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I hope the new MacBook Pros still have DVD drives. I know people will say "but waahhhh I never use mine!" Well, what about the plenty of people who's laptops are their portable DVD players?

I'm sure the MacBook Pros won't merge with the MacBook Airs as the Pros aren't designed to be thin, so the same sacrifices won't be made with the Pros as is made with the Airs. For example, MacBook Pro hard drives will still be min 500GB.

If you need it, buy it, it will not come with one
 
It's quite baffling that Apple fans, people who claim to care about quality, say such idiotic things as "blu-ray is dying" or "blu-ray is dead". Apple fans supposedly buy Macs because of "quality" so why don't they want the absolute best in video quality for movies and other types of video?

There is absolutely no alternative to blu-ray at the moment. Nothing even comes close. iTunes HD downloads? Half the resolution and 1/10th the bit-rate, using the same video encoding. On Demand stuff from your cable/video provider? Almost always MPEG-2 at around 15Mbps, or lower bit-rate H.264. Netflix? Barely in the same league as iTunes HD video.

If you claim to buy a Mac because of the overall "quality" then its quite hypocritical of you to not want the absolute best in other things too, such as wanting blu-ray support.

I know some say "thats what my home theater is for". And as I've explained many times before, there are millions upon millions of legitimate reasons why one might want to watch a movie on their computer.

It's going to be an extremely long time before there is even a real "alternative" to blu-ray disc that has even remotely similar video quality. Internet connection speeds being able to stream that kind of quality of video are currently extremely expensive and, in some cases, capped. There is just no real alternative or competition to blu-ray disc. None. If you care about quality, blu-ray disc is the only way to go.

Also, who still actually believes there was a "pro" market for Apple products? The whole "Pro" nonsense out of Apple has always just been a way to sell people even more expensive hardware. Apple's "Pro" machines are completely lackluster compared to real "pro" machines from other hardware vendors. The MacBook "Pro" has always been just a consumer machine with a metal case and a higher price tag. Same goes for the Mac "Pro".

Never happen. I doubt Apple would buy into the DRM schema. OTOH, Apple could make an ODD thinner.

What DRM scheme? All of the DRM blu-ray disc uses is already built-in to iTunes, Mac OS X, and DisplayPort. They already have MPEG-2 and H.264 licenses and decoding. Blu-ray license fees are all a one stop shop now. Every Mac with a dedicated GPU from the Radeon HD 2000 series, GeForce 8000 series, or integrated GPU starting with the 9400M is capable of decoding all of the video formats used by blu-ray disc in hardware. There literally is absolutely no reason Apple cannot support blu-ray disc.
 
No way Apple will make the whole line of laptops like the Air, I know to many people that use the 15 inch MacBook Pro as a primary machine, myself included and would go nuts with solid state drives and no optical drive. My music collection alone wouldnt fit on the high end MacBook Air!

It's happening, pick your size, 11-17, need an optical drive, buy it, Period!
 
I use my MBA for my PROfession all the time, works tons better than the EliteBook work gives me.

I think some of you have quite an overall limited of what PRO actually stands for.

Professional - Lots and lots and lots and lots AND LOTS of ports. (Apparently) Your workstation and data centre isn't a truly professional until it looks like a bomb exploded and your cabling is all over the floor.

That 20 dollar USB hub is more professional than your MBA.
 
Here are my predictions:

MacBook Pro 13, 15, 17 get dropped.

Macbook Air rebranded MacBook

------------

All Macbooks will have:


128GB SSD minimum

4GB Ram minimum (upgradable to at least 8GB)

Thunderbolt port

USB port(s)

SD card slot (except for 11 inch)

Audio In/Out

HD Facetime Camera

Microphone

Backlit-keyboard

----------

What Macbooks will not have:


Firewire, not even twice as fast as USB 2 and a fraction of Thunderbolt speed

Ethernet Port - the majority don't need them and next generation wireless technology is just around the corner.

Traditional hard drives - SSD is the future, especially for laptops.

Internal DVD super drive - if you need one buy external. If you need it on the go, rip the DVD/movie.

------

For those who think Apple cares about its professional market, think again. Look at the Mac Pro. It's the flagship Apple computer, and it hasn't even gotten thunderbolt - a technology that wast touted as being amazing for video editing and the likes. It hasn't been updated in nearly 18 months and it might never see another update. Remember the first thing Steve Jobs did when he came back to Apple. He cut products, afraid the company would become too fragmented. The Mac Pro no longer first on Apple's business concept. (Plus, they will need more room in the Apple Stores for all those ixxxxxx products and MacBooks.)

Finally a voice from the wilderness!
 
I use my optical drive daily- patients come in with their MRIs on DVD instead of bringing in films. BUT, I can now just as easily access these files through a HIPPA-compliant web portal and not even bother with the hard copy. Just need to get off my duff and get to it. My late 2008 MBP15 is due for an upgrade....

btw- I don't see Apple dropping the MacBook Pro name down to just "MacBook," because that previously denoted a lower feature line of laptops. Somehow the are going to incorporate an i-something kind of name, though obviously "iBook" is not it.
 
It's quite baffling that Apple fans, people who claim to care about quality, say such idiotic things as "blu-ray is dying" or "blu-ray is dead". Apple fans supposedly buy Macs because of "quality" so why don't they want the absolute best in video quality for movies and other types of video?

There is absolutely no alternative to blu-ray at the moment. Nothing even comes close. iTunes HD downloads? Half the resolution and 1/10th the bit-rate, using the same video encoding. On Demand stuff from your cable/video provider? Almost always MPEG-2 at around 15Mbps, or lower bit-rate H.264. Netflix? Barely in the same league as iTunes HD video.

Sadly barely anyone knows what real HD video looks like since people have had their tastes dulled by increasingly over-compressed garbage from just about every outlet. Heck, a properly remastered DVD has almost as good video quality as the stuff multicasting OTA networks and pay tv providers claim as HD.
 
I'd be interested to see if Apple makes a docking solution. Intel HD graphics on the go, and then dedicated card on your workplace desk.

Would it go into a TBD..? [TBD Pro, matte hi-res, IPS, Dedicated Graphics... removable..?]

Would they make a separate product?

Would they just not do it?
 
I hope the new MacBook Pros still have DVD drives. I know people will say "but waahhhh I never use mine!" Well, what about the plenty of people who's laptops are their portable DVD players?

I'm sure the MacBook Pros won't merge with the MacBook Airs as the Pros aren't designed to be thin, so the same sacrifices won't be made with the Pros as is made with the Airs. For example, MacBook Pro hard drives will still be min 500GB.

Wow, downvoted for this?? It's a fair comment, some people may actually want to use their 'pro' laptop for high end tasks which doesn't bode well if you're having to compromise to get components into a slimmer shell. GPU comes to mind.

I agree that some of us do still use optical media, specifically those of us that use our laptops to watch a film on DVD - but obviously not Bluray, cos Apple have decided that we wouldn't use those. The main reason being that streaming doesn't always work on broadband, with glitching and buffering at 'busy internet times'.

I'm not holding my breath though. Apple are pretty much out of the 'pro' market, so expect a slim, big screen air, with slimmed down spec. It's going to be thin-tastic.
 
I said it before and I'll say it again: MacBook Pros and Airs will be merged into one line of notebooks with the Air's form factor in sizes 11", 13", and 15". The 17" will be axed and they will be called "MacBook" or a new name altogether. Change is coming, folks. You can't expect things to stay the same forever.
 
Here's the thing - I do think that it makes sense that everything will eventually end up in a slimmer form factor with SSD's. Optical drives are basically dead.

HOWEVER, there's still one huge problem - storage space. What will the MBP options be for people that need more than 256gb of hard drive space?

SSD's above that point are nowhere near reasonably priced. I don't see how they are going to get around that unless they can somehow fit a 2.5" HD in the air form factor.
 
It's quite baffling that Apple fans, people who claim to care about quality, say such idiotic things as "blu-ray is dying" or "blu-ray is dead". Apple fans supposedly buy Macs because of "quality" so why don't they want the absolute best in video quality for movies and other types of video?

There is absolutely no alternative to blu-ray at the moment. Nothing even comes close. iTunes HD downloads? Half the resolution and 1/10th the bit-rate, using the same video encoding. On Demand stuff from your cable/video provider? Almost always MPEG-2 at around 15Mbps, or lower bit-rate H.264. Netflix? Barely in the same league as iTunes HD video.

If you claim to buy a Mac because of the overall "quality" then its quite hypocritical of you to not want the absolute best in other things too, such as wanting blu-ray support.

I know some say "thats what my home theater is for". And as I've explained many times before, there are millions upon millions of legitimate reasons why one might want to watch a movie on their computer.

It's going to be an extremely long time before there is even a real "alternative" to blu-ray disc that has even remotely similar video quality. Internet connection speeds being able to stream that kind of quality of video are currently extremely expensive and, in some cases, capped. There is just no real alternative or competition to blu-ray disc. None. If you care about quality, blu-ray disc is the only way to go.

Also, who still actually believes there was a "pro" market for Apple products? The whole "Pro" nonsense out of Apple has always just been a way to sell people even more expensive hardware. Apple's "Pro" machines are completely lackluster compared to real "pro" machines from other hardware vendors. The MacBook "Pro" has always been just a consumer machine with a metal case and a higher price tag. Same goes for the Mac "Pro".



What DRM scheme? All of the DRM blu-ray disc uses is already built-in to iTunes, Mac OS X, and DisplayPort. They already have MPEG-2 and H.264 licenses and decoding. Blu-ray license fees are all a one stop shop now. Every Mac with a dedicated GPU from the Radeon HD 2000 series, GeForce 8000 series, or integrated GPU starting with the 9400M is capable of decoding all of the video formats used by blu-ray disc in hardware. There literally is absolutely no reason Apple cannot support blu-ray disc.

Blu-ray is so far from Dead
 
wow

well if they do this and drop the ODD and make the macbook pro's smaller then i will not upgrade too them i have early 2011 13" 2.7 i7 macbook pro best money i have spent the last 3-4 years and i till be a 1 year old march 14-17
so with that said im goin to go and trade in my early 2011 for a late 2011 13" macbook pro 2.8 i7 macbook pro with 750gig hard drive and just save up fro 16 gigs of memory it will last me 2-4 year cause i only use my macbookpro for video editing and pics uploading
APPLE WHY ARE U RUINING AN ALREADY PERFECT MACHINE LINE TO MAKE THEM SUPPER SKINNY AND LAME, THERE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO USE THERE DVD DRIVES BUT THIS DIGITAL MEDIA BS IS LAME IM 29 AND IMA AWARE THAT TECHNOLOGY CHANGES EVERY 2-3 YEARS BUT APPLE COME ON!!!!!

HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THE NEW MACBOOK PRO AIR's OR WHATEVER THEY ARE CALLED
I LIKE MY LAPTOP THICK NOT SKINNY LIKE RAZORs
 
Funny how things come around...didn't we already have similar back in 2001/02...was called 15.2" Titanium PowerBook G4

15-inch-titanium-powerbook.jpg
 
Meh, I'm pretty happy with my current model 13" MBP. If it ends up being a lot more awesome than this then I'll buy it eventually but definitely not when it first comes out. Hell, I know people still using Titanium G4 Powerbooks lol.
 
Love the current design but I agree that it's time for an update. If all the MacBook Pro's and Air's have the same design, I don't know why the 13inch MacBook Pro would stick around anymore.
 
Would like to see the new redesign can't wait to see that but won't buy since I already bought one in 2010 and is running fine don't need to spend right now through :)
 
Hope this is not going to happen...

I wouldn't be happy with my 17'' with an Air shape and maybe even reduced performance because of that.
 
Without optical drives they're going to loss a ton of potential buyers; despite this forums bias, that's really just a simple fact. Will it matter enough to stop Apple, maybe not; point is still valid though.

IMO Apple really isn't innovating anything these days, yes they still make nice products and yes sometimes they come up with something new but it always seems to come at the expense of something else. In this day and age is it really that difficult to make things optional? Is it really that difficult to allow people choose between an ODD or larger battery, another HDD/SSD, blu-ray and etcetera? Is it really that hard to leave features from snow leopard and previous operating systems, simply adding new ones to it instead of always changing things and taking things away, it's not like we don't have the hard drive space now days. It seems for every good thing they do they mess something up for others. IMO, this whole iPod, iPhone, iPad stuff has completely blinded Apple, it's sad to think of their true potential. Everything needs to be dumbed down, it needs to be smaller, it needs to look better quality issues be damned. I know I'll get down voted but honestly I really just don't get it; what's with the lack of options, it's 2012 for christ's sack!
 
I use my MBA for my PROfession all the time, works tons better than the EliteBook work gives me.

I think some of you have quite an overall limited of what PRO actually stands for.

Sure if you are a PROfessional janitor then a MBA will do. :D

Most media PROs (audio, video, photo) I know require GB Ethernet, Firewire, separate audio in/out ports etc. It is really a shame that Apple looks to continue to turn its back on those who really kept the platform alive during the lean years.
 
Here's the thing - I do think that it makes sense that everything will eventually end up in a slimmer form factor with SSD's. Optical drives are basically dead.

HOWEVER, there's still one huge problem - storage space. What will the MBP options be for people that need more than 256gb of hard drive space?

SSD's above that point are nowhere near reasonably priced. I don't see how they are going to get around that unless they can somehow fit a 2.5" HD in the air form factor.

Apple wants both consumers and developers to play in the sandbox they built. That is to say, iTunes Match keeps your music in the cloud, apps using the iCloud framework can store documents in the cloud and soon....just as with TV shows-movies will be stored int he cloud as well.

People seem to loathe this and I don't see why. I deleted all the music off my MBP and let it sit in the cloud to grab via my iphone or ATV2. My buddy had a catastrophic hard drive failure and now is out years of music that will be next to impossible to replace. I don't have that issue.

It seems to clear to me that Apple is working to shift user attitude from terabyte hard drives full of files to bare necessities and cloud storage. Adobe (who is seems late to most everything lately) now has Photoshop in the cloud with 20gb of storage too. I understand that hardcore Aperture/Light Room users can't take advantage of this yet, but I think they will soon.

Its not there yet, but I bet by this time next year they will be. And a few years from new we will all laugh about having 2tb hard drives on every device. I, personally like where this is going and embrace it.

:apple:
 
Without optical drives they're going to loss a ton of potential buyers; despite this forums bias, that's really just a simple fact. Will it matter enough to stop Apple, maybe not; point is still valid though.

IMO Apple really isn't innovating anything these days, yes they still make nice products and yes sometimes they come up with something new but it always seems to come at the expense of something else. In this day and age is it really that difficult to make things optional? Is it really that difficult to allow people choose between an ODD or larger battery, another HDD/SSD, blu-ray and etcetera? Is it really that hard to leave features from snow leopard and previous operating systems, simply adding new ones to it instead of always changing things and taking things away, it's not like we don't have the hard drive space now days. It seems for every good thing they do they mess something up for others. IMO, this whole iPod, iPhone, iPad stuff has completely blinded Apple, it's sad to think of their true potential. Everything needs to be dumbed down, it needs to be smaller, it needs to look better quality issues be damned. I know I'll get down voted but honestly I really just don't get it; what's with the lack of options, it's 2012 for christ's sack!

In reality Mac products are made for consuming Apple content. If the new MBP can browse social sites, fiddle around on the Internet, purchase and play Apple's medium quality downloads then it's just fine.

The people who are interested in advanced gaming, FLAC or BluRay are just not Apple's target anymore. We're better off moving on to more capable hardware and operating systems.
 
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