Im sure that this topic has been posted before, but I dont feel like scaling page for page to find it. I would like to know why on earth does the Macbook pro with retina display does not come with an optical drive? What does apple expect one to do with things that operate by cd? I heard something about using a super drive, but Im not very well verse in how it works and how it would replace the use of an optical drive. Thanks.
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Optical drives are now used so infrequently that for most of us, it's not necessary to carry one around. So Apple went for a thinner, lighter case instead.
For my part, I have an external optical drive that I keep on my desk and plug in on the very rare occasions I actually need to load something from a CD/DVD. -
Optical drives will have the same fate as floppy drives.
As technology advances, it's only a matter of time until optical drives become obsolete across all laptops - Digital media is the future.
Depending on your budget, you can pick up an external optical drive starting at 29.99$:
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG USB 2.0 Slim External 8X DVD Burner - Blue Model SE-208AB
Personally, I welcome the move to eliminate all optical drives - It makes laptops more portable. -
The same reason they don't have a built in Floppy drive... because hardly anyone uses them anymore.
a "Superdrive" is just what Apple calls its brand of optical drives... the external ones are the same as any other external drive. You can use an external on this one, or OSX has stuff built in to easily share drives across a network with another machine.
Most people these days buy software, music, and movies digitally, and its what Apple is pushing everyone to do since they sell software, music, and movies this way. -
I use it to watch movies and I know lot of people do it as well when I went on the train. Granted, many used dvd players but some also used their computers. Not everyone is as rich or live in an area where hi speed internet is readily available, so I doubt that everything would go online.
Anyway, you won't be able to reason with many of the apple fanboys hereNot to mention the fact that the superdrive is not completely out as it does come in the non-retine models.
P.S. I was at the apple store yesterday for an OS reinstall problem and I did take a look at the retina. I guess the resolution didn't go up in the sense that moving up from 820p to 1080p means more real estate (smaller icons and you can fit an entire word page), but moreso on the "clarity" of what you see. Frankly, I surfed safari and I didn't notice the difference, so I am more than happy that I didn't wait until this year to buy and get sucked into all the hype. If you can actually see and feel the difference, then good for you but I know that a lot of people won't be able to see the difference unlike moving from a glossy to a matte screen. -
masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
with the 2880x1800 screen, you can set the size of elements on the screen (and therefore screen real estate) to match the previous model (1440x900), or you can set it to match 1680x1050, or 1920x1200.
As far as the optical drive, the idea is that it the inconvenience of it now outweighs its usefulness. The optical drive is far and away the largest component in any laptop, and for many it provides no benefit. Eliminating that component frees a large amount of space, which means better laptop design in Apple's case. -
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masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
Even though you still want to buy CDs and you have some sort of bias against digital media, you surely must recognize that:
1. all of the CD stores have already gone out of business
2. the rest of the world has moved onto digital media for their music
3. digital media is the way of the future (whether you like it or not)
It's Apple's job to stay as forward as possible, they can't cater to nostalgic people.
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Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow
Yes the optical drive is a dying breed, it should have been phased out years ago, alot of machines from 2-3 years ago should support booting from USB.
With my X series tablets, I've never needed an optical drive, I just install the OS via flash drive, download all my movies directly on the machine or copy it onto a flash drive. -
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Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow
Apple is a pioneer of killing off legacy ports/connectors and adding new technology, minus Firewire as they helped pioneer it. First laptops to have Thunderbolt, 1st manufacturer to use 4k screens. Sure people may not like it, but that is how the future is going to be. The way I see it, Apple might remove all optical drives for their new Macbook Pro's and I commend them as they are unsightly and a massive waste of space, I'd rather have an extra battery bay than an optical drive.
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masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
the frys across the street from my school just went out of business.
also- you should see the distinction between changes that you should be making versus changes that Apple should be making.
Apple is a company which has a responsibility to push technology forward to generate money for its stock holders. Consumers also benefit from the fact that technology is getting pushed forward (which they can use).
You as a human being are tasked with a very different responsibility. You are tasked with wondering, trying to enjoy life, discover / create meaning, etc.
While this certainly does not obligate you to drop your CD collection and switch to digital media, Apple is obligated to do so. -
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masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
Still, if this is how you use optical media (rip it to your hard drive), then you may still prefer to keep your optical drive external, so you don't have to carry it around with you *everywhere* as a part of a chassis. Again, the optical drive is not insignificant in size. It's traditionally far and away the largest component in the laptop.
Quick question @daydream: with your CDs, do you listen to music on your laptop from the CD, or do you rip the CD to your hard drive and listen to the digital version, and keep the CD for archival purposes? -
Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow
I've deleted some snarky posts, keep it civil.
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I'm actually glad they got rid of the optical drive. Apple has been released their last OS update on an SD card I believe (may have been a flash drive?) and that's really the only time I use an optical drive.
On the movies thing, for the common user they'll see that there is no optical drive so now they have to get their movies from the iTunes store. -
masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
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Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast
I still buy a lot of my movies on optical disk, but use them in electronic form on my smartphone, ipad or notebook. The disk does get used, but only in the blu-ray player in the entertainment center.
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masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
By removing it from the chassis, you can make the laptop dramatically lighter and thinner. If you keep it, you have less room for ports, and you are committing yourself to a much larger and heavier device.
The macbook air is 3 pounds. The retina macbook pro is 4.5 pounds. The standard macbook pro is 5.6 pounds. Part of that is the optical drive itself. The other part is the fact that the chassis has to be much larger to contain the optical drive.
You could keep an external drive at home, and rip your CDs as you see fit, and rip movies before a trip if you so desire. -
Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast
Every movie DVD/Blu-ray disk gets ripped. Every audio CD gets ripped. Optical media never goes on the road anymore. -
For years now, the only use for optical drives for me, is to replace them with a HDD caddy. It's high time we moved past that obsolete technology.
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We live in the future. Here, in the future, literally lasers are an outdated technology. Old-fashioned. Yes, lasers are old-fashioned. That's how much in the future we are. -
Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast
Where's my flying car?
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As for DVDs, they need to go. Like a lot of users, I haven't used one often for the past four years. I did buy an external DVD burner so that I can play CnC Generals ZH (which won't play nice with Daemon Tools Lite) and to occasionally burn a music CD for my car (only because it's too new to use a cassette-to-aux converter, and too old to have an Aux port), but otherwise everything is digital, either on flashdrives or from the Internet. Most games can be found on Steam (or its competitors such as Origin), music and movies can be (legally) found on iTunes or Amazon or anywhere else, and data backups can be done with external drives or the cloud (if you're into that sort of nonsense).
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1. People rarely use optical drives anymore, and even more rarely need them built into the computer.
2. It saves space and money not having one.
3. More and more people are consuming content through the internet or cloud. -
Why not just download the movies you want to watch directly onto your computer instead of using a CD? It's not like you don't have any options there. And having it on the computer is more convenient, allows for a better design, reduces noise, heat, and battery consumption. Most times I completely forgot that I have an optical drive on my G73, despite my earlier negativity to the idea of the CD drive going the way of Floppy.
*that said, a blu-ray drive would be amazing with this computer -
I always thought that using an SD card for movies would be a good option as well - kind of a half way between a DVD ROM and blowing away tons of your hard drive. SSDs in particular tend to fill up pretty quick.
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It really really hurt me when Apple discontinued the Macbook 17 which was my most favorite provided its size but Atleast they are still being offered through the website at a reasonable price. Im most definitely gonna get one to go along with my envy 17. Im such a spoiled brat, haha!
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Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow
Maybe they'll revive it, maybe not, if there is a demand, Apple will make it. -
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I feel that 15.6" is about the maximum amount of laptop I'd deal with on a constant basis, imo. Big enough to fit a nice 1080p panel that's easy to read, and portable enough to use pretty much anywhere. I've had this dv7t for a few days so far and while it'd make for a nice "movie in bed" laptop, it's one hell of a tank o.o...
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Just did a PCMark 7 test on it and it only heated up slightly during the benchmarking, but it was something I'd expect (from feel, it was probably ~85F and my room temp is around 72F). I need to use it more and run other benchmarks on it in the next day or two.
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It's really not too difficult to benchmark. Just have to have the right software and a few minutes of your time (or hours, depending on the software). I'd only be worried if the cooling system was such a piece of crap that a laptop would overheat, though I haven't heard of anyone having such a problem.
Though I see where you're coming from. With computers, I'm very comfortable getting down and dirty with software or hardware. However, ask me how to change the oil in my car and I'll stare at you like I'm an idiot (lol... I need to learn basic car care).
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Anyways, being the spoiled brat that I am, Im looking to getting a macbook 17 in the future, just to have around. I really dont wanna do any schoolwork on my envy because its so nice and new, lol.
Why no optical drive?
Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by daydream95, Jul 17, 2012.