Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Notebook

[macphipsi]

This is what I want to see, and am sure they have already built one and are testing it.


A single wireless optical drive. Either stand alone or integrated into the airport extreme base station. It will work off of apple's great drive sharing tech and can be used by all the computers in my home. I can leave it in one location and access it from my MBA, my MBP, my iMac, and my MP.

this is the future. it will be fantastic.

 

[jmcguckin]

But do you really need to carry the optical drive around everywhere you go? It seems to me like the external optical drive is the best of all worlds--you can rip your 720kbps music at home if you want, but still have an ultrathin portable computer.

I probably don't, and frankly, I agree that it'd be better to stick with an external optical drive for those few times I'd need to import a CD/DVD, but it still seems awfully "clunky" to have an external drive hooked to the side of my computer when my desk space is already limited with my current setup... I'm sure it's something I'll adjust to once it becomes more necessary to make the switch away from optical media (or at least to a computer without an internal optical drive), but until then, I'll gladly hang on to what I have.

 

[Rychy]

I'm all for dropping the optical drive from MacBooks... the pros of not having it certainly outweigh the occasional use of an external.

Definitely hoping this is more of a MacBook Pro with Air like qualities. I'll be all over that.

Haven't they only updated the 15" Pro in the past?

 

[tripjammer]

Impossible to back up all 3 TB of my content on DVDs on a regular basis.

I have surge protectors, battery backups, and multiple hard drive for safety.

DVDs are definately dead....we use 32Gb USB drives now...DVDS take too long to burn and they get easily scratched. There will never be a bluray player in a mac...

 

[ALUOp]

I've been waiting for 15" MBA since day one!

 

[tripjammer]

This is what I want to see, and am sure they have already built one and are testing it.


A single wireless optical drive. Either stand alone or integrated into the airport extreme base station. It will work off of apple's great drive sharing tech and can be used by all the computers in my home. I can leave it in one location and access it from my MBA, my MBP, my iMac, and my MP.

this is the future. it will be fantastic.

Not gonna happen...optical drives are dead...but this is a good idea...You don't need optical media anymore....Make the Airport Extreme has SSD storage instead...

Much faster and more reliable.

 

[netdog]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)
Plus, an optical disc can last 20 years plus...

You're an optimist.

 

[314631]

People have been demanding a revolutionary new Mac from Apple for a long time. This 15" MacBook Air would be that product. I'm feeling the magic already.

 

[Marx55]

The purpose of the MacBook Air is not power; it is portability. Therefore what is needed is not a heavier and larger MacBook Air, but a lighter and smaller one! For power, just get a MacBook Pro.

 

[pmjoe]

Thunderbolt is targeted at totally different use cases than USB. USB will be around for a very long time as a lower performance port.

USB? Meh. It's called Bluetooth 4 and the iCloud.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Who seriously isn't using Time Machine by now? Why would anyone fiddle with manual DVD backups?

Hard drives fail but not simultaneously. It's ultimately a more reliable solution considering it is continuous so you never lose any data.

 

[daneoni]

I'm actually really happy with my MBP and it would have to be one heck of a product for me to be interested.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

Wow. Well, Jobs did say that this Air design was the design of the future. Not sure how much the pros will care for it, though. Probably as much as they liked the redesigned Final Cut Pro.

 

[monaarts]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

What does anyone need an optical drive in 2011 for? USB sticks FTW!

i'm glad you think of movies and music as disposable downloadable art

some of us don't, however, and kinda like having the means to play our stuff through our computer while on the go

Just a thought... What about making a digital copy of your DVDs??? You were probably the same person that cried about VHS going away... "now I need to rebuy all of my movies on DVD!?!?".

This is technology, it changes. Apple isn't going to keep making a computer for people like you who don't want the optical drive to go away. People like you is a very small portion of apples customers, I promise.

 

[alexexexex]

I woud never buy a laptop without an optical drive, i don't feel we are at the point where they should be totally phased out. I wouldent want to buy an external optical drive either. I realize I can use another computers drive but much of a hassle especially if I'm out it traveling. That is why I like the fact that they now give you the option with the MacBook air and just the standard MacBook and MacBook pros. And from what I know many students buy the lower end MacBooks and MacBook pros, and I'm telling you it would be a major deciding factor.

I'll never buy a stereo without a turntable/cassette deck/mini disc etc.

You can argue that it's too soon for Apple to be phasing it out but it is inevitable. I don't know when the last computer with a DVD drive will go (does anyone (mainstream) make a computer with floppy any more?) but it will happen.

 

[Yumunum]

This week I'm buying a 13" Air for $1,600...

The selfish side of me hopes the 15" "Air" is more expensive, that way I won't regret my purchase!

The logical side of me hopes all the 15" and 17" Pros come standard with 256GB SSDs and lose the optical drives. Without losing power. And for the same price.

But then how would Apple justify the higher prices for the Airs? We'd be back to square one, with the first gen Airs being insanely overpriced.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Wow. Well, Jobs did say that this Air design was the design of the future. Not sure how much the pros will care for it, though. Probably as much as they liked the redesigned Final Cut Pro.

Not all pros are photo and video people. I have absolutely zero need for DVD drive.

 

[Ryth]

You can upgrade the GPU in an iMac ... You can't in the MB P, simply because, like in most other laptop mobo's, the GPU is a part of the mobo. Maybe some alienware laptops or one of Asus's mobile gaming rigs supports for GPU upgrades, but not the sleek VIAO's or the MacBook Pro. Since you're talking about swapping the GPU's you've probably seen a 16x PCI-E bus. Even if the GPU in this laptop only uses 8 lanes, it's would still take up a gianormous amount of space, in comparison to any other part.

Oh I know the reason why, I just don't like it. Wish they'd come up with something, anything, where you could swap the graphics out and upgrade them somehow in these machines.

It's the big flaw with laptops.

Who knows..maybe the new Mac Pro desktop will be much smaller.

 

[koruki]

This spells bad news for my bank account, my dream macbook pro has always been a 15" MBA and now that they are on intel i7 with ssd by default its seems my dream will finally come true. Now what to do with my 2011 17" if it comes out.

 

[macphipsi]

Not gonna happen...optical drives are dead...but this is a good idea...You don't need optical media anymore....Make the Airport Extreme has SSD storage instead...

Much faster and more reliable.

Why would you want ssd built in? I'm not saying that I use my optical drive very often, but I would never cut it off completely as a tool. With a universal wireless drive, i can install programs that are too big to download, or rip local music from a cd. It would not be for storage, just sit in my office on a self, when I need it great, when I don't fine. But I don't have to move everything to plug it into my computer either.

 

[Tony5787]

To everyone who is complaining about the SSD not having enough storage, just use an external drive or two for file storage and store apps and the os on the built in SSD. The lack of ODD is kind of a bummer but then again there are downloads available from most major software manufacturers now so unless you really want to keep your discs, there isn't any reason why you would need the discs over a download. Sure you'll lose out on being able to burn CD's or rip DVD's but as far as CD's go, hardly anyone buys them anymore because the only thing that they do differently from MP3's or FLAC's is take up space. This laptop will be a welcome addition but I doubt I'd buy one because it will probably cost a ton unless Apple really skimps on parts.

 

[MrCrowbar]

Optical drive out, SSD in (keeping an hard drive for extra storage though), firewire and as many USB slots as you can fit and you got yourself a sweet machine. I love my 3 year old Macbook Pro 13", first one of the unibody kind, still runs great although the metal on the sharp edge at the palm rest is dissolving. Guess I have sandpaper skin on my forearms.

I guess I'll go with OSX Lion in a few months (when the applications catch up and the severe bugs are gone), then a new machine in a year or so. Wouldn't have thought I'd be happy with the same laptop for more than 3 years, cheaper PC laptops tend to fall apart within that time. Still working but the whole structure of the thing just decaying over time. I use my MBP an average of 12 hours a day and everything still works, battery, trackpad clicker, fans, you name it. These things are built to last and look like new once you clean them. Glass trackpad was the best idea ever along with a non-squeaking enclosure.

 

[Bubba Satori]

meh thinness is just another excuse to remove specs and make more money (new ipod nano *cough cough*)

And not make the iBiebers and iHannahs of the world sweat when they carry around their iChotchkies.

 

[dbam987]

I honestly was considering getting an MBA13 to replace my MBP13, but now that there's a whiff of a rumor of a 15" MBA I might hold off for a few months longer to see what transpires.

Optical drives are becoming less and less needed. I haven't used my MBP's optical drive in well over a year, and decided recently to swap it out with an opti-bay. I haven't looked back.

 

[NAG]

This is why I use a Mac Pro attached to a generator as my laptop – no thinness as an excuse here.