While they could have done a better job of making it clear this was an artists rendering... AI never claimed to have photographic evidence of this unannounced Mac mini.
In fact, If the photo WAS real they certainly would have said as much... and shortly after been visited by the Apple Goon Squ... errrr CA police department with a battering ram in one hand and a quickly scribbled search warrant in the other and they would now be computer-less and likely missing any random non specific person care items they may have left lying around the office.
The excuse Jobs gave about Blu-ray licensing being a "bag of hurt" was true, but it was also a misdirect. I say that Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive. I think a 9.5mm slot-loading Blu-ray writer would cost an extra $600 per unit.
Note, that Macs include HDCP support, it's AACS that Apple doesn't support, which makes protected Blu-ray movie playback possible.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
The excuse Jobs gave about Blu-ray licensing being a "bag of hurt" was true, but it was also a misdirect. I say that Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive. I think a 9.5mm slot-loading Blu-ray writer would cost an extra $600 per unit.
I am forced to agree. Apple has given every indication that 1) they would love to axe optical drives from their computers, and 2) that they would rather redirect customers to online video from the iTunes Store.
Blu-Ray is the unfortunate victim of this crusade of Apple's, which is especially ironic since Apple sits on the Board of Directors for the Blu-Ray Disc Association. I can't help but see a clear conflict of interest.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
This to me is the way to go on a MBP if you can afford it. If I end up being able to squeeze it into the budget this is exactly my plan. Personally, I'll get the hi end 15" MBP with a 500GB hard drive. Once I can squirrel away the cash again, I'll get a 256GB SSD and re-install the OS on it and put the 500GB HD in the place of the optical. This is of course all assuming that I don't simply give up on the idea of getting a MBP all together.
It's probably more likely that a second iPad is in my future next year when they have their first hardware refresh. Really hoping for an SD card reader of some kind for media storage. That and Flash support would make the iPad pretty much the perfect device in my mind.
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
Pretty cool and OPtiBay gives you a free USB enclosure for your optical drive! Thanks
This to me is the way to go on a MBP if you can afford it. If I end up being able to squeeze it into the budget this is exactly my plan. Personally, I'll get the hi end 15" MBP with a 500GB hard drive. Once I can squirrel away the cash again, I'll get a 256GB SSD and re-install the OS on it and put the 500GB HD in the place of the optical. This is of course all assuming that I don't simply give up on the idea of getting a MBP all together.
It's probably more likely that a second iPad is in my future next year when they have their first hardware refresh. Really hoping for an SD card reader of some kind for media storage. That and Flash support would make the iPad pretty much the perfect device in my mind.
$1,100 - 13" MBP w/ student discount
$99 - OptiBay w/ external enclosure for optical drive
$230 - Intel X25 0GB MLC SSD
I already had a 500GB HDD to use as 2nd HDD. I had ordered a 1TB HDD, which fits fine in the unibody MBPs, but there is some EFI issue that makes it wonky right now so I canceled that. I am down to about 10GB left the 500GB HDD so I'll have to buy a 750GB soon if I don't see that resolved soon with 1TB drives.
My system boots in about 12 seconds. Pretty much every app opens in about 1 second (one bounce in the Dock). I moved my User folder to the 500GB HDD using the built-in GUI option in System Preferences » Accounts.
I made a partition on the 500GB HDD, the external drive I use for Time Machine backups, and a 16GB card. Then I used Disk Utility to copy the Mac OS X Restore Disc to those drives. I can now hold down the Option key and boot into any of them to fix the disc or restore without ever having to use the optical drive again.
Even with Xcode installed I am still only using less than 20GB on that 80GB HDD, which i first thought might be too small.
I couldn't be happier with my purchases. The only caveats are that I still don't get those 5 inches of space back on the side for ports, that is technically voids the warranty to remove the optical drive even though it's easy to install, and there is plenty of space left inside for a 3G card, GPS chip, extra battery, discrete GPU and fan, or what have you.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
Thanks for the link to Optibay - I'd never heard of that, and it's definitely the solution to my current storage woes on my Macbook Pro.
Last time I used the optical drive was to install SL. I assume if/when I do need to use an optical drive with the Macbook Pro, I can actually map to the drive that's in my iMac and use that?
I think it's all the licensing fees for HDCP that are a "BAG OF HURT".
Yes, the bag of hurt is HDCP, but not just licensing fees. You have technical issues as well. They'd have to roll draconian DRM controls into the Mac, and not just in a player app. It would most likely have to be done at the OS, and hardware level.
To comply, you can't allow any app to be able to rip a data stream pre or post processing, and on the hardware side you have to guarantee that someone can't attach the video out connector of the computer to the input of a video capture card of some kind and record the picture. It's really a mess. And the funny thing is that it's pointless.
The cat's out of the bag. Blu-ray has already been broken, and rips of all movies are already out on the 'net. Yet the studios still insist on the charade. They still haven't learned (as should be evident from iTunes' success) that honest folks pay for content, and folks who steal will steal regardless of what studios try to do. They're only alienating legit customers. It's precisely this kind of crap that's made me decide to skip Blu-ray altogether. DVD is good enough for me until they get their act together and forget about DRM. Hollywood makes very little of anything worth watching anymore anyway.
I assume if/when I do need to use an optical drive with the Macbook Pro, I can actually map to the drive that's in my iMac and use that?
OptiBay does offer a case to make your internal optical drive an external drive as part of the kit at no extra charge. However, you can always just turn on DVD sharing from System Preferences.
OptiBay does offer a case to make your internal optical drive and external drive as part of the kit at no extra charge. However, you can always just turn on DVD sharing from System Preferences.
Thanks for the reply. I'm only just getting used to sharing over the network (I've not owned two Macs before), and didn't know for sure that I could share the DVD drive.
I saw on the website that they include a USB case for the optical drive, but I can guarantee I'll have lost that within 1 day of getting it!!!
More likely it will continue to have Mini DisplayPort, and perhaps Apple will produce its own Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.
I don't see Apple selling one of its few headless Mac models without a Mini DisplayPort for compatibility with an Apple display, even if most customers don't buy that combo.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
Just out of curiosity, what does one do for major OS upgrades, or full reinstalls (well, I haven't had to do that on a Mac since... since I can't remember) if you have a MBA and no other computer to share the disk from?
I'm assuming you have to have an external optical drive available to plug in? I would think Apple can't really get rid of the optical drive until they solve this problem and I'm not sure the world is ready for OS installs over the Internet. I suppose they could throw it on a little USB drive, but that wouldn't be the cheapest solution, especially for upgrades.
I ordered a single Mac mini Leopard server, w/2 500GB HD's. I placed the order on April 20, through my Education Rep and was told it was in stock and ready for shipment. I have been notified 4 times that it is backordered and will ship at a later date. The latest E-Mail came yesterday and promised to ship it by June 9th.
Something is certainly happening in the supply chain.
If they ship on the 9th of June, it will have taken them 49 days to ship a single order for 1 Mac mini. I've never waited this long for any Apple Product.
I hope they are upgrading. That would certainly make the wait worthwhile.
Just out of curiosity, what does one do for major OS upgrades, or full reinstalls (well, I haven't had to do that on a Mac since... since I can't remember) if you have a MBA and no other computer to share the disk from?
I'm assuming you have to have an external optical drive available to plug in? I would think Apple can't really get rid of the optical drive until they solve this problem and I'm not sure the world is ready for OS installs over the Internet. I suppose they could throw it on a little USB drive, but that wouldn't be the cheapest solution, especially for upgrades.
This was solved eons ago, it's just hasn't been used by Apple yet. I already stated how it's trivial to copy your Restore Disc to another drive. Compared to the cost of a DVD drive used in Mac notebooks the cost of a USB or SD card is less. And that's without considering the limitations an optical drive adds to engineers of modern computers.
Imagine how much smaller an Upgrade Disc box would be if it came as an SD card (which Apple oddly added to their machines so late in the game)?
Apple is in a unique position in that they can afford to do this better than other OEMs. The HP Envy's don't come with internal optical drives, yet the Windows install discs come on a DVD. Oddly, they do come with a 2GB SD card containing the User Guide.
We can argue that the price per machine is still too high. I can find 8GB SD Card for $8 retail and I'm sure Apple can get cheaper, slower NAND than that. That's beside the point since Apple hasn't enacted this option. The optical drive going away in notebooks and NAND getting cheaper are inevitable. They still have a couple Macs that don't have SD card slots yet. If the next Mac Mini, MBA and even Mac Pro get SD card slots then I think we shouldn't be surprised to see the next version of Mac OS X be shipped on SD cards and as optical discs.
Comments
While they could have done a better job of making it clear this was an artists rendering... AI never claimed to have photographic evidence of this unannounced Mac mini.
In fact, If the photo WAS real they certainly would have said as much... and shortly after been visited by the Apple Goon Squ... errrr CA police department with a battering ram in one hand and a quickly scribbled search warrant in the other and they would now be computer-less and likely missing any random non specific person care items they may have left lying around the office.
Sorry, what were we talking about again?
What makes BluRay licensing a 'BAG OF HURT' while MPEG-LAs h.264 is fully backed and supported technology? Thats what *I* wanna know.
Apple is in the MPEG-LA patent pool. Only painful downstream of their offerings.
The excuse Jobs gave about Blu-ray licensing being a "bag of hurt" was true, but it was also a misdirect. I say that Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive. I think a 9.5mm slot-loading Blu-ray writer would cost an extra $600 per unit.
Note, that Macs include HDCP support, it's AACS that Apple doesn't support, which makes protected Blu-ray movie playback possible.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
ATI HD4870
no optical drive
$1000
It could go along so well with the recent release of Steam for Mac OS X.
The excuse Jobs gave about Blu-ray licensing being a "bag of hurt" was true, but it was also a misdirect. I say that Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive. I think a 9.5mm slot-loading Blu-ray writer would cost an extra $600 per unit.
I am forced to agree. Apple has given every indication that 1) they would love to axe optical drives from their computers, and 2) that they would rather redirect customers to online video from the iTunes Store.
Blu-Ray is the unfortunate victim of this crusade of Apple's, which is especially ironic since Apple sits on the Board of Directors for the Blu-Ray Disc Association. I can't help but see a clear conflict of interest.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
This to me is the way to go on a MBP if you can afford it. If I end up being able to squeeze it into the budget this is exactly my plan. Personally, I'll get the hi end 15" MBP with a 500GB hard drive. Once I can squirrel away the cash again, I'll get a 256GB SSD and re-install the OS on it and put the 500GB HD in the place of the optical. This is of course all assuming that I don't simply give up on the idea of getting a MBP all together.
It's probably more likely that a second iPad is in my future next year when they have their first hardware refresh. Really hoping for an SD card reader of some kind for media storage. That and Flash support would make the iPad pretty much the perfect device in my mind.
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
Pretty cool and OPtiBay gives you a free USB enclosure for your optical drive! Thanks
This to me is the way to go on a MBP if you can afford it. If I end up being able to squeeze it into the budget this is exactly my plan. Personally, I'll get the hi end 15" MBP with a 500GB hard drive. Once I can squirrel away the cash again, I'll get a 256GB SSD and re-install the OS on it and put the 500GB HD in the place of the optical. This is of course all assuming that I don't simply give up on the idea of getting a MBP all together.
It's probably more likely that a second iPad is in my future next year when they have their first hardware refresh. Really hoping for an SD card reader of some kind for media storage. That and Flash support would make the iPad pretty much the perfect device in my mind.
$1,100 - 13" MBP w/ student discount
$99 - OptiBay w/ external enclosure for optical drive
$230 - Intel X25 0GB MLC SSD
I already had a 500GB HDD to use as 2nd HDD. I had ordered a 1TB HDD, which fits fine in the unibody MBPs, but there is some EFI issue that makes it wonky right now so I canceled that. I am down to about 10GB left the 500GB HDD so I'll have to buy a 750GB soon if I don't see that resolved soon with 1TB drives.
My system boots in about 12 seconds. Pretty much every app opens in about 1 second (one bounce in the Dock). I moved my User folder to the 500GB HDD using the built-in GUI option in System Preferences » Accounts.
I made a partition on the 500GB HDD, the external drive I use for Time Machine backups, and a 16GB card. Then I used Disk Utility to copy the Mac OS X Restore Disc to those drives. I can now hold down the Option key and boot into any of them to fix the disc or restore without ever having to use the optical drive again.
Even with Xcode installed I am still only using less than 20GB on that 80GB HDD, which i first thought might be too small.
I couldn't be happier with my purchases. The only caveats are that I still don't get those 5 inches of space back on the side for ports, that is technically voids the warranty to remove the optical drive even though it's easy to install, and there is plenty of space left inside for a 3G card, GPS chip, extra battery, discrete GPU and fan, or what have you.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
I can literally feel the 10oz difference.
I don't think many realize how little they actually use their optical drive these days. Takes up 25% of the 13" MB/MBP internal space. I recently removed mine and installed OptiBay to allow a 2nd SATA II HDD. Along with making an SSD my boot drive it's the best decision I've made in computing.
Thanks for the link to Optibay - I'd never heard of that, and it's definitely the solution to my current storage woes on my Macbook Pro.
Last time I used the optical drive was to install SL. I assume if/when I do need to use an optical drive with the Macbook Pro, I can actually map to the drive that's in my iMac and use that?
I think it's all the licensing fees for HDCP that are a "BAG OF HURT".
Yes, the bag of hurt is HDCP, but not just licensing fees. You have technical issues as well. They'd have to roll draconian DRM controls into the Mac, and not just in a player app. It would most likely have to be done at the OS, and hardware level.
To comply, you can't allow any app to be able to rip a data stream pre or post processing, and on the hardware side you have to guarantee that someone can't attach the video out connector of the computer to the input of a video capture card of some kind and record the picture. It's really a mess. And the funny thing is that it's pointless.
The cat's out of the bag. Blu-ray has already been broken, and rips of all movies are already out on the 'net. Yet the studios still insist on the charade. They still haven't learned (as should be evident from iTunes' success) that honest folks pay for content, and folks who steal will steal regardless of what studios try to do. They're only alienating legit customers. It's precisely this kind of crap that's made me decide to skip Blu-ray altogether. DVD is good enough for me until they get their act together and forget about DRM. Hollywood makes very little of anything worth watching anymore anyway.
I assume if/when I do need to use an optical drive with the Macbook Pro, I can actually map to the drive that's in my iMac and use that?
OptiBay does offer a case to make your internal optical drive an external drive as part of the kit at no extra charge. However, you can always just turn on DVD sharing from System Preferences.
OptiBay does offer a case to make your internal optical drive and external drive as part of the kit at no extra charge. However, you can always just turn on DVD sharing from System Preferences.
Thanks for the reply. I'm only just getting used to sharing over the network (I've not owned two Macs before), and didn't know for sure that I could share the DVD drive.
I saw on the website that they include a USB case for the optical drive, but I can guarantee I'll have lost that within 1 day of getting it!!!
I don't see Apple selling one of its few headless Mac models without a Mini DisplayPort for compatibility with an Apple display, even if most customers don't buy that combo.
Agreed! that's a good way to describe it...'Apple is waiting to purge optical drives from their systems as they are slow, power hungry, and expensive.'
I think the last time I used my optical drive was to load Snow Leopard months ago and yet I 'lug' it around everywhere I go with my MacBook!
Just out of curiosity, what does one do for major OS upgrades, or full reinstalls (well, I haven't had to do that on a Mac since... since I can't remember) if you have a MBA and no other computer to share the disk from?
I'm assuming you have to have an external optical drive available to plug in? I would think Apple can't really get rid of the optical drive until they solve this problem and I'm not sure the world is ready for OS installs over the Internet. I suppose they could throw it on a little USB drive, but that wouldn't be the cheapest solution, especially for upgrades.
Something is certainly happening in the supply chain.
If they ship on the 9th of June, it will have taken them 49 days to ship a single order for 1 Mac mini. I've never waited this long for any Apple Product.
I hope they are upgrading. That would certainly make the wait worthwhile.
Just out of curiosity, what does one do for major OS upgrades, or full reinstalls (well, I haven't had to do that on a Mac since... since I can't remember) if you have a MBA and no other computer to share the disk from?
I'm assuming you have to have an external optical drive available to plug in? I would think Apple can't really get rid of the optical drive until they solve this problem and I'm not sure the world is ready for OS installs over the Internet. I suppose they could throw it on a little USB drive, but that wouldn't be the cheapest solution, especially for upgrades.
This was solved eons ago, it's just hasn't been used by Apple yet. I already stated how it's trivial to copy your Restore Disc to another drive. Compared to the cost of a DVD drive used in Mac notebooks the cost of a USB or SD card is less. And that's without considering the limitations an optical drive adds to engineers of modern computers.
Imagine how much smaller an Upgrade Disc box would be if it came as an SD card (which Apple oddly added to their machines so late in the game)?
Apple is in a unique position in that they can afford to do this better than other OEMs. The HP Envy's don't come with internal optical drives, yet the Windows install discs come on a DVD. Oddly, they do come with a 2GB SD card containing the User Guide.
We can argue that the price per machine is still too high. I can find 8GB SD Card for $8 retail and I'm sure Apple can get cheaper, slower NAND than that. That's beside the point since Apple hasn't enacted this option. The optical drive going away in notebooks and NAND getting cheaper are inevitable. They still have a couple Macs that don't have SD card slots yet. If the next Mac Mini, MBA and even Mac Pro get SD card slots then I think we shouldn't be surprised to see the next version of Mac OS X be shipped on SD cards and as optical discs.