, Apple laptops are not the best.
If you need a portable workstation, Apple laptops are laughable compared to what's available from other vendors.
You have to make a pretty narrow definition of "best" in order to say that MacBooks are the best.
If you want robust and intelligent internal design and engineering, Apple laptops, currently, are the best. Yes, while the MacBook Pro line is rigidly stuck at 0.95" thick, we will never see MacBook Pros with mobile Quadros or FireGLs or anything in the portable workstation market; though to be fair, I don't know when I'd ever get that kind of machine over just a desktop anyway. Perhaps there is a market for that kind of a MacBook Pro. In any event, having taken apart both the current crop of Unibody MacBook Pros and similar machines from Dell, HP, and Asus, Apple's internal design IS the best. Otherwise, your points are all valid and correct.
I don't get what the big deal is with the lack of an optical drive.
I've never used mine on my current machine, which I got in April 2010.
I've only burned a handful of discs in my life, and the only discs I use on a daily basis are my dvd's. And I use my Xbox to play them.
Everything else, I download. Movies, software, music... why buy discs if you can buy them online as a download?
Download is the future, not optical drives. They are slow, have low capacity, drain battery and weigh a lot. Why would anyone want one in their laptop? It makes no sense,
For me, the omission of a disc drive is a welcome one. If you have an untamed desire to absolutely need a disc drive, you can buy an add-on Superdrive for 99$.
Really, 10 years from now we will be laughing at this decision, just like we laugh now about Apple's omission of the floppy drive in the iMac.
That said, boy, do I want a 15" MBA! With Quad Core i7 please!
A 15" MacBook Air would be lucky to even have the i7 its 13" cousin has if you do a CTO. Dream on. As for the rest of your argument, it's quite short-sighted and assumes that (a) I want to repurchase all of my content as downloads, (b) downloads are more convenient that things I already physically own. Otherwise, I agree, downloads ARE the future. Not the present.
Optical drive is a bag of hurt. Just look how much space it occupies inside. Very inefficient use of space.
Having taken these machines apart multiple times, and having followed Apple for as long as I have, I can safely say that you do not know what you're talking about.
Not sure why you say Dedicated GPU is not possible?
If you take the Air13 internals and stretch them out foot print of 15 then it seem like there lots of room for apple to play with say a second fan and GPU chip on the board. Which would double the amount of heat it could displace, right?
Maybe go little thicker and they could move all the battery cell to the front edge. Assuming the two middle ones are pushed back to allow for the track pad. That would get them thicker fans so higher wattage CPU and GPU's than the airs.
View attachment 296183
Do you see the size of the CPU? Notice that it's not as large as the CPU in the MacBook Pros. This is because the CPU in the MacBook Air is an ultra-low voltage CPU designed for ultra-portibles. They do not make discrete GPUs designed for ultra-portables as (a) it's physically impossible and (b) most people using ultra-portables don't really need or care about the power that a discrete GPU would offer over the Intel HD 3000. If you want a discrete GPU, make it thicker, and if you're making it thicker, why not just have the same 15" MacBook Pro we have today?
Buy an external hard drive and rip the movies to your hard drive. Then when a disk driveless MacBook Pro comes around you'll still have access to all of those DVDs and could buy digital from there on.
This is still a major pain in the ass and at least an afternoon, if not two, of ripping DVDs. Not to mention a crap ton of hard drive space that otherwise wouldn't need to be spent.
Well, I don't agree with you and I'm sure there are a good number of others who feel the same way. The tone of your rhetoric sounds familiar and you may remember we had a "good" exchange back in January about the future of the 13" MacBooks when you were suggesting to many that the 13" MacBook Pro was going to be discontinued and that it would be replaced by an updated white MacBook.
In any case, here is what I said in January when we discussed the future of optical drives in the MacBooks.
So, we disagreed six months ago and nothing has changed since -- except the following:
1.) Apple essentially discontinues boxed software sales and shifts nearly all of the Apple-branded software distribution to the Mac App Store (including Final Cut X and Mac OS X Lion).
2.) Apple drops the optical drive from the newly redesigned Mac mini.
3.) Apple discontinues the consumer version of the white MacBook in favor of the newly upgraded MacBook Air.
Now tell me, whose arguments from this past January seem to be trending more toward fulfillment - yours or mine?
To be honest, I'd be a little surprised if Apple came out with a radically redesigned 15" MacBook before next year's Ivy Bridge CPU. That event (Ivy Bridge) is when I expect Apple to drop the optical drives from the MacBook Pro line. Ivy Bridge should be a true landmark in the evolution of the MacBook. We'll get a new compact form factor (i.e. no optical drive), better battery life, USB 3.0, a more mature version of Thunderbolt, and a much improved Intel integrated GPU (or IGP). We could also see a version of the 13" MacBook Pro that will include a discrete GPU (with the space saved from the removal of the optical drive, although Ivy Bridge's improved IGP could be good enough to satisfy the majority of users).
The most relevant thing you do in this comment is comment on how my predictions in January were wrong. Fair point, they were wrong. Now get off your high horse and talk about the 15" MacBook Air that the rest of us are talking about.
I think it will have a dedicated GPU. The 3000 IGP just isn't enough to power a 15" high-res screen
Clearly you don't know your tech. That IGP powers high res 15" screens in multiple low-end 15" machines all over the market. Unless you were being sarcastic in which case, fail on my part for not seeing it as someone who loves sarcasm himself.
