Apple No Longer Sells a Mac With a CD Drive

[oldmacs]

Saying I have no idea what I am talking about doesn't make it true nor does it make you correct. I know exactly what I am talking about and if the school can't afford to upgrade their hard drive they have several options, one they can delay their lifecycle, two not allow personal stuff on work machines, or three gonwith a competitors laptop. If you deny those are valid options then you have no idea what you're talking about.

You don't have a very good understanding of how IT works in a school based environment - your posts have demonstrated this. Of course schools have those options, but it does not take away from the fact that the non retina pro was a great machine for schools for many many reasons.

Please define "loose" a lot of education market share. Maybe start by looking up the definition of loose.

Oh wow, I made a typo. Please define "gonwith" - maybe look at your own posts before attacking mine.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

You don't have a very good understanding of how IT works in a school based environment - your posts have demonstrated this. Of course schools have those options, but it does not take away from the fact that the non retina pro was a great machine for schools for many many reasons.

Oh please, I have been the IT guy for a couple of Government agencies. Your refusal to move on and adapt is not Apple's fault.

 

[oldmacs]

Oh please, I have been the IT guy for a couple of Government agencies. Your refusal to move on and adapt is not Apple's fault.

I'm the IT guy for two schools. Change is not always better and schools do not have unlimited resources to adapt to things that have no real benefit. Just because Apple changes something does not mean the rest of the world follows. Non user replaceable components and non replaceable batteries don't even have anything to do with moving on and adapting.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

I'm the IT guy for two schools. Change is not always better and schools do not have unlimited resources to adapt to things that have no real benefit. Just because Apple changes something does not mean the rest of the world follows. Non user replaceable components and non replaceable batteries don't even have anything to do with moving on and adapting.

Start your own computer company, offer floppy disk options.

 

[oldmacs]

Start your own computer company, offer floppy disk options.

What does that even got to do with this?

Apple used to be good at pushing users away from technology that was severely outdated (floppy drives), now they decide something is outdated (Repairability/upgradability) and decide to get rid of it. Then people who defend Apple's every move go along and defend it.

 

[Wanted797]

I really hate how Apple can get away with charging $1,099 for a 4 year old laptop. I know many schools bought these for the optical drive, storage capacity, and ethernet port. It's a shame they were ripping them off for so long.

Schools typically get a bit of a discount.
[doublepost=1477739294][/doublepost]I'm sill repping an early 2011 model I bought when it came out. Upgraded to 256GB SSD a few years ago and 16GB of RAM. Still going strong

 

[jjlannoo]

I use a external super drive. but solely to burn cds for my jukebox

 

[moderngamenewb]

True, but my complaint here is that the price was the same when competitors had better products, and the cost of production was going down. Having the same price for 4 years with identical hardware is just pure greedy on Apple's part.

Our school handed out MacBook's to teachers to use at school and home. Many used the optical drive, and going from a 500GB mechanical drive to the new smaller solid state drives with no optical or ethernet ports would have been a huge pain. Getting an external one is just an extra cost, but something we considered.


I miss that, I just wish the processor and GPU was ugpradable.

I remember I was going to get my old 2010 MacBook Pro's memory card upgraded from 2gigs to 4gigs. Apple wanted like 200 or a bit more for it, I found a third party Apple reseller that was authorized by Apple as there was no Apple Store where I was after I had moved for school), and between buying the ram, and getting it serviced, it was only like $75-$100

 

[GMarcoTavazzani]

I have a MacBook Pro with a 2.9 i7- 8gigs of Ram and a 1 TB SSD ... works great.

The new Macs have a faster drive and a 2.9 processor and a gimmick touch bar.

Apple has really stopped innovating

Not 'Apple' but STEVE was innovating; Apple is adding earth on the grave of Steve, 'just in case' he would come back!!!
[doublepost=1485959236][/doublepost]

I LOVE my mid 2012 MacBook Pro. I also upgraded the SSD myself and it's like a brand new machine. I'm sure Apple will force it out of upgrade with a new OS soon.

The prices on the new machines are silly. They LOVE making them so hard to upgrade now too. I'm also in the school of being frustrated with the removal of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7.

Things at Apple are moving in the wrong direction. Ive and Phil need to go. I know people will beat me to death for that comment, though I don't care. I really enjoyed Apple products because they were great, worked well and delivered what customers wanted. Today things are buggy, need 10 different adapters and they are pushing customers to change when it's not needed (don't give me the stupid CD ROM excuse).

My humble opinions.

Vote NO on 15!
- Revenge of the Nerds.

When my Samsung Evo 840 died suddenly without any warn nor any way to recover it, I did realise that a second drive, fully mirrored and ready to switch on it was the very best solution to never more have to fear these SSD failures.
So I put a second drive in the CD slot and am happy!
But what next? HOW will I do it again now?
Am I the only one who believes that having a second 'clone SSD' INSIDE our Macs would be the wisest and easiest way to be safe and any moment 'switch ready'?
Naturally, the survived 'Apple engineers GENIUSES' didn't think about it (maybe they never thought at all; the only one able to think on the computer scene was Steve by DECADES!) so I'm really thinking to switch to a 'Hackintosh'!!!
But with which operating system clone? After the 10.6 Snow Leopard also the systems and the interfaces started to be ill and following Steve's destiny!

 

[magicschoolbus]

Not 'Apple' but STEVE was innovating; Apple is adding earth on the grave of Steve, 'just in case' he would come back!!!
[doublepost=1485959236][/doublepost]
When my Samsung Evo 840 died suddenly without any warn nor any way to recover it, I did realise that a second drive, fully mirrored and ready to switch on it was the very best solution to never more have to fear these SSD failures.
So I put a second drive in the CD slot and am happy!
But what next? HOW will I do it again now?
Am I the only one who believes that having a second 'clone SSD' INSIDE our Macs would be the wisest and easiest way to be safe and any moment 'switch ready'?
Naturally, the survived 'Apple engineers GENIUSES' didn't think about it (maybe they never thought at all; the only one able to think on the computer scene was Steve by DECADES!) so I'm really thinking to switch to a 'Hackintosh'!!!
But with which operating system clone? After the 10.6 Snow Leopard also the systems and the interfaces started to be ill and following Steve's destiny!

I purchased an External that I backup via Time Machine constantly. It's important to have a backup - Apple shouldn't be responsible to make sure people are backing up their data. The user needs to make that decision and be responsible.

 

[zaaach48]

I really hate how Apple can get away with charging $1,099 for a 4 year old laptop. I know many schools bought these for the optical drive, storage capacity, and ethernet port. It's a shame they were ripping them off for so long.

Schools can get them cheaper via Apple's education channels
[doublepost=1485972798][/doublepost]

Not 'Apple' but STEVE was innovating; Apple is adding earth on the grave of Steve, 'just in case' he would come back!!!
[doublepost=1485959236][/doublepost]
When my Samsung Evo 840 died suddenly without any warn nor any way to recover it, I did realise that a second drive, fully mirrored and ready to switch on it was the very best solution to never more have to fear these SSD failures.
So I put a second drive in the CD slot and am happy!
But what next? HOW will I do it again now?
Am I the only one who believes that having a second 'clone SSD' INSIDE our Macs would be the wisest and easiest way to be safe and any moment 'switch ready'?
Naturally, the survived 'Apple engineers GENIUSES' didn't think about it (maybe they never thought at all; the only one able to think on the computer scene was Steve by DECADES!) so I'm really thinking to switch to a 'Hackintosh'!!!
But with which operating system clone? After the 10.6 Snow Leopard also the systems and the interfaces started to be ill and following Steve's destiny!

LOL wow buddy better do some studying...Apple hasn't put out an OS on a disc since 2010. When Lion came out, they shipped with a USB thumb drive with the OS on it. Once USB 3 became standard, this is better than using a CD because it's faster and smaller and harder to damage.

Every Mac has a hidden recovery partition on its internal disk that contains a fresh copy of the OS to restore from. Just hold down Command-R at startup to boot to it. Now if your SSD fails entirely, which is rare, then you are kinda up the creek unless you created a recovery USB drive yourself (simple google search will yield instructions.) But this is really no different than if your hard drive failed, you likely wouldn't be able restore the OS on it anyway, so in the end, you are basically in the same position.

Why don't you do some research before blabbering nonsense all over the forum which displays how uninformed you are
[doublepost=1485973279][/doublepost]

Not as easy as that. Schools bought them for many reasons besides the optical drive and Apple was greedy enough not to spec bump it.
[doublepost=1477602391][/doublepost]

Schools don't really need a spec bump....working in a school that has a couple hundred macs deployed, we RARELY use the disc drives, none of them use more than 100gb of disk space, almost all use is web-based learning modules and games that don't need excessive processing power or RAM. We use them for reliability, security, ease of use. Many of our MacBooks are still 2009-2010 models that still run fine except the occasional hard drive failure. iPads and Chromebooks are more popular these days in EDU for this reason.

They could have updated it and made it a non horrible experience. One of these with a SSD is one of the best Macs you could have as longs portability isn't your main requirement.
[doublepost=1477602528][/doublepost]

Yea I have one I bought in 2012, i7, 8gb RAM, removed optical drive and moved the HDD to that bay and installed an SSD. Runs great, still does everything I need it to do for music production

Many people still like to use SD cards and optical drives - can't see how it personally effected you for some people to continue using these.

[doublepost=1485973349][/doublepost]

I'm going to do the same to mine. Except I couldn't loosen the screws off the cover so I'm taking it to the Apple Store to try and get them removed.
Then I'll add an ssd and some more ram.

phillips 00 screwdriver

 

[MisterAndrew]

Apple resumed selling the non-Retina MacBook Pro with a CD drive.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD101LL/A/133-inch-macbook-pro-25ghz-dual-core-intel-i5

 

[talmy]

Apple resumed selling the non-Retina MacBook Pro with a CD drive.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD101LL/A/133-inch-macbook-pro-25ghz-dual-core-intel-i5

But it's a clearance item. Once they are sold out, they are gone.

 

[Mac 128]

But it's a clearance item. Once they are sold out, they are gone.

Yet they're still selling it for $1099!

Must be cheaper to keep them in inventory than take a loss on the already high margins.

I bought a replacement last year through B&H and paid $999, with a free gift. The thing is now discontinued, and Apple is still charging full retail.

 

[talmy]

Yet they're still selling it for $1099!

Must be cheaper to keep them in inventory than take a loss on the already high margins.

I bought a replacement last year through B&H and paid $999, with a free gift. The thing is now discontinued, and Apple is still charging full retail.

Price is based on what people are willing to pay. If you want a Mac with a DVD drive, upgradable hard drive, or RAM, this is your only choice.

 

[Mac 128]

Price is based on what people are willing to pay. If you want a Mac with a DVD drive, upgradable hard drive, or RAM, this is your only choice.

I'll just add that the first one I was shipped had a defective thunderbolt port. The second one they shipped had a lose glass display in which the bottom of the display fell forward when I closed the lid. Turns out I just pressed it against the case, and the adhesive reattached to it. Can't imagine how it separated to begin with.

Not only is it overpriced old technology, they apparently have their worst people assembling it.

 

[HaloKatze74]

Oh please give me a break I know exactly what I am talking about. It doesn't matter what you think, next time the school life cycles their machines they will have to adapt, that is the bottom line. Either with the new Macs or a competitor's product. That is a fact, and like I have stated, there are ways to work around the changes. Just because you won't accept them doesn't mean it isn't true.

Geez you sound like such an arrogant a$$ with every comment.

 

[Guy Clark]

I remember when people were yelling "There's no floppy drive on my computer", it doesn't last long, but yes a USB drive helps through the transition.

There is now a difference though which makes the Floppy argument moot.

Yes the exclusion of the Superdrive is one thing but to provide USB-C only as on the latest MacBook Pro necessitates the consumer to purchase docking solutions which otherwise would have not been needed had USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt 2 ports been present alongside USB-C.

For many not having USB 3.0 ports is a showstopper as the vast majority of peripherals are still USB 3.0 and are likely to be so for some time yet.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

Geez you sound like such an arrogant a$$ with every comment.

Someone piss in your cheerios?
[doublepost=1518395823][/doublepost]

There is now a difference though which makes the Floppy argument moot.

Yes the exclusion of the Superdrive is one thing but to provide USB-C only as on the latest MacBook Pro necessitates the consumer to purchase docking solutions which otherwise would have not been needed had USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt 2 ports been present alongside USB-C.

For many not having USB 3.0 ports is a showstopper as the vast majority of peripherals are still USB 3.0 and are likely to be so for some time yet.

There is a simple little adapter if you need it. I get the possible inconvenience for some people but it is what it is. Complain to Apple if it's a problem for you. I doubt they are going to change their mind for a few complaints.

 

[JosephAW]

I wish there was a reverse USB-C to Thunderbolt adaptor so we could use these new devices on older MBPs.
I'd be happy with 20Gbps on the older ports.

 

[carestudio]

I thought you could use Apple's USB-C to USB-A dongle to connect to SuperDrive?

 

[TheAppleFairy]

I thought you could use Apple's USB-C to USB-A dongle to connect to SuperDrive?

That's correct.

 

[Dubdrifter]

I bought my first Macbook Pro in the Snow Leopard era ….when the software was truly Pro and the connectivity was truly Pro ……so many options on those machines ….. most of the slots and plugs get little use ….. but I am glad they are there for the days I find an old bit of kit on a shelf, or a friend comes around wanting to plug in or burn something of an older generation ….. the Swiss Army Knife MBP just does it with no messing or messages saying …. not compatible with this OS.

If Apple was ahead of the curve, they would have replaced the CD/DVD with a Vinyl player …… I hear that is the NEW overpriced way people play music these days! …… £25 for a re-issue vinyl copy of Sgt Pepper anyone?

I will dump Apple products before I dump my CD's ….. purely on reliability and ease of use.

 

[neoelectronaut]

I've been watching a lot of old WWDC and Macworld Keynotes lately and it's fascinating how much CD, CD-RW, and DVDs were lauded.

Of course that was almost 20 years ago.

 

[Dubdrifter]

Some people treasure the best formats from the past, their ease of use, practicality ….. retro in architecture and design also has it's fans ….. where would you rather go on holiday ….. Paris or Milton Keynes.