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Thin MacBook with Bottom Mounted Optical Drive?
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Under the keyboard
Has anyone ever thought to make either the entire keyboard or a portion of it hinge up as a door for an optical drive?
Has anyone ever thought to make either the entire keyboard or a portion of it hinge up as a door for an optical drive?
Bleh, this idea isn't particularly attractive. Tablets would be the only ones to really see any benefit, but even still it's much better to load the media on the side, not the bottom. I doubt this will see the light of day, and Apple doesn't always use its patents. A hinged lid seems flimsy to me. It's going to be one of those things that can easily break off in the hands of the "right" user. Apple doesn't have to make an ultraportable WITH an optical drive. UMPC's don't require them, as opticals do little else for that category except suck batteries. An ultraportable macbook can simply be a smaller laptop with all of the necessary ports (USB, FW, mini-DVI-DVI) and be a good stand alone system as it is.
Basically, they can make a laptop without the drive, and provide larger systems like regular MB's and MBP's with them.
Basically, they can make a laptop without the drive, and provide larger systems like regular MB's and MBP's with them.
Um, you can get 2GB SD cards for $30. When did you get yours?
Flash memory is one of those technologies where price decreases while storage increases.
Odd size CDs at last for Mac?
Although the slot load is elegant, if forces us Mac users to eschew the small size CDs, or business card CDs, since they would never load correctly in a slot loader.
If this access panel allowed me to read these "exotic" optical form factors, I would buy a new laptop.
To be quite honest, I rarely use the optical drive, so closing the lid and flipping it over go gain access to myriad optical form factors would be no skin off my nose!
Key thing is the drive better be high end (DVD or BluRay) to get me to bite.
Although the slot load is elegant, if forces us Mac users to eschew the small size CDs, or business card CDs, since they would never load correctly in a slot loader.
If this access panel allowed me to read these "exotic" optical form factors, I would buy a new laptop.
To be quite honest, I rarely use the optical drive, so closing the lid and flipping it over go gain access to myriad optical form factors would be no skin off my nose!
Key thing is the drive better be high end (DVD or BluRay) to get me to bite.
if apple makes an ultra portable, would it not be of interest to accommodate people who will use it for watching movies? And if so accommodating, to which market? Download or bought disc? This design suggests a push for Download. Will this be the device to drive the Movie store?
new!
cool
new!
cool
I dont think it is meant for macbooks (although they have used powerbooks in illustration, but that does not mean that is where apple may intend to put it). It will rather find its way into ultraportables like 9 or 10 inch ones where they cannot put optical slots on one side. and anyway since such ultraportable ones (think iPhone but a little bigger on each dimensions) are meant for handy use, turning them on opposite side like for macbook (like many folks are pointing out here) does not hold any meaning there. therefore, optical slot can be put right on the opposite side of the screen. So this makes me wonder if they will come out with 9-10 inch slate for ultraportable purposes with OS X lite or full version on it with touchsensitive screen !!
No no no. This post will explain to you why an ultra portable does not need this feature. The synopsis: NOT ENOUGH PORTS (to fill the perimeter). Also, placement of the drive has no bearing on the device's thickness. It'll be just as thick placed on the edge as it will if centered.
-Clive
So, you rarely use optical drives to begin with, but you would buy a new laptop in order to be able to read obscure CD formats that hardly anyone uses anyway?
Yeah but it is a good idea anyway. I want flash USB thumb drives to overtake CDs as the standard but right now it is too expensive--but in the future there is hope.
Flash will replace CDs, DVDs and probably HD-DVDs and Blu-ray disks sooner than you might think.
I don't know how anyone has called you on this since you posted it, but I don't think that you're getting the point of the ultra-portable laptop. I don't think they would make a UP laptop or tablet with the intention of taking it home and hooking it up to an external monitor, usb hub, firewire drive, etc etc... it strikes me as something that would integrate wirelessly with your home computer... I also doubt that an ultra portable would be built to replace a laptop or home compuer but rather aimed at people who have desktops and need something to take on the road, or to school, or to the local coffee shop... not for someone who needs to run an external monitor and a lot processing power.
Personally, I'd rather have like an iMac and and UP laptop than a mbp that I have hooked up to an external monitor, etc at home.
it's not a smaller laptop - it's a larger ipod/phone?
Gosh - I think a lot of you don't quite get this direction things are going in.
Just think of this "tablet" as a larger iPhone/ipod with a bigger screen rather than as a smaller laptop. Perhaps the keyboard part is a red herring. They are considering an optical drive so you can enjoy DVD/cd/bd media on your ipodPhone without having to rip them in first / or so you can rip them in without having to attach to a larger computer. Personally I agree with the whole no drive at all thing up to a point. The iPhone has no drive, nor does the iPod - this thing might not need one either. If you have enough wireless speed, a usb port and maybe an expresscard slot - you could have plenty of I/O and storage options. I enjoyed my apple Duo and used the duo dock when I needed too. In fact just thinking about it makes me pissed that I broke the screen (when I kneeled on it onstage at a show - dammit!).
Gosh - I think a lot of you don't quite get this direction things are going in.
Just think of this "tablet" as a larger iPhone/ipod with a bigger screen rather than as a smaller laptop. Perhaps the keyboard part is a red herring. They are considering an optical drive so you can enjoy DVD/cd/bd media on your ipodPhone without having to rip them in first / or so you can rip them in without having to attach to a larger computer. Personally I agree with the whole no drive at all thing up to a point. The iPhone has no drive, nor does the iPod - this thing might not need one either. If you have enough wireless speed, a usb port and maybe an expresscard slot - you could have plenty of I/O and storage options. I enjoyed my apple Duo and used the duo dock when I needed too. In fact just thinking about it makes me pissed that I broke the screen (when I kneeled on it onstage at a show - dammit!).
Here's my theory...
I seriously doubt Apple is going to actually produce a computer you have to turn upside-down to insert or remove a CD. Maybe in a satire in The Onion, but not in real life.
A door on the back of a future rendition of the iPhone to accommodate a memory card and/or user-replaceable battery? Now THAT I'd (barely) believe.
I seriously doubt Apple is going to actually produce a computer you have to turn upside-down to insert or remove a CD. Maybe in a satire in The Onion, but not in real life.
A door on the back of a future rendition of the iPhone to accommodate a memory card and/or user-replaceable battery? Now THAT I'd (barely) believe.
A few problems with that:
1) Not all software can be gotten from the internet. Some software still needs CDs or DVDs.
2) What about backup? (I know, external hard drives would work, but some may use CD-r or DVD-rs)
3) You might not have a use for ODDs, but other people might.
4) Remember HD-DVD & Blu-Ray?
5) NAND storage is still pretty small compared to hard drives. The biggest amount of NAND I've seen is 8 or 16 GB. Biggest single hard drive I've seen is 750 GB. Huge difference.
I find that a lot of people forget about #3 very often. Why do so many think that if they don't have a use for something, nobody does? Most people might not have a use for a scalpal, but doctors performing surgery do. Same thing here. You might not need a CD player in your computer, but other people do!
In some ways, it would be a good idea if Apple custom designed a computer & software to each specific person, but that's a lot of work, would take a long time, and cost a lot to do. Plus, every time what you need changes, you'll have to get a whole new computer or something.
Sounds fantastic. Best to have a drive than none at all. Who cares where it is!
If it means Apple can make something smaller than my Sony T2XP then more power to them.
If it means Apple can make something smaller than my Sony T2XP then more power to them.
They should come up with a way to read CD/DVDs "wirelessly", that is, without touching the computer. I can read a book without touching it - why can't a CD-rom read a CD at a distance? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to watch a DVD movie without actually unwrapping the DVD package
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to watch a DVD movie without actually unwrapping the DVD package 
Say, you know, I watch DVDs on my laptop + 20 inch ACD... I don't really own a TV, because TV sucks--a bunch of crap, except the Colbert Report and the Daily Show. But it's a minor loss, anyway. The point to this being, I am also married, and I do "get laid." So there!If you watch DVD on your laptop, then you definitely needs to get laid!!!
