“In its new product announcement last week, Apple rolled out a lot of new features – including significantly faster processers and greater expandability for its Macbook Air and Mac Mini lineups,” Jeff Ward-Bailey reports for The Christian Science Monitor. “But Cupertino also quietly took something out of its lineup (besides the vanilla Macbook, that is): the Mac Mini is now missing its DVD drive.”
“The Macbook Air has never had an optical drive, and now that the Mini’s has disappeared as well, it likely indicates that the company is eyeing a future in which media doesn’t come on a DVD – or a CD-ROM or Blu-Ray disc, for that matter,” Ward-Bailey reports. “This isn’t the first time Apple’s been in this position, either. Back in 1998, the company introduced the original iMac without a floppy drive, pulling the plug on a technology that was still considered standard. (In hindsight, that was probably a good call, though Apple’s move caused quite an outcry at the time.)”
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Ward-Bailey reports, “For a lot of people, though, it really is too soon to ditch the discs. Let’s assume that Apple will continue to remove optical drives throughout its laptop and desktop lines, as it did with the floppy drive: this is probably an unwelcome scenario to anyone hoping to watch a DVD on an airplane.”
MacDailyNews Take: Get it from iTunes Store.
Ward-Bailey reports, “It’s worth pointing out that when Lion, the [latest] iteration of the Mac OS X operating system, arrives in a physical format in August (it’s download-only for now) it’ll be on a USB stick, not a disc.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple leads. The rest of the world follows. As usual.
If you don’t want anything to change and can’t accept new ideas and/or methods of doing things, then you are not cut out to be a Mac user. Go get yourself an HP or a Dell or some other dime-a-dozen piece of crap and run Microsoft’s shiteous Windows on it and you’ll be comfortably at least 5 years behind us Mac users as always.
You can use your Premiere, you can scroll backwards because “that’s how we’ve always done it,” and you can feed antiquated, unnecessary plastic discs into your horrid PC until you end up, years later, doing things the way we Mac users are doing things today anyway. Better late than never, but just barely.
The status quo is shit and we have no patience for those who cling to it.
Spinning plastic physical media has been EOL’ed by Apple Inc. That means it is dead – sooner for the leading edge Mac users and later for the rest of the world’s PC followers.
This is not an ad, it’s a mission statement for Apple and Apple product users alike:
The iPad has proven that people don’t care about optical drives. I have never used the optical drive on my MBP.
MDN, you can attach the “Crazy Ones” to as many articles as you want. I never, ever get tired of watching it.
Thanks
I remember when this ad first came out. Back then Apple was battling hard. I felt like this ad spoke to the faithful. It was reassuring us that Apple would not only survive but would thrive. We just needed to keep believing in the “crazy ones”.
Get well soon Steve.
Well said Auren. I agree fully. I never get tired of watching it.
Ditto. It touches a nerve every time I watch it. It is truly inspiring, and only a company like Apple could live up to it.
Agree!
The over/under on the number of comments posted until someone bitches about BluRay has been set at 8.
Screw BluRay…
more like “UN”-screw blu-ray.
I bought my first CD before I bought a my first CD player – total cost for the starter pack – $517. Today that calculates to about….let’s see–carry the 1…divide by lame…yeah…about $20!
–and I have yet to buy a Blu-ray DVD.
Like it or not, Apple’s pushing and pulling of various technologies(and editing paradigms that shall remain nameless—cough!@#$imoooVeepro!#@%!!–ahem-coucgh) has for the most part dictated how even non-mac users consume their media.
If you leave crappy options out on the table–someone will eventually swipe them. I still see the the odd portable cd player on the train now and then and I know a guy who buys DVDs like they’re—-wait for it—goin’ outta style, and insists on the full-screen versions of movies—WTF.
The DUMB-sumers need a little guidance sometimes.
I love Blu-ray though I don’t see it as a must on a Laptop or Desktop even. The picture quality and audio is far above the digital downloads from iTunes. I just wish every Blu-ray came with a free digital download like a lot of them do, so that on the rare occasion I watch a movie on my laptop I can watch my newer movies. Though like I said I don’t need Blu-ray on my laptop/desktop only for my home theater where the quality difference is more pronounced.
Apple has nearly always predicted the future with sublime accuracy. Now things are different, Apple is now powerful enough to decide the future. TBH, it is not that big a deal to ditch the DVD as the installation of Lion proved.
The only issue is what happens when there’s a HDD crash and you put you’re own new drive in. Can everything be got up and running from a thumb drive?
Yes
my only issue with the “get it from iTunes” line is having to pay for something twice…
I await the day that iTunes can do for DVDs what it did for music CDs… But the film industry are money grabbing goons!
Hope apple pushes for this in the near future though…
Get handbrake.
But you need a DVD to use handbrake, thus you need a drive. So you can do that while there are drives, but when they’re gone, you again have JC’s issue of having to pay twice.
Come on now… You can use an optical drive, even if it is no longer built in. Just connect one using USB (or FireWire). There are many choices, and Apple even sells one of them.
Heck, you can still access ancient 3.5-inch floppy disks using a USB floppy drive. I tried it with Lion the other day, just to see if it still worked. Yup.
I’ve been waiting for years for Apple to allow you to easily import DVDs to your Mac. You’d think they could do it with a simple disclaimer that you have to sign stating that you are importing content for backup purposes only.
And I know you can use Handbrake or Mac the Ripper,but until it is as easy as CDs into iTunes the solution isn’t good enough.
Well with iTunes we got THE BIG paradigm shift that was inevitable the day Al Gore hit the on switch on the internet.
Before that it was the same paradigm–same delivery method and only the format changed i.e.- LP, 8-Track, Cassette, CD.
Apple and itunes took the power changed the system on the front end–new delivery AND format–with a nice front end GUI to boot.
The film industry is a bit different. You got a huge multi-armed unionized system with many players per product/film–not just a band and a record company(the aforementioned goons)
Hollywood is a bigger nut to crack. Apples got big nutcracker it just needs more torque and leverage on the crunching ends.
It’s inevitable, though.
Mr Snark –
WTF do Al Gore and union movie crews have to do with Apple’s decision to eliminate the optical drive from Mac minis?
I’ll tell you: absolutely nothing.
Keep your snark to yourself, Mr Tea Bag (see? snark is contagious?). This was a nice polite discussion about whether optical media is dead, or not-quite-dead, and you had to go ruin it by getting all red-blue on us.
Oh, by the way, I think I like having an optical drive on my desktop computers. It’s a cheap enough and small enough component that it doesn’t interfere, and it’s useful, if only for legacy media. I agree it’s a waste on handheld or laptop machines and better left off. Other than installing software pre-cloud, I can count on both hands the number of times I’ve needed the drive on my MBP.
Unless I’m not seeing the connection, I don’t see where he was making a political remark. He was being sarcastic by referencing Gore “flipping the switch” on the internet because of the infamous comment Gore made ages ago. I think you’re looking into that WAY more than what was intended.
Except that Gore never made the infamous comment – and what he did say was pretty accurate.
Hey guys (or gals) get a life. It’s Apple. It’s not anything more than a huge money making machine that is innovative and runs smooth as glass. That’s all it’s just a company. I have profited greatly from it in the last 10 years. They work hard and think ahead better than anyone else. But you fanboys and trolls need to get some fresh air. Exercise. Get a job. Get out of your parent’s basement. It’s summer so enjoy it. Steve and company will keep humming along even if you don’t posture daily. Get a pet. Nooo gerbils don’t count fanboys.
all apple have done is make the SuperDrive a optional extra and taken money off the price of the mac mini, I don’t see the down side unless your OCD stops you using a USB drive.
Apple needs to start airing that commercial again and then end it with clip of their current products. Nuff said!
MDN went buck wild on that Take!! Nice one! I dig!
i would love to complain that apple is f*cking over its users with removing optical drives but i really can’t because I happen to agree with the move myself. I used my disc drive ob my mini twice in 2 years and that was to pull some old data archived on dvd.
even some pcs don’t have them, lenovo sells a few laptops without disc drives and on the thinkpad you can select a second battery be installed instead of an optical drive.
I have one optical drive i use and thats on a pc i own. i only use it for burning off Dvds of my kids that i mail to a few family members who can’t figure out the interwebs to view the stuff.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re killing physical media – after all, there’s still the SD slot on the MacBook Pro, and they still sell an external drive, so you still can use DVDs on your Mac. But I bet this will kill the Mac Mini. Here’s a paragraph from the article that didn’t get included in the MDN summary:
“There’s also the home theater crowd to consider. The previous generation Mac Mini, with its flexible display options and DVD drive, gained acclaim as a near-perfect media player (just hook it up to an HDTV and you’re good to go!). But now that the drive is gone, the retribution from home-theater enthusiasts is swift. Over at tech site Engadget, Nilay Patel cited the lack of DVD support as his biggest gripe with the machine, saying, “The Mac mini looks like it’d be the ideal home theater PC … [but] having access to Hulu, Boxee, iTunes and Netflix is just half of the story — there aren’t too many HTPC owners that never pay their local Redbox a visit.” ”
Now, if you use a Mac Mini as a computer, then I guess having it go along with the move towards downloadable is okay. But if you’re going to get a computer, is it going to be a Mac Mini, where you have to get the monitor separately, or are you just going to get an iMac? (Then again, I never understood the appeal of the Mac Mini anyway, so…)
While I typically agree with Apple’s decisions, this is one case where they don’t have my full support.
Because a world without physical media relies on fast broadband speeds and no data caps. The reality is that there are many parts of this country that don’t have access to fast broadband. My father in Nevada can only get 1.5Mb.
MDN, your hubris knows no bounds. Let’s put things into context.
What is the highest quality recorded video that a consumer can currently play in their homes? — the Blu-Ray disc
What is the highest quality recorded audio that a consumer can currently play in their homes? — in order of quality: SACD, DVD-Audio a very close second, and then the red-book audio CD.
What is the best-selling format for literary works of all genres? — a paper book
Apple can’t, or won’t, compete in these arenas. it offers low-quality digital downloads of mainstream stuff, but iTunes does not come even close to offering the video or audio quality that these “old-fashioned” discs and books have, perhaps never will. But in no way is pre-recorded physical media dead. Hell, the LP record isn’t dead. There will always be the need for physical media.
What you might have more accurately said is that the practice of software distribution by optical disc is actively being shut down.
Apple’s decision to delete optical disc drives from portable machines makes sense:
1) increased cost of flash memory is offset
2) people who don’t regularly use discs won’t have to lug around optical disc readers
3) external CD-R and DVD-R drives are still available for those small companies that distribute material in physical format (for example, wedding photographers can create DVD multimedia presentations that anyone can play on any DVD player – handy for sharing with family that isn’t on the web 100% of the time)
4) Apple has gotten the Mac app store up and running
5) USB plug-in flash drives and SD drives are ubiquitous for quick & dirty file movement
Slow news day?
…”But in no way is pre-recorded physical media dead. Hell, the LP record isn’t dead. “
That’s the point, right there. LP vinyl record went from mainstream medium to practically non-existent niche with extremely limited use. No mainstream musical artist or label issues new releases on vinyl anymore (and haven’t for a long while). Just like floppy discs can still be bought in some stores, there are still places that sell vinyl records, although vast majority of those are old, second-hand LPs of various quality.
Optical media will certainly continue to exist for quite some time, for some niche market out there. But mainstream usage will quickly abandon them, following Apple’s lead. Keep in mind, while it is true that the highest quality of recorded audio and video is still only available (commercially) on optical, that is really irrelevant; mainstream consumers can’t tell the difference and will gladly move to more practical and simple to use digital downloads.
For better or for worse, optical media is going the way of floppy or LP.
“No mainstream musical artist or label issues new releases on vinyl anymore (and haven’t for a long while).”
*ahem*
http://www.amazon.com/Vinyl-Records-Albums-LPs-Eps/b?ie=UTF8&node=372989011
” iTunes does not come even close to offering the video or audio quality that these “old-fashioned” discs and books have, perhaps never will”
iCal-ed!
Yes, Mic Stir, please do get let me know when:
1) videos on iTunes offer 1080p or greater resolution with lossless 6.1 channel audio
2) audio tracks on iTunes offer direct stream digital quality with a 2.8 MHz or greater sampling frequency and more than 120 dB dynamic range
3) iBooks offer shareability (and in-sun viewing) that a paper book offers, or ability to be signed by the author, or donated to your local library after you’re read it
Bring on the Thunderbolt thumb drives!
Okay, lets get rid of the optical drives in Macs, but they better damn well offer a USB media stick to replace the DVD’s. Because a lot of people out there don’t have high speed DSL.
And the ones out in the country either have dial-up or Satellite. And dial-up is useless in this day and age. And Satellite is much better than dial-up, but it is has a FAP limit on it. FAP=Fair Access Policy. I used satellite before and hated it. Thank goodness we have high speed Wi-Fi here were I live now.
DVD’s are a pain in the ass, because they get scratched and damaged. USB Memory Sticks are a lot more reliable. I use a bunch of them here at my home.
Any way, thats just my opinion.
I am so over physical media. My DVD player gathers dust for longer and longer stretches. My wife and I rent all our movies through either iTunes or our cable box — no discs, nothing to return.
You never realize just how much of a pain in the ass something was until you don’t have to do it anymore.
——RM
All this is very nice if you live in a big city near an Apple store with plenty of access to high speed Internet. But millions of people in the US live in rural areas with dialup or, at best relatively slow satellite Internet that doesn’t work at all on rainy days, hundreds of miles from a Apple store. Apple computers without hard drives are a nonstarter in these vast areas of rural America (I know I live in one every summer). If Apple wants to forge ahead in this area maybe it should get into the Internet business and use a chunk of it’s $76B horde to wire America, or at least support a federal effort to wire the country. An urban-centric strategy doesn’t seem the best option in our present situation.
Love the take! This site never grows old. And any day it’s always good to watch that commercial – no, mission statement – again. Excellent!
More importantly, how am I supposed to plug in my dot matrix printer without a chunky 70s-era serial port?
Sorry Apple. This customer is buying a Dell.
I’m a long time rural Mac user with only wireless (capped) Internet. Can’t stream much of anything. Burned an audio CD on my iMac just last week. Fortunately, I’ve never cared what MDN thinks.
the only place where this becomes a problem is if you use your Mini for a media center, and have a Netflix account & Handbrake. Until the movie studios allow more reasonable and consistent streaming rules for Netflix, DVDs are the only way to get decent movies in a subscription plan – making it also the best way to get new movies to your iPad and AppleTV. If iTunes had a movie subscription service, I’d go to it, as MDN suggests, but until then, per-movie services are far too expensive
I, for one, am glad that Apple still has an optical drive option. I work for a company that, so far, has not adopted a forward way of thinking. They send out all of their training on DVD’s (and uncopyable ones at that) and CD’s. Therefore, I have no choice. But I look forward to the day when I don’t have to keep up with all of that crap!
It sometimes gets lonely (and unproductive) waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. No optical drive may be fine for you and me- but for most of our less-enlightened colleagues and acquaintances, it could be a deal-breaker. For a long time, we had to buy external floppy drives when communicating with or working with others- not to mention backing up our own stuff after purchasing that first Bondi Blue floppy drive-less iMac.
Optical media is still a good storage option. It’s great for people who don’t have broadband for streaming video. it’s great for making backups of files. It’s great for movies.
All this optical media hate comes from a small segment of bleeding edge technophiles who just want new stuff for the sake of new stuff.
Optical still has advantages and isn’t going to go away any time soon no matter how hard Apple pushes.
That is a bit simplistic. And I’ve never liked appealing to the lowest common denominator. Apple leads us to a more environmentally friendly future with less and less physical media that eventually get thrown away. Microsoft creates mountains more with every Service Pack. Sorry if following the leader of the industry is difficult for you. Perhaps you would be happier with a nice, lovely Dell.
That’s good that you wouldn’t go that far. Then again, neither did the article. The topic was SPINNING media.
Didn’t fall in place properly. That was a reply to Eric.
While everyone’s needs are different, I can see why Apple would discontinue providing internal optical drives in their laptops: there were too many problems with reading & writing media over the years (lack of consistency in manufacturing the recording media), continuing problems with the drives themselves (increased repair costs, inability to read media produced or recorded on other machines), increased costs for packaging, distribution and deployment of these devices, better use of space once that device has been removed from the laptop; and Apple’s decision to migrate to an Internet-based solution for copying, archiving, syncing or distributing data (iCloud). USB thumb drives may be an interim solution at best, since there are issues with that delivery system as well, and for all I know, Apple may be developing a portable Thunderbolt thumb drive to replace that medium as well.
Don’t think Apple didn’t make this decision lightly. I’m sure there were focus groups, and market studies.
Just as people went out and bought external floppy drives after Apple dropped that hardware from their systems, I can go out and add an external DVD recorder to my system if I really want to. But as I am discovering, I am using physical media myself less and less.
Apple, at least, isn’t afraid to try new things.