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macbook pro 2012 refresh

M

MR.BUTTON

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 2, 2012
83
0
Vancouver,Canada and Shanghai,China
hi guys.i'm planning to buy a 2012 MBA or MBP.the rumors indicates the new MBP will NOT feature a superdrive. do you think it's possible?it is definitely necessary in MBPs. we still burn some CDs,install software and play movies through the optical drive.
any ideas will be helpful:D
 
MR.BUTTON said:
hi guys.i'm planning to buy a 2012 MBA or MBP.the rumors indicates the new MBP will NOT feature a superdrive. do you think it's possible?it is definitely necessary in MBPs. we still burn some CDs,install software and play movies through the optical drive.
any ideas will be helpful:D
Click to expand...

I think it's very possible, physical media is definitely losing traction as technology moves forward and flash drives/solid state technology provides more space. Wireless technology has also moved forward to provide easier ways to transfer information. If it's still necessary for you to have one, I would suspect a superdrive will be provided for sale by Apple as a supplemental product for the niche consumer that still uses physical media, assuming the Pro is not released with one.

Like they did with the air:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC684ZM/A

Also jokes aside, I wouldn't bother stocking up. I can still buy blank VHS tapes if I want to, not that I do. But you get the point. :D
 
The Superdrive is just taking up space and adding weight really....I need an optical drive in my iMac, and I bought the external for my MBA and used it so far once, to install Office.

Larger, more reliable SSD's which are lighter as well, will help phase out DVD and optical media within the next 5 years or so IMO.
 
Macman45 said:
The Superdrive is just taking up space and adding weight really....I need an optical drive in my iMac, and I bought the external for my MBA and used it so far once, to install Office.

Larger, more reliable SSD's which are lighter as well, will help phase out DVD and optical media within the next 5 years or so IMO.
Click to expand...

I agree, optical media is definitely going to eventually pass as a norm and probably cross into a very limited niche down the line. New technology has almost completely surpassed it as it is. I'm actually looking forward to this, it actually helps to simplify peoples lives when you take out unneeded physical items such as optical media.

I'm sure most of us, at this time probably have a stack of burned optical media that we need to go through at some point. I've abandoned the platform personally, in favor of the USB flash drive and cloud services (such as dropbox). Even DVD seems to be giving way to digital services for entertainment. If it's removed, at least for me, it will be a breath of fresh air.
 
MR.BUTTON said:
hi guys.i'm planning to buy a 2012 MBA or MBP.the rumors indicates the new MBP will NOT feature a superdrive. do you think it's possible?it is definitely necessary in MBPs. we still burn some CDs,install software and play movies through the optical drive.
any ideas will be helpful:D
Click to expand...

I find it hard to believe you are truly worried about the OD but I have a question for you, do you born cds on the move? :p
 
An Optical drive can be useful, but its days are numbered and at some point apple is going to drop it. I think the rumors of its demise on this impending refresh are credible. I think 99% of the needs can be address with an optical drive.

I only use my optical when flashing some firmware on my SSD which is a rarity
 
Bah, I'm actually upset about the lack of OD as well. I live in a suburb, but decent internet stops 1 house away (no joke) so we're stuck with one provider who offers 300KB/s download MAX. (up until 3 months ago all we had was 120KB/s down). I'm cool if they start switching to flash drives or whatever, but I still like my media on something physical. It's much faster for me to drive the 15 miles to Best Buy or whatever, buy product x, drive 15 miles back, and install it, rather than download anything over 500 MB. And in answer to the obvious external drive poking me in the face, what if I prefer to install everything while I'm in my car speeding along the freeway at 85mph (while drinking coffee and smoking and reading the paper)? I also travel a lot and bringing an external drive seems like such a pain. That's like, what… 5oz? I like having my old school CD case where I can choose DVDs to watch on the plane too. Sometimes I bring my VCR. Nothing says, "I should be in first class" like a VCR and 20 tapes in your carry-on.
 
mcman77 said:
I have a question for you: do you born CDs on the move? :p
Click to expand...

This is the key point as of why I bet Apple will ditch the DVD drive on the next upgrade: A) USB DVD drives are super cheap (like $40) so you can still use it while at your desk, and B) very few people would be burning DVDs on the move.

It's time to free valuable room in the MBP by removing the DVD drive.
 
rip your current optical media to .iso files, store them on a portable hard drive (or ideally, RAID1 NAS), and you've just saved yourself a heap of space and gained a heap of convenience (optical media = SLOW).

Buy future media online, or even better - stream it. On average i might watch a DVD 2-3 times for example, usually within 48 hrs. If i need to re-rent a stream of it a few times it is still cheaper than purchasing a DVD.

It is quite possible to live without optical media, but for the occasional times you may need it, external drives are cheap.
 
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