Why did Apple pull the optical drives from mini?

B

BBA

Supreme [H]ardness
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Anyone want to hazzard an explanation? And...what are the chances it will not work with just any standard USB/1394/sata connected DVD drive...forcing people to buy an overpriced apple only type of media drive?

Do they want to increase profit from streaming services for digital movies? Are they just tired of optical media distributors and companies making money? Is it all about software control? Maybe a combination of all of that?

I going to guess they decided to remove the optical drive from new mini's because they didn't like people loading non-apple store applications from DVD/CD disks.
 
I can't remember the last time I used an optical drive, on PC or Mac. With this decision, they probably had the room to include discrete graphics
 
No space with the other stuff. Any USB drive will work fine. I use them with my Mac Mini Server that doesn't have an optical.
 
I think it's just a move towards going to an optical-less system. They did it with the MBA's first, and now it's moving to the Mini. The mini already had a diskless option, which was reserved for their servers. Now they simply have made the move to all of their tiers. At the same time however, they now have two internal HDD's, which I consider a boon (they even have an option for one SSD and one larger standard rotating disk giving quite possibly the best of both worlds for a media/boxee device.) All of this while maintaining the strict form-factor that they desired.
If you really still need an optical option, they sell an external USB drive for $79 that I do realize you acknowledge. However I don't think any of their "motives" are nearly as insidious as you seem to think they are. I am not certain what sort of use you are, but truth be told, other than CS5, and Office 2k11, I haven't used the optical drive for anything. Both items I might add are available on the App Store.
Do they need more software control? Firefox, Transmission, Netnewswire, Adium, VLC, and every other app I use that isn't manufactured by Apple I don't get off of an optical disc (save Office and the Adobe suite mentioned earlier).

Maybe I should reverse this and ask the honest question, what do you really want to do that you can't without the optical drive? You're not profiting from the sale of optical disks are you? Are you one of said distributors?
 
Because their customers didn't use them.

A new Mac mini was also released with faster processors, and surprisingly to some people, no optical drive. Apple said the popularity of the Mac App Store helped with that decision.

“We found that the majority of customers don’t use the optical drive on a regular basis,” said Moody. “Things are changing. The Primary use for the optical drive was to install software, but the mac app store provides a more efficient method for doing that.”

You can still purchase an external SuperDrive for the Mac mini if you like or you can use the optical drive sharing function built-in to Mac OS X.
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I'm a Core 2 mini owner and I certainly use the built in SuperDrive very often. I just used it a few hours ago to burn a Lion install DVD so I don't have to download it again in the future if I reinstall.

No optical drive == more shift to App Store == more monies for Apple. It's a strategic decision. The slimmer profile is a benefit though, much like it saves space and weight on the MBA models. The old mini isn't exactly large by any measure. meh
 
Yeah, the only time I use an optical drive these days is for an OS install which is becoming rarer as I use flash drivers' more for that and for Blu Ray which is not exactly big in the Mac world.
 
meh, I replaced the optical drive in my MBP with a second hard drive, don't really miss the optical drive
 
Does anyone know how well the ATI 6630M performs? Would it be wishful thinking to hope it would at least be comparable to my aging desktop's 8800GS?
 
1) people don't use DVD drives, only in rare instances where the DVD drive is the only way to get your OS back, which leads us to point 2.
2) no need for DVD drive for OS reinstall, you can use USB key which is smaller and quicker.
 
Industry is going diskless. Simple as that, no insidious plans whatsoever. I use a NAS box (QNAP) myself. But Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc are all phasing out physical media...even books! I've been waiting for this Mini upgrade to do some light video work...I am seriously thinking of putting an embargo on my spending limit for the summer to pick one up after I get a few questions answered...
 
AVT said:
Does anyone know how well the ATI 6630M performs? Would it be wishful thinking to hope it would at least be comparable to my aging desktop's 8800GS?
Click to expand...

I am going out on a limb to saw probably on the same level...
 
AVT said:
Does anyone know how well the ATI 6630M performs? Would it be wishful thinking to hope it would at least be comparable to my aging desktop's 8800GS?
Click to expand...
According to the benchmarks on notebookcheck.com, probably not as fast due to the difference in memory bandwidth (desktop 8800GS 192-bit memory version has 50% more memory bandwidth). It's probably still in the same ballpark. The HD 6630M (480SP, 128-bit 800MHz memory) is comparable to a mobile Nvidia GPU with 96SPs and 128-bit 800MHz memory (GF108-based GT 425M, for example) in D3D gaming, lagging a bit in OpenGL performance.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6630M.43963.0.html

It looks like a decent lower end mobile gaming GPU, capable of running recent and other modern-ish games in medium resolution at low or medium settings at playable framerates.
 
how do the intel 3000 graphics compare to the nvidia 9400 graphics card?
 
Don't forget this all started when iMacs shipped without floppy drives. People thought Apple was insane, trying to make money off of accessories, sacrificing things for illogical reasons, etc etc etc.
 
I never use the optical drive on my PC tower. The fact that most people don't use them in laptops and their own computers is not at all surprising. Optical media for software distribution is on the way out.
 
Anyone recommend this as a secondary computer? How is it for gaming? Anyone know? How good is the mobile gpu?
 
Do people not burn cd's for car use? I don't think I can go without a cd burner until my next car upgrade :D
 
lopoetve said:
MP3 player + radio transmitter / aux in / usb in.

:)
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of the radio transmitter sound quality and most cars (pre ~2007) do not have aux in/USB in. I would upgrade just the radio in my g35, but it is damn expensive to change out the radio in that car. I'm better off selling my g35 and getting a newer model... For people with newer cars though, I can see the reason for not caring about apple dropping the optical drive.
 
My thought is more aligned with HTPC use...if it does high def, it needs a blu-ray drive.
I think Apple actually wants to wipe out physical media companies and force people to use sub quality streaming content (Yes, a blu-ray disk is better than netflix).
 
BBA said:
My thought is more aligned with HTPC use...if it does high def, it needs a blu-ray drive.
I think Apple actually wants to wipe out physical media companies and force people to use sub quality streaming content (Yes, a blu-ray disk is better than netflix).
Click to expand...

I agree the Blu-Ray has higher quality and is also nice and uncompressed compared to any streamed video (for the moment.) But seeing how Apple didn't have plans to adopt it as a format, even now, I think it's sort of a moot point.

I know I've read more than one complaint about the lack of Blu-Ray drives on Mac's, especially on Mac Pro's where there are creative professionals that would like to use them, but it seems that that is not in their (Apple's) interest.

It does make me wonder how the Coen Brothers send their movies about however. As Apple uses them in advertising for Final Cut, stating that the Coen's exclusive utilize Mac Pro's and Final Cut on all of their films. I suppose at that level (as in the movie professional level) they can afford to just dump it all on external 1TB drives and just give them to publishers.

As for me and media? I feel that's what the second HD and Thunderbolt port is for (or on the home network.) To make it nice and quick, I'd rather just have it all ripped on the harddisk.
 
Serpico said:
I never use the optical drive on my PC tower. The fact that most people don't use them in laptops and their own computers is not at all surprising. Optical media for software distribution is on the way out.
Click to expand...

I have a Blu Ray drive in my PC and I think I've pushed the eject button fewer than ten times in the last two years.
 
The hilarious part to me is that Apple is supposed to be the "artsy" platform.

How are you supposed to Author DVDs?
 
Grentz said:
The hilarious part to me is that Apple is supposed to be the "artsy" platform.

How are you supposed to Author DVDs?
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You actually think creative professionals mass-distribute their work by burning optical disks once at a time?
 
UnknownSouljer said:
It does make me wonder how the Coen Brothers send their movies about however. As Apple uses them in advertising for Final Cut, stating that the Coen's exclusive utilize Mac Pro's and Final Cut on all of their films. I suppose at that level (as in the movie professional level) they can afford to just dump it all on external 1TB drives and just give them to publishers.
Click to expand...

You can install a Blue Ray Burner in a Mac Pro (I've done it personally and for clients), HOWEVER, OSX in general doesn't support COMMERCIAL blue ray playback. Toast Titanium does support BR burning.


After the fiasco with Final Cut X though... I doubt Coen brothers are touching it. Most editors I know (pro's that depend on FC) are touching FCX till they bring back OMF at minimum.
 
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djgizmo said:
You can install a Blue Ray Burner in a Mac Pro (I've done it personally and for clients), HOWEVER, OSX in general doesn't support COMMERCIAL blue ray playback. Toast Titanium does support BR burning.


After the fiasco with Final Cut X though... I doubt Coen brothers are touching it. Most editors I know (pro's that depend on FC) are touching FCX till they bring back OMF at minimum.
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I know about he Blu-Ray installs but still.

Well it's exactly like you say with FC, everyone is still using FC7, so I don't imagine anything has changed for them on that front.
 
FLECOM said:
meh, I replaced the optical drive in my MBP with a second hard drive, don't really miss the optical drive
Click to expand...

+1 just took mine out and am panning on adding a second drive. Not to mention it's half a pound lighter than the stock weight. (Also have a SSD so that might shave off a little as well)

pxc said:
I'm a Core 2 mini owner and I certainly use the built in SuperDrive very often. I just used it a few hours ago to burn a Lion install DVD so I don't have to download it again in the future if I reinstall.

No optical drive == more shift to App Store == more monies for Apple. It's a strategic decision. The slimmer profile is a benefit though, much like it saves space and weight on the MBA models. The old mini isn't exactly large by any measure. meh
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You can always just save the image file and then not worry about keeping track of the discs.
 
I think I've used an optical disk (between laptop, htpc/desktop, friends' laptops, roommate) less than 10 times combined. OS installs and that's it. Changed to a diskless head unit in my car a couple years, too. Can drop an SD card in it, a usb drive, a smart phone, control any iDevice from the panel. there's no reason to cart cd/dvd's around anymore that I can find.
 
God forbid anyone learn something new about a computer.

Edit: And not to just be a turdsandwish with my post, the sales of Blu-Ray are dropping:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/rep...short-of-expectations-even-as-prices-decline/

which, by that tolken, one can speculate that CD movie sales are declining. There is a large industry push for streaming media. And then, there is using thumb drives and external hard drives to store movies on for viewing pleasure. But as mentioned above, unless you are a small firm generating your own DVDs, companies usually outsource their CD/DVD production. Additionally, who would use a MacMini as their production machine?
 
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Grentz said:
For movies and other things, yes. Most normal folk dont even know what an ISO is.
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1) I seriously doubt a professional would use Mac Mini in first place.
2) I seriously doubt anyone would have DVD quality as their primary target these days.
3) I seriously doubt many of them would need to burn their DVDs right from the Mac Mini. And in case they do, they can just buy a stupid USB DVD burner, they aren't that expensive.
 
faugusztin said:
1) I seriously doubt a professional would use Mac Mini in first place.
2) I seriously doubt anyone would have DVD quality as their primary target these days.
3) I seriously doubt many of them would need to burn their DVDs right from the Mac Mini. And in case they do, they can just buy a stupid USB DVD burner, they aren't that expensive.
Click to expand...

Again, you are talking on a techie forum, with techies.

How do normal people without an Apple TV get home videos and such on their TV? DVD.

Remember, Apple is supposed to be SIMPLE. One button mouse simple.
 
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