To all those people saying "Why do they still include a DVD drive? or They'll be out of date soon - who uses CD's?... Just how ignorant can you get?!
Given these are 'supposed' to be Professional products, a DVD drive is the first feature you'd have on the list in terms of make-up. I study audio technology at University, and for all the countless people that have the MacBook's here, a laptop without a CD drive is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. We burn discs every week, as do the Film students, photography students... Just because, as an individual, you don't need the drive does not mean everyone else feels the same way. Compact Discs have a long future, but even that is only based on whether Philips continue to support the rights.
Although I'm sure Jobs would want Blu-Ray support, you are all forgetting that when he referred to "a bag of hurt", he was talking in retrospect of the legal situation. Sony haven't just handed over the rights to Blu-Ray technology willingly - this is business, and they are competing. The only consolation as far as this situation is concerned is that The Times suggested Apple were investigating a 'loop-hole' in the rights to use Blu-Ray - an already long and expensive process.
Then their is the question of how Apple would distribute Blu-Ray drives. Even 2/3 years ago, it was standard to have the choice of the silly 'Combo-Drive' or the 'Super-Drive' on MacBooks, and I would imagine the same situation will occur should Apple find rights; to upgrade to the Blu-Ray drive will cost. This isn't solely because Apple are stingy - its because they need to find out whether there is a market or a need for Blu-Ray within the consumer domain. I still wouldn't mind a better quality drive, however - these are anything but 'Super'.
But even if all this is true... Apple then still needs to develop their own Software to support the Blu-Ray drives. 'DVD Player' will probably be replaced by a universal DVD/Blu program, as well as a number of other OS X updates. These updates are not going to be typical downloads - they are part of the core OS, and I can imagine them being implemented in 10.7.
So, as you can see, its ok ranting "Just put the drives in!!!!!", but it's no means a simple process.
Reflecting on todays updates, I'm not too surprised by the changes, but they were quite average. It's unbelievable that the 13" MacBook Pro still only has one Audio In/Out combo jacket. This is a company so tight that, to quote Ferris Bueller, if you stuck a lump of coal in their butt, they could make it into a diamond. All that available space and they can't even provide one extra audio jack.
The 13" MacBook Pro was never in a million years going to get an i5/i7 CPU either simply because of the space constraints, and the need for better ventilation (hence why Apple made the iMac 27", so that their was room for adequate convection). It's a catch 22 situation - they're lovely machines, but they're never going to be as powerful as the 15"/17". Plus, Apple know that if you want this power, you'll have to spend more....
People also forget that they're rarely using these CPU's to the max - they're just attracted by Apples marketing that, "Hey, these are the most powerful MacBooks ever!" [eerm, aren't they always after each update?] and lots of pretty names and number provided by intel. Unless you're absolutely serious about your work and push programs to the max, you're never going to get value from updating your machine. I think a lot of impressionable people just like to feel the need of having a 'powerful' sucker in their room, for the feeling of owning power. Well, I've been using a White MacBook 2.1ghz for Logic productions, DJ gigs and animation for over 2 years. Go figure!
Solid-State-Drive technology is still quite pricey, so again I'm disappointed with the upgrade prices, but its really not shocking. Best two new features which I think some have overlooked:
- Support for Apple iPhone headset with microphone (i.e iPod Touch/iPhone headphones)
- Stereo speakers with subwoofers (Hopefully, an improvement over the horrible tinny, flat output before.
Given these are 'supposed' to be Professional products, a DVD drive is the first feature you'd have on the list in terms of make-up. I study audio technology at University, and for all the countless people that have the MacBook's here, a laptop without a CD drive is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. We burn discs every week, as do the Film students, photography students... Just because, as an individual, you don't need the drive does not mean everyone else feels the same way. Compact Discs have a long future, but even that is only based on whether Philips continue to support the rights.
Although I'm sure Jobs would want Blu-Ray support, you are all forgetting that when he referred to "a bag of hurt", he was talking in retrospect of the legal situation. Sony haven't just handed over the rights to Blu-Ray technology willingly - this is business, and they are competing. The only consolation as far as this situation is concerned is that The Times suggested Apple were investigating a 'loop-hole' in the rights to use Blu-Ray - an already long and expensive process.
Then their is the question of how Apple would distribute Blu-Ray drives. Even 2/3 years ago, it was standard to have the choice of the silly 'Combo-Drive' or the 'Super-Drive' on MacBooks, and I would imagine the same situation will occur should Apple find rights; to upgrade to the Blu-Ray drive will cost. This isn't solely because Apple are stingy - its because they need to find out whether there is a market or a need for Blu-Ray within the consumer domain. I still wouldn't mind a better quality drive, however - these are anything but 'Super'.
But even if all this is true... Apple then still needs to develop their own Software to support the Blu-Ray drives. 'DVD Player' will probably be replaced by a universal DVD/Blu program, as well as a number of other OS X updates. These updates are not going to be typical downloads - they are part of the core OS, and I can imagine them being implemented in 10.7.
So, as you can see, its ok ranting "Just put the drives in!!!!!", but it's no means a simple process.
Reflecting on todays updates, I'm not too surprised by the changes, but they were quite average. It's unbelievable that the 13" MacBook Pro still only has one Audio In/Out combo jacket. This is a company so tight that, to quote Ferris Bueller, if you stuck a lump of coal in their butt, they could make it into a diamond. All that available space and they can't even provide one extra audio jack.
The 13" MacBook Pro was never in a million years going to get an i5/i7 CPU either simply because of the space constraints, and the need for better ventilation (hence why Apple made the iMac 27", so that their was room for adequate convection). It's a catch 22 situation - they're lovely machines, but they're never going to be as powerful as the 15"/17". Plus, Apple know that if you want this power, you'll have to spend more....
People also forget that they're rarely using these CPU's to the max - they're just attracted by Apples marketing that, "Hey, these are the most powerful MacBooks ever!" [eerm, aren't they always after each update?] and lots of pretty names and number provided by intel. Unless you're absolutely serious about your work and push programs to the max, you're never going to get value from updating your machine. I think a lot of impressionable people just like to feel the need of having a 'powerful' sucker in their room, for the feeling of owning power. Well, I've been using a White MacBook 2.1ghz for Logic productions, DJ gigs and animation for over 2 years. Go figure!
Solid-State-Drive technology is still quite pricey, so again I'm disappointed with the upgrade prices, but its really not shocking. Best two new features which I think some have overlooked:
- Support for Apple iPhone headset with microphone (i.e iPod Touch/iPhone headphones)
- Stereo speakers with subwoofers (Hopefully, an improvement over the horrible tinny, flat output before.
