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What about an external SuperDrive we can plug into an airport base station? Might lead to a lot of coasters I guess.
 
I'd much rather have them drop the optical drive than the ethernet port to be honest.

Seriously, how often do you use your optical drive? On my desktop I have used it once the last 6 months now, to install windows :/
 
Then why aren't we all driving Model-T Fords, or, more on-topic, working on PowerBooks and listening to our iPod Classics?

As Henry Ford (didn't actually) once said, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse"

Yes, but he didn't turn around and say "but in return we have to remove the windows in order for that to happen." did he?

Same issue with the MacBook pro 13". If everyone loves it, then so keep everything on it, but just make the internals faster, and nothing gets removed. Just like ford and his windows. If everybody likes the windows on his cars, then why remove them for the sake of the model being faster? If ford keeps them on, everybody is satisfied, and same with the MacBook pro. More people would be satisfied if only the internals were made faster w/o removing anything.

Oh, and +1 for the car analogy :D works every time!
 
I'm calling the opposite...The drive is redundant now...Time will tell who's right, but it just makes no sense to lug an optical around in addition to an HDD

My MBP 17" is a great machine but it weighs a tonne...Drop the HDD, Optical drives and add a high capacity SSD. Retain the 17" screen, and you wind up with a machine that is considerably lighter, and if you want and optical, just use an external.

Watch this space to see who's right...:D

they are likely getting rid of it but the weight loss won't be "considerable"
 
Yes, but he didn't turn around and say "but in return we have to remove the windows in order for that to happen." did he?

Same issue with the MacBook pro 13". If everyone loves it, then so keep everything on it, but just make the internals faster, and nothing gets removed. Just like ford and his windows. If everybody likes the windows on his cars, then why remove them for the sake of the model being faster? If ford keeps them on, everybody is satisfied, and same with the MacBook pro. More people would be satisfied if only the internals were made faster w/o removing anything.

Oh, and +1 for the car analogy :D works every time!

But not everyone likes the DVD drive. If they keep the drive, I buy a next gen MacBook Air.

And, WOW, did you ever miss the point of the quote!
 
But not everyone likes the DVD drive. If they keep the drive, I buy a next gen MacBook Air.

And, WOW, did you ever miss the point of the quote!

You're missing of the point of what he said. If you don't 'like' the disc drive, then you don't have to use it. If you do use the disc drive to watch movies, rip & burn music/video, and to install games and other apps from your physical media then you have something to lose from the lack of a disc drive. The fact of the matter is, many PC owners still use their disc drives for that very reason. The opinion that the disc drive must be removed because you don't use it is a self centered viewpoint. If you're pleased with the current MacBook Pro, then you should be pleased with the newer model regardless of whether or not it retains the disc drive since you don't care about it. You don't really have anything to gain other than possibly a slightly lighter and thinner laptop.

I find it rather funny that users here are saying that retaining the ODD will punish those who don't want it when they 1) don't have to use it and 2) have nothing to lose with its staying. You will hardly think about the extra .1 lb's difference when carrying around your MBP with its ODD, but those PC owners who do want it are the ones who will be carrying around a totally separate piece of hardware in addition to their laptop with due to its removal. I can understand why someone may not care for the disc drive, but it's simply vain to want so much for it to be removed when it doesn't really give you an advantage.
 
It's simply vain to want to have a disc drive when so many people clearly don't want one taking up 30% of their laptop.

Why not leave theatrics out of it? You and many others want a disc drive, I and many others don't.
 
You're missing of the point of what he said. If you don't 'like' the disc drive, then you don't have to use it.


It weighs more than .1 pound and more importantly, it takes up a lot of space. Its presence keeps out something more valuable to me, which might be smaller size, larger battery, SSD+HDD.

As for the people who *always* need a DVD drive on the go, sucks to be them, but the vast majority shouldn't have to be weighed down by and pay for a useless piece of antiquated tech. Remember, one way or another, the decision's already been made. Nothing we say can change it.
 
Optical disk is dead for Apple...
That is the reason why Apple supports BDMV in Mountain Lion. Yeah! ;-)

...so go to Windows 8. Oh wait Windows 8 doesnt even support DVD playback.
Windows (XP, Vista, 7 and 8) supports hardware accelerated DVD playback, if you install the free VLC application.

Its time for the optical disk to die. Anyone who can't get access to fast internet should either move to somewhere that has and stop complaining, the rest if us want to move on thanks.
Check your facts! Only a small number of people worldwide have broadband access. Blu-ray is a huge success worldwide and many people have large Audio CD collections. Do you recommend that people download the 25 GB or 50 GB BDs or 700 MB Audio CDs over the internet? Seriously?
 
There are some people still require a PCMCIA slot daily. That's proof apple will never drop that from their pro machines.
 
It weighs more than .1 pound and more importantly, it takes up a lot of space. Its presence keeps out something more valuable to me, which might be smaller size, larger battery, SSD+HDD.

The weight difference is still negligible. Though I don't care as much about a larger battery or SSD, I can respect that as a valid opinion. But if the ODD is taken out and neither of those things are done then what will have been the point?

As for the people who *always* need a DVD drive on the go, sucks to be them

I don't believe the majority of PC owners ever "always" needed their DVD drive on the go--that's not relevant to the argument. The point is that it still serves a valuable function to many users and that its far more convenient for it to be inside the laptop itself.

but the vast majority shouldn't have to be weighed down by and pay for a useless piece of antiquated tech. Remember, one way or another, the decision's already been made. Nothing we say can change it.

You act act like the new MBP will be cheaper if it doesn't have the ODD. It won't, so that's not even a valid point unless you're Apple corporation and somehow stand to gain from a lower production cost.

Discs are neither antiquated nor useless. Drive to Walmart and take a look at the electronics section. Music CDs, DVD & Blu-Ray movies, blank writable DVDs & Blu-Rays, and a whole selection of laptop and desktop computers all with disc drives. Look at the software selection. Get in your car and notice your CD player. Ignore the annoying guy on the street trying to sell you his band's music. I'm to believe that discs are 'antiquated tech' because some people on a Mac forum don't use them? That simply isn't the reality of things. I'm not arguing that discs will be around forever, just that it's not yet time to abandon them. Yes, you can buy an external drive but that really takes away from the mobility of a laptop.

 
But not everyone likes the DVD drive. If they keep the drive, I buy a next gen MacBook Air.

And, WOW, did you ever miss the point of the quote!

i think you are missing the point of what i said. if people love the 13" macbook pro, why change the aesthetics of it, including the optical drive. the computer can be made faster while keeping the same tradition the previous macbook pro had before it, and the macbook pro before that. Removing the optical drive make the computer more of an air, and if you don't want disc drives, then its either the macbook air or the mini.

The macbook pros are 'pro' for a reason, because they include high power hardware and everything that a consumer wants in their mac laptop. IMO i don't think macs will be w/o disk drives until apple are sure that every mac user is transitioning over to the mac app store for their software.

However, it means you cant watch a movie you already have at home on your mac, you have to re buy it in the iTunes store (which i think is totally pointless IMO since you are paying extra to watch a movie you already have, but just on your computer), nor does it mean that copies of windows can be put onto a mac via virtual boot because there is no disk drive, but i digress...
there are thumb drives and usb stick out there with a copy of windows that i suppose could be the other way around that issue.

Apple will NOT drop the optical drive in the next MBP, because many people still use it for many purposes, whether it be to install a game, watch movies on it, or just to simply rip or burn CDs. end of.
 
i think you are missing the point of what i said. if people love the 13" macbook pro, why change the aesthetics of it, including the optical drive. the computer can be made faster while keeping the same tradition the previous macbook pro had before it, and the macbook pro before that. Removing the optical drive make the computer more of an air, and if you don't want disc drives, then its either the macbook air or the mini.

The macbook pros are 'pro' for a reason, because they include high power hardware and everything that a consumer wants in their mac laptop. IMO i don't think macs will be w/o disk drives until apple are sure that every mac user is transitioning over to the mac app store for their software.

However, it means you cant watch a movie you already have at home on your mac, you have to re buy it in the iTunes store (which i think is totally pointless IMO since you are paying extra to watch a movie you already have, but just on your computer), nor does it mean that copies of windows can be put onto a mac via virtual boot because there is no disk drive, but i digress...
there are thumb drives and usb stick out there with a copy of windows that i suppose could be the other way around that issue.

Apple will NOT drop the optical drive in the next MBP, because many people still use it for many purposes, whether it be to install a game, watch movies on it, or just to simply rip or burn CDs. end of.

Consumers don't want a disc drive. Get over it and buy a $30 external.
 
I hope they keep it just because of the lack of high capacity SSDs. I used the optical bay in mine with an MCETech Optibay to put an SSD plus a HDD, and if they go to a single drive, I will be keeping this laptop with SSD and HDD upgrades until I can get one with a 1.5TB+ SSD for a semi-reasonable price. I need the storage for stuff, and the speed for the OS and programs.
 
that's a good point. Presumably if they drop the optical drive, they'll drop the second SATA connector which means all those connecting a second conventional HDD in place of their ODD will be stuffed.
 
The macbook pros are 'pro' for a reason, because they include high power hardware and everything that a consumer wants in their mac laptop. IMO i don't think macs will be w/o disk drives until apple are sure that every mac user is transitioning over to the mac app store for their software.

What high powered hardware are you talking about? The 13" MBP has by no means any pro hardware. The slow hard-drive on all macs is not Pro either or High powered as you mentioned. Adding an ODD does not make a computer Pro. Plenty of in the field pro users like developers, photographers, and journalist use MBA for there work.
 
Unless prices of SSD drops a little more i think they will still be keeping the OD for cost efficiency.
 
No optical drive.
Air style blade SSD.
2.5" hdd bay.
4 RAM slots.
2 Thunderbolt ports
2 x USB3
Maybe fw800 port but no ethernet.

That would be nice if Apple offered a dual HDD/SSD option, but I really doubt that they will. They like nice clean, simple solutions, which running two volumes is not.
 
yeah its totally like apple to not ditch something some of us need and then sell it to us for a significant fee:

any display connector, ever
superdrive
everything they've made. ever.

if i see an OD in the next refresh. I will be shocked.
 
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