Digital app downloads showed up en masse years ago, digital movies are catching on, and flash drive prices continue to plummet. Apple sell a beautiful external DVD drive for $99. Apple also have made using a remote DVD drive across the network very simple. Having an optical drive is still reasonable. Having an optical drive built into a laptop is becoming less reasonable every month.
1) Most companies do not offer software via digital download. That list includes Apple and Microsoft. In fact, the ironic part is that while the iPhone has a fully integrated App store, there are much better digital download options for the PC than the Mac.
2) For the space required for OSX you would buy a $3 dual layer DVD or a $40 flash drive.
3) How people do you actually know that buy digital movies?
4) Networked optical drive usage requires owning more than one computer and that $99 optical drive involves lugging something extra around.
I know some people are adament that Apple wont include blu-Ray for whatever reason (itunes sales or otherwise) but I think they will have to adopt them at some point. BD adoption is picking up and a lot of people still wont buy anything on the internet. I personally wont buy itunes movies until they go 1080p and they lose their copyright protection (the second thing won't happen, so we will see how long I hold out). Apple has also hinted at BD with BD burning in compressor and BD notes in itunes. And they are a member of the blu-Ray association as well.
Rumors have a tablet coming out in Jan or Feb. I'm wondering if they are going to have a video event, similar to their music event around that time.
We could see a tablet, a new appletv (1080p please), maybe a iphone dock that outputs 720p in response to the zune (the new iPhone and iPod touch are capable of it), and maybe blu-Ray drives (with any required OS update as well). That would be a lot for an event (even if only a tablet and an Appletv refresh happen), so I wouldn't expect any changes to macs aside from a blu-Ray announcement.
My question would be: would Apple add a BD option to macs mid product cycle? Or are we without BD until the next refresh if the earliest refresh doesn't include them?
I see that HP is envying Apple...but noticeably absent from these look-alikes is the optical drives.
Wow, that's very interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcarling
Dropping the optical drive is smart. For 99.44% of laptop users, lugging around an optical drive is simply stupid.
The space for an optical drive could be used for a second hard drive and a bigger battery. Those are far more useful for me than an optical drive that I rarely ever use besides installing software (which is generally one-time and I can do it at home) and watching DVDs (every now and then). I wouldn't mind more powerful components either?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcarling
I expect the next major revision of the MacBook Pro (perhaps in 2011) will be a convergence with the MacBook Air.
Maybe the MacBook Air could be the lower-end model, like the iMac, and the MacBook Pro could be the higher-end model, like the Mac Pro. If this happens I don't think the MacBook Pro will get as thin as the MacBook Air, although I'm sure it would be thinner than what it is now.
How many people think the (rumored) upcoming design revision to the MacBook will drop the optical drive? Or keep it?
1) Most companies do not offer software via digital download. That list includes Apple and Microsoft. In fact, the ironic part is that while the iPhone has a fully integrated App store, there are much better digital download options for the PC than the Mac.
2) For the space required for OSX you would buy a $3 dual layer DVD or a $40 flash drive.
3) How people do you actually know that buy digital movies?
4) Networked optical drive usage requires owning more than one computer and that $99 optical drive involves lugging something extra around.
1) Every piece of software (other than MacOS itself) than I've used in the last ten years has been available for download.
2) By the time 10.7 is released (presumably in 2011), the cost of a flash drive will be a lot lower than $40.
3) I know a lot more people who buy digital movies than analog movies.
4) For approximately 99.44% of users, there is no need to lug around the $99 external optical drive. I've never lugged mine around. Software installation can be done at home or at work.
Aluminum seems to be becoming the standard as I have seen notebooks from both Dell and HP in addition to Apple. Still I'll be getting a MBP down the line and to the topic creator, I have heard many recommend the 15" mid-range model if you on getting it now or waiting until later.
Comments
Digital app downloads showed up en masse years ago, digital movies are catching on, and flash drive prices continue to plummet. Apple sell a beautiful external DVD drive for $99. Apple also have made using a remote DVD drive across the network very simple. Having an optical drive is still reasonable. Having an optical drive built into a laptop is becoming less reasonable every month.
1) Most companies do not offer software via digital download. That list includes Apple and Microsoft. In fact, the ironic part is that while the iPhone has a fully integrated App store, there are much better digital download options for the PC than the Mac.
2) For the space required for OSX you would buy a $3 dual layer DVD or a $40 flash drive.
3) How people do you actually know that buy digital movies?
4) Networked optical drive usage requires owning more than one computer and that $99 optical drive involves lugging something extra around.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/09...s-first-review
Rumors have a tablet coming out in Jan or Feb. I'm wondering if they are going to have a video event, similar to their music event around that time.
We could see a tablet, a new appletv (1080p please), maybe a iphone dock that outputs 720p in response to the zune (the new iPhone and iPod touch are capable of it), and maybe blu-Ray drives (with any required OS update as well). That would be a lot for an event (even if only a tablet and an Appletv refresh happen), so I wouldn't expect any changes to macs aside from a blu-Ray announcement.
My question would be: would Apple add a BD option to macs mid product cycle? Or are we without BD until the next refresh if the earliest refresh doesn't include them?
I see that HP is envying Apple...but noticeably absent from these look-alikes is the optical drives.
Wow, that's very interesting.
Dropping the optical drive is smart. For 99.44% of laptop users, lugging around an optical drive is simply stupid.
The space for an optical drive could be used for a second hard drive and a bigger battery. Those are far more useful for me than an optical drive that I rarely ever use besides installing software (which is generally one-time and I can do it at home) and watching DVDs (every now and then). I wouldn't mind more powerful components either?
I expect the next major revision of the MacBook Pro (perhaps in 2011) will be a convergence with the MacBook Air.
Maybe the MacBook Air could be the lower-end model, like the iMac, and the MacBook Pro could be the higher-end model, like the Mac Pro. If this happens I don't think the MacBook Pro will get as thin as the MacBook Air, although I'm sure it would be thinner than what it is now.
How many people think the (rumored) upcoming design revision to the MacBook will drop the optical drive? Or keep it?
1) Most companies do not offer software via digital download. That list includes Apple and Microsoft. In fact, the ironic part is that while the iPhone has a fully integrated App store, there are much better digital download options for the PC than the Mac.
2) For the space required for OSX you would buy a $3 dual layer DVD or a $40 flash drive.
3) How people do you actually know that buy digital movies?
4) Networked optical drive usage requires owning more than one computer and that $99 optical drive involves lugging something extra around.
1) Every piece of software (other than MacOS itself) than I've used in the last ten years has been available for download.
2) By the time 10.7 is released (presumably in 2011), the cost of a flash drive will be a lot lower than $40.
3) I know a lot more people who buy digital movies than analog movies.
4) For approximately 99.44% of users, there is no need to lug around the $99 external optical drive. I've never lugged mine around. Software installation can be done at home or at work.
I see that HP is envying Apple...but noticeably absent from these look-alikes is the optical drives.
What are you talking about? The HP website specifically mentions that both machines have BluRay drives.
EDIT: My mistake. The 13" models don't have internal drives at all, and are STILL as large and heavy as Macbook Pros. Crazy.