“Apple is working on a 15″ ultra-thin Mac notebook,” Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors, claiming “it is already in late testing stages at Apple.”
“Many now expect that Apple’s design choices in the Air will eventually make their way to the MacBook Pro product, with the use of integrated SSD and lack of optical drive being the most notable changes allowing for such a thin design,” Kim reports. “While we don’t know for a fact, we expect that any future “ultra thin” laptop from Apple will also dispense with a built-in optical drive.”
Read more in the full article here.
Michael Rose reports for TUAW, “This 15″ Air-esque rumor corresponds pretty well with what we’re hearing, but with a few additional tidbits: chances are these will be the next MacBook Pros, not oversized Airs. There’s also a 17″ model in the works. And we might see them under Christmas trees, with a few weeks to spare.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan King” for the heads up.]
I am in, I will take two 15’s.
Just when my wallet thinks it’s safe….
iPhone 5 rumors and 15″ MBA rumors pop up.
13 inches?? Please?? PLEASE???
This is a tech site, you stinking pervert!
Go on, get outta here! Beat it!
It’s tough.. i heard the 13 MBP is on the way out.. the reasoning is.. it’s a pro lappy.. why don’t you want 15 inches at least…
They will need much larger SSD drives.
There’s no way I can handle 15 inches.
At the cost of ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
By the way, I swear that during, maybe, a financial quarterly call it was discussed and commented that the “Air” form factor was the roadmap for all future Macs. Anyone remember reading that?
I do!
Well, if you think about it.. that seems… obvious (sorry)… we don’t Apple to tell us they’re actually KILLING the Optical drive
Steve Jobs said, at the October 20 “Back to the Mac” event, “It’s our new MacBook Air, and we think it’s the future of notebooks.:
Ya, the day is coming when MBPs will be MBAs across the board, but currently that involves more than just ditching the optical drive.
Personally though, I’m loving the MBP line. I pulled the optical from my MBP 13″ and now have 2 1 TB hard drives in it. I have a portable Blu-Ray with Lightscribe DVD/CD that I can use if needed along with some portable hard drives and it’s all extremely portable.
I should get my new 13″ MBP i7 model on Thursday. In time I plan on swapping the optical with a SSD for the OS and apps. Was originally going for the new Air but decided the Pro was more versatile for upgrading, and $200 cheaper to boot! My poor G4 iBook is going to be soooo jealous.
F*CK YEAH!
Next on ABC Nightline, “Who Ordered the Killing of Optical Drive?”
CBS Sixty Minutes investigates this Sunday, “Optical Drive Mysteriously Disappear”
FOX NEWS, “Obama responsible for the thousands of Americans losing jobs in the Optical Drive manufacturing industry”
if there was an American Optical Drive manufacturing industry.
MSNBC, “Minorities and Women Hardest Hit”
the truth!
(and for those that don’t get it…. sorry) ;P
Just what I’ve been waiting to hear! Goodbye optical drive!
17″ please with non-glossy screen as standard.
option…..
Hates Matte with a passion. Option yes, standard HELL NO.
Okay, I probably won’t miss the optical drive as much – yes, I do use it, but I can hook up an external when I need it. But I really hope they don’t make us go to SSD exclusively – they’re still too small and too expensive to be of value.
I like the 13″ MBA. With Back to my Mac, DropBox, and Evernote I’m set.
I know Apple likes to take a lead and I am sure it is an attractive proposition for some but please leave an option for those who need a portable computer that can write CD’s/DVD’s. Carrying an external writer around just defeats the purpose and adds cables. I work in medical imaging and have to give patients discs with 500 – 600 mb of images. The “Cloud” may be the fashion of the moment but is not the answer for me and there is the security/confidentiality issue. If I need to save weight and don’t need to write discs I take my iPad. I use the MacBook Pro with a 27″ monitor as my main computer in my office but it also goes on the road. An SSD is no real advantage for me and is likely to cost an arm and a leg. I will likely update current laptop in next 6 months but it will get a very extended life if I can only buy a MacBook Air.
may i suggest 2gb thumb drives? They are pretty cheap these days
Not as cheap as CD/DVD’s are…
I see his point, but i’d still opt for a MBA with a portable burner myself. you can get really slim lightweight drives. and if you are already carrying blank CD/DVD’s… it’s not much more to carry the burner.
My MBP will be replaced someday.. and i’m going Air. or a new MBP with no Optical drive. I rarely use mine as it is, I rip everything at home so i don’t ever use a disk.. And i have a portable HD for software installs/storage.
My laptop bag has like 5 blank DVD’s inside just in case i need to burn something. Odds are i’ll have WiFi and can drop the files to soomeone’s computer, or… use their thumbdrive (or mine) to copy stuff for them.
Just use one of them SD cards that every Macbook Pro has a port for. You can leave it in there permanently with a lot less protruding out of the case than a thumb drive would be.
it rings true. I heard (and probably made) the same complaints when the first iMac dropped floppy drives. SuperDrives feel like they are about the same usage as floppies were back then. It convenienced probably less than 5%, with a good 50% assuming they’d be inconvenienced.
With the App Store, and Thunderbolt, it makes sense Apple would do this now. They always drag us into the future, like parents making us drop the pacifier no matter hownmuch we insist we can’t live without it.
My bigger concern is storage space. I liked my classic iPod, and miss being able to hold that much in my portable devices. My iPad and iPhone can’t hold as much as my iPod Classic could years ago, at any price point. That turned out to be somewhat ok, since my MBP could hold mostly everything.
I suppose with iCloud they could convince themselves we don’t need that much local storage, but I thoughtnthat was more about syncing everything, rather than being a storage place