Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
No optical drive?? Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to install something if it isn't possible to download it? We aren't ready for totally getting rid of optical drives yet. It's like when Rumsfeld thought he could take over Iraq with just Special Forces.

Welcome to the Mac App Store
or USB memory age
 
I use my mbp 8+ hours a day. I needed to use my Superdrive about twice the last 2 years. The time is right to get rid of it and use the additional space.
But I don't think Apple would ever include the external superdrive for free. Why should they? Because there is the word "Pro" in its name? DVDs are for consumers. DVDs are for games and movies and the rare times you need to install an "pro" application from an optical media it's very likely that there is another machine around that is able to share its drive.
 
iPad announcement in January? really..? There will be a lot of people regretting their Christmas gift / new year sales purchase if that happens..!
 
-=XX=-Nephilim said:
April sounds juicy and comes as refreshing rumour after yet another wave of iYawn posts! :)

Keeping my fingers crossed for Solid State + no optical drive + better GPU!

Quad Core option would be nice too...

I wouldn't expect them to drop the optical drive in the MBP. More realistic would be a slim form factor SSD (yeah the poor performing Toshiba) like the new MBA, an optional rotational HDD. This could work ok with an SSD 32-64GB for the OS and the rotational HDD for the rest of the junk we all store ;)

I'm not touching an SSD until Micron & Intel hurry the fsck up and get those 25nm SSD Flash onto the market. Finally the market will have up to 600GB SSDs which shoal be large enough for some of us to not have to bother with a smaller OS SSD and a rotational disk. Random read/ write of 4kb files will hopefully be significantly improved in the new Intel controllers.
 
But I don't think Apple would ever include the external superdrive for free. Why should they? Because there is the word "Pro" in its name? DVDs are for consumers. DVDs are for games and movies and the rare times you need to install an "pro" application from an optical media it's very likely that there is another machine around that is able to share its drive.

Not necessarily!
To me, the word "Pro" implies more features.
 
I agree! this is what I have on my i7 thinkpad. 80GB SSD for OS and programs w/ 1TB 7200 2.5 HD for everything else. It's not nearly as elegant as it would be with the mac. I had to replace my internal CD bay with a HD tray.

It's awesome. I would love the same ability in a macbook!


Maybe they would give you the opportunity to choose between 1 SSD + Optical or 1 SSD + 1 HD or maybe 2 SSD (but that would be really expensive I think). But I am not so sure we could get rid of optical drives, especially on the "Pro" lines...
 
I wonder if Apple will move their headquarters to the new location? After all, Jobs didn't get to design the current headquarters. They moved into 1 Infinite Loop in the early '90s.

I don't think it became Apple's corporate headquarters until years later.
 
jeznav said:
Future restore discs could be replaced by USB thumb drives like the MBA. Optical has a limit of 8gb storage, USB flash drives are now more than 64GB. Lots of downloadable software will be on Mac App Store, maybe including major OS upgrades.

No optical drive = more battery space

Yeah right, last time i checked, my music collection is on CD's not USB, I don't have the time nor the storage to rip them all. Maybe later in the future but for now a lot of ppl have older ***** on optical media they Ned access to and I would expect too many of. Those ppl would be too please bout having to carry around an external optical drive.
 
I wonder if Apple will move their headquarters to the new location? After all, Jobs didn't get to design the current headquarters. They moved into 1 Infinite Loop in the early '90s.

I don't think it became Apple's corporate headquarters until years later.

091411-20101124_082045_ssjm1125hp90.jpg


Anyone else think they should spend a few hundred million more and buy up the rest of the middle? They could install a monorail....
 
The fact they aren't discounting the 11.6" Air at all suggests they are having no problems shifting them at all. They are probably playing safe and trying to carefully manage their inventory.

I can't see any other reason why it wouldn't get a modest discount like all the other machines.
 
No optical drive?? Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to install something if it isn't possible to download it? We aren't ready for totally getting rid of optical drives yet. It's like when Rumsfeld thought he could take over Iraq with just Special Forces.

I've been telling people ever since the 11.6" MacBook Air came out that they are going to remove the optical drive eventually. It makes sense, it allows them to make a thinner device (since the optical drive is usually the thickest part in a lot of cases).

That isn't the main reason I believe they will do away with it though... it was the announcement of the Mac App Store. I noticed this with the iWork being for sale individually. They don't need an optical drive anymore (hence the answer for why Apple hasn't gotten blu-ray). I can't confirm that it will happen with the next revision, but it will happen.
 
thanks for adding the % to the OP.

:):):):):):)

it helps us decide if apple is giving the US more/less than the other countries and if it's a good deal.
 
Mac App Store

Apple is going to launch Mac App Store.

We can download App / Software for Mac via iTunes in the future.

The chance of using optical drive will be less and less.
 
Historically, have these black Friday discounts been in addition to student discounts? If so I'm thinking now may be the time to get that iMac I've wanted for a while now.
 
i'm a student and i need a optical drive for uni a lot. so a mbp without a drive is a no go for me, then again i dont plan on replacing my late 09 one any time soon. i don't buy and won't buy software from iTunes out of principal, not supporting that closed strategy
 
I can't wait for the new MacBook Pros, but without an optical drive, hmm I still use one from time to time.
 
New MBP... the only right thing to do...

"The future of the laptops", Jobs at the MBA release.

I would love to see a new slim and powerful MBP without the old, slow, unhandy, heavy optical drive.
If u really need the drive an external one is the solution..

I would love them to move fully to the fast, small and light SSD.. - and if u need a lot of space for movies, music, pictures etc. you can buy an external hard drive - which you hopefully will be able to connect with the new USB-3, which will be fast enough for running programs - if your SSD unfortunately end up being too small.

I´ll very well buy the 13" MBP in April - But only if it comes with dedicated graphics -which i´m pretty sure of - else it would be a MBA :p
 
Yeah, me too.

Plus, some people only have their MBP as their only computer.

For those people there is the external drive. It is a portable machine after all. So yeah: Pro = more features. But features you would benefit from in your daily usage. Like better battery life, more space for bigger/additional hdd/flash drives, more space for more usb/fw/lightpeak/whatever ports.
This can only be accomplished by additional space. And as you know apple: they won't increase the size of their products.
Why should you use optical discs if you have a big hdd/flash drive anyway? HDD size is cheap and so are flashdrives/usb sticks/external drives. There is no reason to use DVDs. And don't tell me you take your whole CD/DVD collection everywhere you go. You know: You could, if you would use an external HDD. And as a "pro" user it is very likely you own one or several external drives (for time machine).

Optical drives are dead. It is maybe not your reality now but it will be soon. When I started to study at my university 5 years ago there were CDs and DVDs everywhere. Now you don't see anyone with those. Ever. Everybody uses USB sticks or drives (or their own MacBooks).

Maybe it won't happen the next release, but it will happen soon. And a year later no one will miss their internal superdrive.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

that's one principal I find silly to keep...
waste of natural resources when u purchase physical media and why is it so bad that apple has pioneered the absolutely easiest way to buy what u want, when you want from wherever you want-makes me smile!
apples innovations keep pushing the world forward, time for everyone to move with it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.