However, it would be really nice if the new Thunderbolt displays had built-in Blu-ray/DVD/CD-RW drives. That would make it possible to use an optical drive at home (where I, in any case, would most likely need one) without having yet another peripheral to clutter things up. Since the purpose of Thunderbolt is to create One Connector to Rule Them All, we shouldn't have to connect a separate optical drive when the new Cinema Display is essentially a docking station and monitor in one.
(If you need to use "legacy" media for the time being, Apple will be happy to sell you an add-on drive.)
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."
I wouldn't take that as apple never supporting blu-ray. Although given the quote is three years old, I wouldn't say it's likely either.
I hope, when Apple gives up the optical media drive, they will still continue to have a hard drive slot.
I'd much rather just buy the machine configured this way from Apple than have to rework the internals of my laptop (And undo everything if I have to take the machine in for support.)
Most of the people I know in the tech and creative industries rarely use their optical drive, downloading instead and viewing media through consoles/players connected to their TV.
I assume that they won't have the extra hard drive slot because the majority of consumers don't need to have two hard drives. But I'd be happy if Apple proved me wrong because that's exactly what I'd like.
Not gonna happen. Even if they decide to save the current form-factor, they will fill the empty space with something actually useful, like battery.
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp43/zuo_2008/07393211888...
At this point the only thing I strongly prefer to do on the iPad is read ebooks. I wonder how many people there are like me that love the portability and convenience of a tablet but would be happy to put up with a slightly larger device if it meant they could do real work with it as well.
To wit: there's probably at least one big segment of the population that just doesn't seem to need laptops all that often, if at all. Even ultralight ones. Give them an iPad, and they can do their web surfing, media consuming, emailing, Facebooking, and fowl-slinging all day long. My girlfriend and my parents fall into this category, for instance; they own MBAs and iPads, and the former are usually collecting dust -- perhaps occasionally used for word processing only.
You want a 40% space reduction and room for more batteries in exchange for losing an optical drive that accounts for 10% of the original volume.[1]
[1] The MacBook Pro has a volume of 2175cc. An internal optical drive is about 200cc.
I'd go with a MBP15HD as my only laptop, but instead I do mba13 + mbp17.
I am using a 13" MBP right now, but there is no way I would buy one today. I could see the MBP line going away and the MBA line replacing it completely. Not sure if they would stick with the "Air" name though.
Every audio device since the dawn of time has a 1/8" audio jack in it. Why not interface with the technology that's already omnipresent?
