If you're kickin' it old school you can always get the tape casette to headphone jack to play music from your music player.
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Remove the CDROM Apple!
- Thread starter wankey
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If you're kickin' it old school you can always get the tape casette to headphone jack to play music from your music player.
you might as well just crank up the volume to your headphones rather than use a cassette adapter, it'll sound about the same(meaning horrid)
I am pretty sure the answer to this is yes, but does doing this void the warrantee? I hav a friend who did it w/ his older MBP after Apple Care ran out.
I bought the MBP over the MBA probably about 99% because of the presence of the optical drive. I would not see myself using a computer without an optical drive. I know that I could get an external, but who wants to lug around another piece of equipment? Plus, remove the OD and add a larger battery and you actually LOSE portability because you GAIN weight.
Earlier you said to just use your desktop, but many people no longer have desktops. We have one in our home, but it is actually my husband's PC. His iTunes account and all his music is on that computer. My iTunes account and all my music is on my laptop. We still buy hard copies of some CDs, so in order to get those into my iTunes I have to have a OD. I'm sorry, but I just don't think your average user at this point would be happy not having an OD.
Earlier you said to just use your desktop, but many people no longer have desktops. We have one in our home, but it is actually my husband's PC. His iTunes account and all his music is on that computer. My iTunes account and all my music is on my laptop. We still buy hard copies of some CDs, so in order to get those into my iTunes I have to have a OD. I'm sorry, but I just don't think your average user at this point would be happy not having an OD.
How many times when you aren't at home do you use the optical drive? Do you ever stick a music CD or any CD in your drive? If you had an airport extreme or similar wireless router with a usb port you could put the music on the external drive and plug it into the wireless router. I have a 1TB hooked to my Airport Extreme and when I need it I just select it as one of my network devices.
I don't think the average user was happy with losing the Floppy Drive
or
Ports constantly changing and becoming incompatible
or
Having different wall plugs in almost every country
or
Buying a MBA (I mean who buys MBAs they sooo aren't very popular)
or
Having to get a new computer to run Vista/7 over XP
or
Having to get a new computer to run Snow Leopard
I think the average user isn't very happy.
Exactly my thoughts. What are you going to tell people like your parents, aunt/uncleor the average joe who just wants to watch a movie on the computer?
Also want to note that I went from using my netbook as a main computer, to the MBP now. To be honest I barely used the external OD, but I still love knowing that I have it included within this machine and that I wouldnt have to attach soemthing else additionally. It was such a hassle -__-.
Basically: I like having the optical drive, go get the Air if you don't want it.
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I guess you ignored my comment completely.
Discrete GPU in a thin, metal, 13" laptop will easily overheat it and burn you.
Also, there's not enough USB ports for an external USB drive.
If Apple did take the external route, then they would have people complaining of lack of Blu-ray, because once the 9.5mm restriction is gone BDROM drives are viable options.
I do agree on the discrete SSD partition reserved for the system. Bootup is mad fast and you get big storage capacities.
The 13" does need some better graphics, but not a discrete one. A powerful IGP would do.
Do you listen to MP3/4 or do you listen to FLAC/ALAC/APE/CD?
I guess you ignored my comment completely.
Discrete GPU in a thin, metal, 13" laptop will easily overheat it and burn you.
Also, there's not enough USB ports for an external USB drive.
If Apple did take the external route, then they would have people complaining of lack of Blu-ray, because once the 9.5mm restriction is gone BDROM drives are viable options.
I do agree on the discrete SSD partition reserved for the system. Bootup is mad fast and you get big storage capacities.
The 13" does need some better graphics, but not a discrete one. A powerful IGP would do.
I'm sorry, but I didn't get a chance to read through every posts since I just wanted to share my idea
I guess that's true. Maybe, but I'm hoping Apple at least tries it.
Music and plenty of software still come in CD format. Unless music goes completely digital download there will always be a need for an optical drive. Whether apple includes one is a different story. The same goes for movies, Not every movie I want to see is available on itunes. There are plenty of times that I prefer to buy the dvd
Most music and software is available for digital download especially bands and software developers that don't have the means to mass promote. Most movies aren't available for digital download in a legal way.
Regardless Apple is quite innovative and digital content is the future.
Excellent point. I'm currently backing up my DVD collection to HDD. I prefer DVDs because of the extras you can get, particularly director commentaries. Haven't found many of these on iTunes.
I chose MBP for portability, removing an essential bit of kit for me, then forcing me to carry yet another bit of kit defeats the object. Especially when I get to my destination and a client requires a disc then and there.
Just because you don't find it useful, others do I'm afraid.
I need it for my work, and it is unreasonable to ask me to lug around a second piece of kit in favour of some extras inside. This machine is fantastic as it stands. What other laptop can run for 3 weeks (as of now) without a reboot, or any kind of slow down.
I hope you get your wish in the future, but right now I need this.
Just because you don't find it useful, others do I'm afraid.
I need it for my work, and it is unreasonable to ask me to lug around a second piece of kit in favour of some extras inside. This machine is fantastic as it stands. What other laptop can run for 3 weeks (as of now) without a reboot, or any kind of slow down.
I hope you get your wish in the future, but right now I need this.
I agree with the OP. The SuperDrive should not make it in the next line of MBPs. It has survived long enough.
I am not saying optical discs are useless, far from it. I would much rather have my TV shows stored on DVDs and Blu-Rays than any kind of volatile medium (USB flash storage or HDD come to mind).
But the only times those optical discs have to be used, is when an external optical drive comes into play. Infrequently used discs => infrequently plugged disc drive.
It makes no sense to have a drive present permanently, taking up space that could be made an infinitely better use of (see the OP), when it's used so rarely.
Honestly, as much as I would prefer a Pro over an Air as my next MacBook, I *will not* buy the next MBP if it's still carrying that waste of space. Even if I could just ignore it (since it won't read Blu-Rays anyway, and I'll have to use my external drive for that), I couldn't stand knowing that it's there unused, while I could get 50% longer battery life instead (among other things).
I am not saying optical discs are useless, far from it. I would much rather have my TV shows stored on DVDs and Blu-Rays than any kind of volatile medium (USB flash storage or HDD come to mind).
But the only times those optical discs have to be used, is when an external optical drive comes into play. Infrequently used discs => infrequently plugged disc drive.
It makes no sense to have a drive present permanently, taking up space that could be made an infinitely better use of (see the OP), when it's used so rarely.
Honestly, as much as I would prefer a Pro over an Air as my next MacBook, I *will not* buy the next MBP if it's still carrying that waste of space. Even if I could just ignore it (since it won't read Blu-Rays anyway, and I'll have to use my external drive for that), I couldn't stand knowing that it's there unused, while I could get 50% longer battery life instead (among other things).
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Not only this, sometimes it makes more sense to buy an Audio CD rather than digital downloads. Take Amazon for example, an Audio CD with 13 tracks could be $10 shipped vs. $0.99 (or $1.20 even) per track. If you like the artist and were going for all of their songs on the album anyway, (that's probably not uncommon) you might as well get the physical media shipped to you for less money.
In reference to the "Flash Drive vs. CD/DVD" debate, it's just foolish to compare them to be honest. They utilize different inputs and the cost of a Flash Drive in comparison to a spindle of DVDs has already been brought up. You cannot put a Flash Drive into a traditional media player (DVD player, older console, or other) and I, for one, still use a CD Player over an MP3 Player/iPod.
The benefit of a CD Player? Not trying to get personal, but it would be easy for me to give an example. People burn Audio CDs for use in their car/truck (another point to add above) they can hook me up with some tracks and I can just throw them in a CD Player rather than going home and uploading them to another device.
People suggesting to remove the Optical Drive or arguing that Flash Drives are superior to CD/DVDs are the people that don't use the optical drive and the people that use Flash Drives.
I don't think that an Optical Drive in a computer is "better" than not having one in there, nor do I think that CD/DVDs are "better" than Flash Drives. I just use my Optical Drive, and I use CDs and DVDs. It's a preference of mine, and this entire topic is a preference matter, and nothing more.
Just use what you use, Apple is going to do what they are going to do, and if they decide to remove the Optical Drive from the MacBook Pro, then that's what they're going to do. If that's a good decision in terms of whether or not a MacBook Pro without an Optical Drive would appeal to a larger audience and bring a larger number than current MacBook Pro sales would be their call in the end.
I would take extra battery over an internal optical drive any day. Optical media drive is no longer really needed. There are much better & cheaper ways of transferring data, such as idisk, dropbox, usb sticks, etc. I've only used the optical drive three times in the last 3 or 4 years, once to update to snow leopard, once to install iLife and once to reinstall snow leopard on a new SSD drive, whereas I wouldn't be able to count the number of times I could have done with an extra hour or 2 of juice when not near a power outlet. Now that the app store is here I have zero reason for this drive and it's just taking up valuable battery space. If for some reason an optical drive was required then there is always the USB superdrive.
I'm with you..there is no need to "lug" an optical drive with you all the time either..
I'm sorry. I didn't phrase my question correctly. I realize that people still buy DVDs and CDs. So, in that regard, there is use for a disk drive. What I meant to ask was: why can't media be placed on USB flash drives? Instead of renting a DVD you rent a USB stick with the movie on it. My TV set-top box, stereo, and DVD player all have USB ports. Can't we move past disks just like we moved past floppy disks and VHS tapes?
I would not like to lose the SuperDrive in my MacBook Pro. It serves some purpose. I just feel like that space could be used for so many other, better things (battery expansion, second hard drive (I know this can be done now), more ports).
When I'm on the road? Not very often. But it's much easier to take a movie with me on the road than to take an external DVD drive.
I'm pretty sure optical drives will go the way of the dinosaur eventually, but as long as publishers still sell optical media (music, movies, games, etc.), there will be people who want drives in their machines.
I actually use my superdrive to create home movies, etc. to watch on TV via my stand alone DVD player. While I wouldn't be devastated if Apple took out the superdrive, I wouldn't be overly excited about having to have (yet another) peripheral.
USB flash drives are more expensive for the storage they give. Also, you don't need a dvd to be rewritable if it's a form of media. You don't want your new CD or DVD to be able to hold something else, why would you? Of course there would be reasons but ultimately it wouldn't make sense.
You can get a 100 spool of dvds for under 30 bucks. You can get a flash drive that stores... I don't know, *checks* a 32gb drive under 50. See the cost difference? It costs drastically more to produce a million flash drives than to produce a million dvds. A lot more.
I used to think about people doing this too; just having encrypted, re-loadable flash drives that let you buy a game at gamestop and just load the key or game onto it, allowing you to store tons of games on the drive itself. The storage just isn't there and the cost of production is a lot higher.
That's his point. You don't' often use it. One could even argue that you could just use the burner at home, rip the dvd to your computer, then just watch on the laptop as a file, saving you both battery power AND having to bring the physical dvd and the case with you.